Children's author, Jan Brett has a terrific website that is great for homeschoolers.  There are many activity pages, printable coloring pages, and fun projects for your children.  Take a look at her website:

http://janbrett.com/

For more information, go to www.chefofalabama.org.

Its time once again to be encouraged and strengthened for your family's homeschool by attending your state homeschool convention.

The leadership in Alabama has once again put together an excellent slate of speakers and workshops for us.  The convention this year is on May 9th - 10th. 

For more information, go to www.chefofalabama.org.

I just read about this event that is going on around the nation.  It sounds like a lot of fun and could mean some great publicity for homeschooling.   This would be a fun event for you to plan for your area of the state. 

Plan an Annual Homeschool Hiking/Biking Event in May

The woods and trails are gorgeous in the spring of year, so come join
all homeschoolers across the US and World in a national hike/bike
event. Her is all the info, but if an event has not been set up in
your area, please just go out and get involved on your own.

The Homeschool Hiking/Biking annual event began in May 2005 as a way
to gain recognition for homeschooling, as well as getting some
exercise, group involvement, and introducing other homeschooling
families to hiking and biking in the great outdoors and meet
others!! It is an annual event now and will be held each year the
last full week in May. We are asking for individuals and groups
involved in homeschooling to set up events in their areas. You may
make your event in varying skill levels if you would like, for
homeschoolers with varying skills. Maybe one person or group in your
area can set up a hiking event and another can set up the biking
event. Or you may want to work with many homeschooling groups to
have one big event. The possibilities are many and I would love to
hear your ideas. This year's dates are the week of May 25-31. The
woods and paths and trails are beautiful in the spring, so please
join us.

If you would like to set up a group event in your area, please send
your name, e-mail addy, phone, city, state, newspaper name (phone & e-
mail, too), TV name & e-mail, radio name & e-mail to me (Earlene) at
homeschoolhikebike@ hotmail.com or call 240-727-06755. We can issue a
press release to your local newspaper or to you to use everywhere and
please notify the local radio stations, too. Or you may go to our
website and copy the press release for you or your group to use
http://www.freewebs .com/homeschoolh ikebike.

We need your help!  Bring your homeschooled teens out to watch some excellent speakers and debaters, inspire them to join in the fun in the future and help us out by judging the participants.  We need many local judges, no experience necessary!

You be the Judge!

How would you like to be a part of influencing the development of some of our nation’s future leaders by just investing a couple of hours of your time?
For the second year, Milestones Debate and Speech Club will be hosting a qualifying debate and speech tournament in Huntsville, Alabama. This year’s tournament will be held Monday, March 17th – Wednesday, March 19th at UAH. Over 150 students (and their families) from Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama will return to Huntsville to compete in two styles of debate and ten different speech events. Winners of the various events will qualify to compete in the Region VII Regional tournament to be held the end of April.
We would like to invite you to invest in the lives of these students by judging one or more of these events. We ask for only a three-hour commitment per event and promise you it will be time well spent amid your busy schedule. Snacks and beverages will be provided for our judges throughout the day, as well as a light meal for judges who are with us at the breakfast, lunch, and supper hours. I know that your schedule is hectic, but I know that these students will bless you...and you will bless them as well.
Monday March 17
Debate 1
7:30 am
30
Speech 1A
9:15 am
75
Debate 2
11:15 am
30
Speech 1B
1:15 pm
75
Debate 3
3:15 pm
30
Speech 2A
5:15 pm
75
Debate 4
7:15 pm
30
Tuesday March 18
Debate 5
7:15 am
30
Speech 2B
9:15 am
75
Debate 6
11:15 am
30
Speech A Semi’s 1:15 pm
39
Debate Octas
3:15 pm
24
Wednesday March 19
Speech B Semi’s
7:15 am
39
Debate Quarter-finals 9:15 am
24
IE Finals
11:15 am
30/50
Debate Semi’s
1:15 pm
12
Debate LD Finals
3:00 pm
5
Debate Team Policy Finals 4:00
5
The times noted in the chart are the time you need to arrive for your orientation. **The red number in the box is the number of judges needed for that round. **
It is our hope that one of these blocks of time will fit into your schedule. In past tournaments judges have been recruited from the local media, the court system, state legislature, legal firms, and the business sector. We have had retirees, housewives, store clerks, educators; people from all walks of life. Few have had experience judging or participating in tournaments such as this. We promise to provide you with sufficient orientation to enable you to make a fair and educated decision in the event you will be judging. Please consider investing a little of your time in the lives of these young people by judging an event for us. Documentation of community service hours will be available.
Please contact our Judging Coordinator, Jackie Arnold, at rocketcityblastjudges@gmail.com or by phone at: 256-339-2014.
PLEASE share this information with your friends, family and colleagues. It is something you will be glad you did !!!!!

If you are interested in studying art with your children, Alabama has a lot of great places to visit with your children.  There are art museums located across the state.  Most of the museums have free admission with extra charges for special exhibits.  Some that aren’t always free, have free admission days.

Mobile Museum of Art:  www.mobilemuseumofart.com

Montgomery:  www.mmfa.org

Dothan:  www.WiregrassMuseum.org

Huntsville: www.hsvmuseum.org

Birmingham:  www.artsbma.org

Sports Art museum in Daphne:  www.asama.org

There are also some fun online resources for teaching and learning art.  Here are a couple:

 http://www.guidetooilpainting.com/default.html.    This website offers free oil painting lessons.

 http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html.    This is a fun activity to let you be a Picasso type artist.