Comments (0)

By julia, March 9, 2010 10:01 am

Bee equipment auction: April 17, 2010 in Perry. Interested in bees? Central Iowa Beekeeepers Association Meeting on Sat. March 20, 2010 in Des Moines. Send a message to CIBA Julia for more information. jcammcguire at yahoo dot com

Comments (2)

By julia, March 6, 2010 3:18 pm

Thank you for attending and sending photos to Mike Delaney — he already has them on his website http://web.mac.com/mikedelaney1/North_Raccoon/Raccoon_River_Watershed.html

I really encourage you to send photos to the Des Moines Register for their Community Pages at community@dmreg.com — I think positive home school press would be great right now (see Three Sisters blog for a recent update on HSAP developments).

I will place all of my gyotaku photos in a flickr photo pool and invite you all to put your pics there, too, for easy sharing. I’ll send invitations once they are ready.

Lastly, in addition to the Teacher Aid, Boys Day, Girls Day, and Children’s Day just occurred in Japan. There is a Japanese Doll display at the State Historical Museum that would make a great extension of our Japanese theme.

Comments (0)

By julia, March 5, 2010 10:44 pm

Non-members of NICHE are welcome to attend this free event, which is designed to be educational for families and for legislators. All information is at this webpage. The registration process requires contact information.

Comments (0)

By julia, March 5, 2010 10:31 pm

From a full article at The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun, dated March 4, 2010.  Written in first person by  Nate Willems, a Democrat from Lisbon, representing House District 29, which includes Mount Vernon and Lisbon. Excerpt about homeschooling:

“On a brighter note, it appears we have reached a compromise between the Department of Education and local school districts in regard to how funds for Home School Assistance Programs (HSAP) may be spent. The current plan would allow school districts to spend HSAP dollars on teachers, support staff, and equipment but not on administrators or for facilities. These changes would actually go into the Iowa Code and, therefore, should not be subject to change by the Department of Education. Though I might have liked to go a little further in giving school districts with an HSAP greater flexibility in operating their program, it is a reasonable compromise, and all parties can feel comfortable in moving forward with it.”

Hat tip to Ulrike.