Month: March 2013

Books 2 Eat

Millennium Library (251 Donald St.)

Saturday, April 6, 2013

1:00 – 4:30 pm

Create your own edible book-related piece of art and enter to win prizes, or just come out to see the amazing entries on display – plus cooking demos, culinary presentations, and children’s storytime. Some entries will be served at the end of the day, so bring your appetite!

BACKGROUND

Every year around April 1, the worldwide Edible Books or Books 2 Eat festival (http://www.books2eat.com/) invites book lovers, artists, chefs, and those who enjoy a good pun to create an edible piece of art that has something to do with books. That’s the only rule – how people choose to interpret it is part of the fun!

This will be the Winnipeg Public Library’s third year taking part.

There will be categories for:

• Adult
• Kids 14 & Under
• and Professional/Culinary School entrants

The deadline to send in an entrance form is April 1; entries themselves don’t have to be dropped off until April 5 or 6. All entries are put on display and judged on various qualities such as “Most Creative” or “Most Bookish.” Entries prepared in a professional kitchen are also served at the end of the day.

Talks on food and a children’s storytime/craft circle will be going on at the same time. All of this is free and open to the public. Previous events were attended by hundreds of people and received dozens of entries from members of the public and local culinary schools and bakeries. Photos of the fabulous entries from past years can be seen on our Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/winnipegpubliclibrary/sets/72157629786885049/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/winnipegpubliclibrary/sets/72157626352193593/

For more information about Books 2 Eat, see our website: http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/books2eat.asp.

Hello MASH members,

Its time to buy your tickets to the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival (also known as Kids fest).

June 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th, 2013

at the Forks Market.

Once again this year, homeschoolers have the opportunity to purchase early bird tickets for this great event! The tickets (vouchers) cost $7.25 each for everyone over 2 years of age ($8.00 through Paypal). This is half the price of the gate price! We get this price because we will be purchasing the tickets as a group.

Children (13 years and under), can use the ticket for all 4 days of the Festival.

Everyone else must purchase one ticket per day. So, if you plan on going for more than one day, plan ahead and order a few extras for the adults.

When you arrive at the gate, you will switch the voucher for a wrist bracelet. If you plan to return, have the children keep theirs on and they will give them a new one as you arrive again.

To view this year’s line-up go to www.kidsfest.ca

If paying by cheque or cash:

***Please contact me, Monique Turner,  at : [email protected]  subject: Kidsfest Tickets.

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If paying by Paypal with a credit card please click here:

–>
Please contact me no later than MARCH 22 as I need to receive your payment before I can confirm your vouchers. I will explain to you the details of how to do that when I receive your e-mail to request tickets.

Monique Turner

MASH president

Hello MASH members,

Its time to buy your tickets to the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival (also known as Kids fest).

June 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th, 2013

at the Forks Market.

Once again this year, homeschoolers have the opportunity to purchase early bird tickets for this great event! The tickets (vouchers) cost $7.25 each for everyone over 2 years of age ($8.00 through Paypal). This is half the price of the gate price! We get this price because we will be purchasing the tickets as a group.

Children (13 years and under), can use the ticket for all 4 days of the Festival.

Everyone else must purchase one ticket per day. So, if you plan on going for more than one day, plan ahead and order a few extras for the adults.

When you arrive at the gate, you will switch the voucher for a wrist bracelet. If you plan to return, have the children keep theirs on and they will give them a new one as you arrive again.

To view this year’s line-up go to www.kidsfest.ca

If paying by cheque or cash:

***Please contact me, Monique Turner,  at : [email protected]  subject: Kidsfest Tickets.

<!–

If paying by Paypal with a credit card please click here:

–>
Please contact me no later than MARCH 22 as I need to receive your payment before I can confirm your vouchers. I will explain to you the details of how to do that when I receive your e-mail to request tickets.

Monique Turner

MASH president

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 11, 2013 A4

More kids getting their education with parental guidance

Families opting for home-schooling

Education Minister Nancy Allan has her bureaucrats scrambling to find out why there’s been a large growth in students being schooled at home by their parents.

Home-schooling grew by 32.1 per cent over the past year — by 583 children, or more than the growth in public and private schools combined.

“We haven’t done an in-depth analysis,” Allan said. “It’s about parental choice.”

Home-schooling has more than doubled in the past decade, from 1,050 in 2002 to 2,399 on Sept. 30, 2012, when the official head count was taken.
Allan pointed out the province gave home-schooling families an extra month this past year to report, but couldn’t explain how that might affect year-to-year results so dramatically.

There is anecdotal evidence some immigrants with strong religious beliefs are choosing to school their children at home.

“Sometimes it’s a reaction to what’s happening in the public and private schools,” said Ian Mogilevsky, president of the Manitoba Association of Christian Home Schools.

“It’s not surprising that home-schooling has grown,” Mogilevsky said.
“Home-schooling is growing in every segment of Manitoba — we’re certainly getting more home-schoolers in Winnipeg,” said the River Heights resident, who has seven children. A home-schooled daughter is now in university, he has one preschooler and five being taught at home.

“The ability to instil values important to them as a family is key,” Mogilevsky said.

The anti-bullying Bill 18, which requires any funded public or private school to accommodate a student who asks to form a gay-straight alliance in the school, may lead to more home-schooling, said Mogilevsky: “It certainly may encourage parents to take a closer look at home-schooling.”

Having such extensive online resources available helps parents teach at home, he said. “Parents are learning right beside them. Individualized attention and individualized programming that they’re able to provide to their kids is really excellent.”

Monique Turner, president of the Manitoba Association for Schooling at Home, echoed Mogilevsky on growth: “We’ve been seeing growth in our membership. People want to be home with their kids — they enjoy teaching their kids,” she said.

Where faith is not a factor, parents may keep their kids at home because of bullying or because they can give their kids individual attention without the distractions in a regular classroom, Turner said.

Overall, enrolment is up in every type of Manitoba school, and it is up in public schools for the third year, by 0.2 per cent — marginal, certainly, but those three years of growth follow 16 years of steady decline.

“There’s no question; some of it will be because of immigration,” said Allan.
This is also the second year Manitoba has required students who would previously have dropped out to stay in school until 18, unless they graduate first. There is, however, no penalty being enforced on those who don’t comply.

Enrolment in funded private schools is up 0.9 per cent, and in private schools that don’t accept provincial funding it’s up by 7.5 per cent — however, the province does not require those often-tiny schools to report annually, and several have reported for the first time in two or three years, said the minister.

The province’s largest high schools continue to grow ever larger. Sisler High, for decades Manitoba’s largest school, has hit 1,884 and shows no signs of slowing down. Nor does second-place Maples Collegiate, which has grown by 481 students in the past decade.

Kelvin High, long the runner-up to Sisler, has dropped to fifth while holding steady. Garden City Collegiate has reached third place, having added 485 students in the past decade.

Allan said she’s aware Sisler, Maples and Garden City are generally clustered in Winnipeg’s northwest, and Seven Oaks and Winnipeg school divisions have talked about sharing a new high school in that sector.

But a high school costs upwards of $40 million these days, and “We’re in difficult economic times,” said Allan.

There are calls for new schools from Seven Oaks, Brandon, Beautiful Plains SD in Neepawa and Western SD in Morden.

Allan said the throne speech promised the first school will be built in each of the two mega-suburbs, Sage Creek in the southeast corner of Winnipeg and Waverley West in the city’s southwest.

“We’ll make an announcement soon about what’s happening in Waverley West,” she said.

[email protected]

Off to school they go
ENROLMENT in Manitoba schools as of Sept. 30, 2012, with gains and losses from 2011 in brackets:
Total nursery to Grade 12: 199,229 (+1,129)
Public schools and First Nations schools administered by public school divisions: 181,374 (+405)
Independent schools accepting public funding: 13,894 (+57)
Independent schools declining public funding: 1,202 (+84)
Home-schooling: 2,399 (+583)
MANITOBA’S biggest schools, with gains and losses from 2011 in brackets:
Sisler 1,884 (+39)
Maples 1,684 (+81)
Garden City 1,404 (+68)
Steinbach Regional 1,394 (+51)
Kelvin 1,358 (-15)
Sturgeon Heights 1,326 (-46)
Garden Valley 1,295 (+24)
Kildonan East 1,284 (+17)
Lord Selkirk 1,258 (-12)
Vincent Massey (Wpg.) 1,247 (-31)
Tec Voc 1,244 (+20)
Crocus Plains 1,217 (+1)
Glenlawn 1,216 (-30)
Grant Park 1,206 (+18)
Daniel McIntyre 1,200 (-37)
Dakota 1,180 (-53)
Helen Betty Osborne 1,164 (+24)
Miles Macdonell 1,154 (-72)
WINNIPEG’S smallest schools, with gains or losses from 2011 in brackets:
Chapman 72 (-3)
Sherwood 106 (+13)
Dr. D.W. Penner 113 (-5)
Parc La Salle 121 (+9)
Tuxedo Park 123 (-3)
Ralph Maybank 126 (+6)
Lord Wolseley 127 (+4)
Westgrove 129 (+1)
Collicutt 131 (+6)
Marion 133 (+5)
Polson 133 (-19)
Governor Semple 138 (-1)
Fort Rouge 139 (+10)
La Barriere Crossings 140 (+8)
Archwood 141 (+27)
— source: department of education; report at: www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/finance/sch_enrol/enrolment_2012.pdf

Home Education: Leading Children Into Maturity

A Presentation by Pamela Whyte

Saturday, March 16, 2013
6-10pm
Norberry-Glenlee Community Center, 26 Molgat Ave (off of St Mary’s Road)

“What about Socialization?”
“What about University?”
“Don’t they drive you crazy?”
“How will they learn about the broader world?”

These questions will be familiar to any family who has decided to personally to educate their children. We hear them every day, from the checker at the grocery store to our mother on the phone – everyone is concerned about whether this works, and about what the ramifications for our children’s future is.

This presentation looks at homeschooling from a developmental point of view. What do children need in order to grow up into mature productive members of society? Is homeschooling able to provide these conditions?

As homeschoolers we are in the habit of being defensive or apologetic about our choice to bring our children home.  This presentations gives the solid scientific basis for why homeschooling works. It is based on the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld at the Neufeld Institute.

The talk will be of interest to homeschooling parents, prospective homeschoolers, and to their concerned family and friends.

There will be a small buffet with beverages.

Pamela Whyte is a faculty member at the Neufeld Institute in Vancouver and a Winnipeg-based parent consultant who works with parents and professionals to make sense of the children in their care. Pamela is passionate about this approach and presents this material with compassion, enthusiasm, humour, and insight. She has an intuitive ability to connect with her clients.  She is a homeschooling mother of three children, aged 18, 15, and 11, and a long time member of MASH. She offers other parenting courses and workshop throughout the city and online. This will be her second presentation for MASH.

Tickets are complimentary for MASH members.
Please email to reserve tickets as seating is limited.

Non MASH Members may purchase tickets after March 6. Tickets will be $10/person or $15/couple.
After March 6, we will accept orders from non-members by email for cash or cheque or by paypal.

This event is kindly being sponsored by the Manitoba Association for Schooling at Home and Pamela Whyte Consulting. Tickets are a $20 value but are being subsidized by both organizations.

Please accept our apologies for the recent website outage.

Our web host destroyed our site and we have been frantically trying to rebuild it.

The next few days should see the site back to full functionality and more content should appear then.