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Wednesday, May 13, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Getting creative with
homeschool projects
By Edie Jones
Correspondent
Heading into another
week of the stay-at-home
order, how are you adapting?
It9s certainly not easy! Not
the least of these adaptions is
the homeschooling that has
been thrust upon parents.
For families with younger
children the need to be cre-
ative is a challenge. Some
fun examples: tape on a
sidewalk in a stained-glass
pattern to be colored in with
chalk; an extra-large card-
board box becoming a play-
house; and surprising friends
by hiding plastic eggs in the
friends9 yard, leaving a note,
ringing the doorbell and run-
ning away.
Puppets work well for
teaching ideas and lessons.
Small paper bags or socks
can be easily transformed
with gluing, stitching and
creating. Use them to share
stories or help a new reader
sound out words. Your child
can create stories from pic-
tures to read to their stuffed
animals. Old National
Geographic magazines have
great pictures for collages.
Coupled with a world map
they become wonderful
geography lessons.
For help with older kids I
found valuable information
at www.afineparent.com.
On April 13 they featured
seven veteran homeschool
teachers. Highlights follow:
" Break the work into
short time periods, taking
many active breaks.
" Change the location of
where work is done.
" Use the outdoors as a
teaching tool.
" Read to or teach
younger children while they
do artwork.
" Allow listening to music
while studying.
" Keep expectations real-
istic. Write goals for each
day, letting students pick
the order in which they are
accomplished.
" Explore vocabulary,
math, and history while
engaging in hands-on sci-
ence experiments.
" Pick a three-hour block
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of time. Define what is and
isn9t allowed during that
time (educational apps and
websites okay, no screens
for entertainment, texting
or social media) Include
reading, audiobooks, tradi-
tional lessons, workbooks,
and artistic pursuits. Be sure
expectations are understood.
Have a different objective
for each hour (first hour
covers language arts, math,
etc., second anything involv-
ing books, third for games,
documentaries, podcasts,
online learning, etc.) Stay
flexible.
" Help your kids become
independent thinkers. Create
a template that your child
fills out every day with
questions similar to the
following:
- What did I learn today
that helped me today and/or
in the future?
- What was my biggest
challenge and in what way
did this challenge benefit
me?
- Where did I show a
great attitude today?
- What am I most grateful
for today?
These can be answered
written, verbally or both.
Sharing their answers allows
you to encourage them
in becoming independent
thinkers.
" Look for your child9s
best learning style. How
do they like to learn? Is it
through listening, watch-
ing, or touching an item? Is
it while singing or moving?
Do they want to talk about
what they are learning or sit
quietly and think about it?
Know the learning outcome
you are after. Let your child
guide you to the best way to
get there.
" Focus on relationships.
Read together and play out-
side together.
" Focus on all the needs of
your kids: physical, includ-
ing large muscle and small
muscles of hands through art
projects and crafts. Spiritual
and emotional, as well as
intellectual.
" For teens, limit social
Aspen Lakes provides for food bank
Golfers are still hitting the
links at Aspen Lakes Golf
Course through the COVID-
19 pandemic shutdown.
While dining facilities are
closed, the greens remain
open 4 and golfers have
been helping the Sisters com-
munity as they play.
Sisters Kiwanis reported
last week that Aspen Lakes
Golf course ran a special
food raiser for the Kiwanis
Food Bank during the off sea-
son. When a golfer brought
in three cans of food or three
non-perishable items, they
could play 18 holes of golf
for $25 (a 50 percent dis-
count on regular green fees).
<Because of this, they
donated 5,089 pounds of
food,= said Doug Wills,
one of the Food Bank9s
directors.=You can see just
a couple days worth in the
pictures.
The Food Bank has con-
tinued to serve the commu-
nity through the pandemic,
with a modified every-
other-Thursday schedule to
Aspen Lakes Golf Course conducted a food drive among its golfers, and
donated 5,089 pounds of food to the Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank.
mitigate exposure risk for
volunteers.
Wills noted that the
donated food goes a long
way toward stretching the
budget for the pantry.
<We pay an average of
$2 to $3 per pound for our
food,= Wills said. <The 5,089
pounds they donated saved
us between $10,000 and
$15,000. That is huge for us.
Plus, all the food we distrib-
ute goes to folks in need that
reside in the Sisters School
District, so it stays local.
If you look at what Aspen
Lakes did with giving each
golfer $25 off their green
fees, they also donated sev-
eral thousand dollars to the
food bank.=
Christian academy closes its doors
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
After serving the Sisters
community for over two
decades, Sisters Christian
Academy is closing its doors
permanently.
Robby Gilliam, Board
Chair and Acting Principal of
SCA made the announcement
last week.
Gilliam said that the deci-
sion was based largely on
declining enrollment over
the past two years. That was
exacerbated by the forced
closure of schools due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Gilliam said that parents sur-
veyed in recent weeks had
indicated that they had made
other plans for schooling
for next year, indicating that
enrollment would not recover.
<It ended up being more
of an enrollment issue than a
cash-flow issue,= he said.
The pre-school program
from SCA will be absorbed
into the offering of WellHouse
(formerly Westside) Church.
Teacher Mary Ryan, who
attends the church, will bring
her curriculum with her to
<make that pretty seamless
for the community,= Gilliam
said.
Gilliam expressed the
board and the staff9s apprecia-
tion to Sisters.
<We are just thankful and
grateful to the community for
over 20 years of support,= he
said. <We9ve just been hon-
ored to serve the community
for 20 years.=