Class Schedule - Spring 2010

(January 22 - May 7)

Private Piano Lessons  (ages 5-14)
Fridays 9:30:00 AM - 2:00:00 PM
Class Cost: $3.00
Gail Arbetter, Homeschoolers East's on-site teacher, provides an excellent opportunity to learn to play in a warm, nurturing, and yet challenging setting. Each lesson is a private, one-to-one, experience. Ms. Gail provides a professional, experienced and kind approach to piano lessons that leaves students enthusiastically anticipating the next lesson and new pieces of music.

Students learn music fundamentals, theory and appreciation, while playing progressively more complex and interesting music. Lessons are fun and emphasize a love of music. Ms. Gail's approach increases the student's self-esteem, encourages creativity, and enhances skills including self-discipline, reading and math comprehension, problem-solving and fine motor coordination. Each lesson is customized to match the ability and learning style of the individual student.

The learning is paced to meet the student's goals and available practice time. Students experience the success of producing beautiful music, always at their own rate of progress. Adults may also inquire about lessons.

Teacher Credentials: Education- Masters Degree in Music Education/piano and Music Therapy, State of Texas Certified Music Teacher Experience - Over 20 years piano teaching experience, Teacher experience with homeschoolers, Official Partner with Heart of Texas Homeschoolers

Cost: Homeschoolers East rate: $20 for 30 minutes for the first semester, (New students), $25 for 30 minutes (Returning students). Please note amount shown is for facility fee only. Actual class cost is paid monthly directly to teacher.

Book Club  (ages 6-14)
Fridays 9:30:00 AM - 10:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $13.00
Students will analyze the structure of story plots and discover the writer's purpose for writing the book and much more. Topics will include: Character relationships and plot development. Students will maintain reading logs and finally review and rate each book. This class will involve intensive reading and writing. Homework assignments will have to be completed, they will be building blocks for the discussion.

Skills required: 2nd grade reading level; ability to copy words, sentences, and diagrams; basic dictionary skills; ability and willingness to follow directions; ability to focus so as to not distract others.

Dates for Book Club: Jan. 29, Feb. 12, March 5, 19, April 9, 23, May 7.

Virtue Of the Week (VOW)  (ages 3-7)
Fridays 9:30:00 AM - 10:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $15.00
Virtue Of the Week (VOW) classes are based on the belief that each one of us is born with potential and can develop our positive natural qualities by "Nurturing the Gems Within." Through drama, games, storytelling, music, dance and art work students are encouraged to realize and practice their virtues. Universal human values like kindness, trust, unity, diversity, love, truthfulness, and others will be explored. For more detailed information visit www.virtueoftheweek.org.

Roots & Shoots  (ages 6-14)
Fridays 9:30:00 AM - 10:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $13.00
Roots & Shoots is the Jane Goodall Institute's international environmental and humanitarian program for youth of all ages. It is a fun and exciting way for young people to learn about problems and issues in their local and global community and then discover ways to make the world a better place. All projects are focused on improving the lives of people, animals and the environment. Group members will engage in brainstorming sessions, project planning, fundraising, publicity and participate in a variety of ways to serve. They will share their new-found information with others through presentation or use of displays.

Dates for Roots & Shoots: Jan. 22, Feb. 5, 19, March 12, 26, April 16, 30.

ABC-123  (ages 3-6)
Fridays 10:30:00 AM - 11:00:00 AM
Class Cost: $13.00
A multi-sensory, hands-on approach to introducing numbers, letters, and phonics. Children will be immersed in learning the basics of language and counting skills using a variety of materials. A connection between the abstract concepts to concrete items will be presented in a fun and engaging way!

Speak Up for Kids!  (ages 6-14)
Fridays 10:30:00 AM - 11:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $10.00
Designed to increase confidence and presentational skills, the Speak Up for Kids! class will help students develop their public speaking abilities using a fun, step-by-step approach. The class will include voice and speech, posture, eye contact, reading skills, memorization, speech preparation, improvisation and more. Students will have the opportunity to speak about their favorite topics, engage in group discussions and evaluations while discovering their own unique speaking style!

Skills required: Students must be able to read at a strong 1st grade level and willing to write out their own speech and take notes.

Table Games  (ages 6-9)
Fridays 10:30:00 AM - 11:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $3.00
Come enjoy some interactive time playing games with friends! Various board and card games will be available. Children are welcome to bring their own games from home to share (no electronic games please). This is an unstructured open game time.

Requirements: Children will need to remain in classroom during this session, this is not a ''come and go'' class.

Hands-On Science - I  (ages 3-6)
Fridays 11:00:00 AM - 11:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $33.00
Using a Montessori-like approach, this class will utilize hands-on age-appropriate science projects. Students will work on both individual and group projects in class. The emphasis will be on the subjects: Structure of Matter, Energy Transformations, Motion, Forces of Nature, Design and Systems, Technology, Materials and Manufacturing, Energy Sources and Use, Models, Constancy and Change and Scale. Check out the website here.

Dates: Jan. 29, Feb. 12 & 19, OFF on 26th, March 12 & 19, 26, OFF on April 2nd, April 16, 23 & 30, May 7 (10 total classes)

Guided Drum Circle  (ages 3-7)
Fridays 11:00:00 AM - 11:30:00 AM
Class Cost: $10.00
Guided Interactive Drumming incorporates specific activities structured by the facilitator to promote an educational as well as recreational experience. Activities include rhythm games, musical skill-building, singing, movement, group discussion and more. Students need no prior musical experience or instruments as they will be provided by the facilitator.

Dates: Jan. 22, Feb. 5, March 5, April 9 (4 classes total).

Druidawn  (ages 8-14)
Fridays 11:30:00 AM - 12:30:00 PM
Class Cost: $5.00
The Legends of Druidawn Creative Writing Game, designed to motivate kids who dislike writing, inspires students of all writing abilities to develop stories and characters. Participants create a character on paper and then role-play this character in a fantasy world, called Druidawn, a magical planet filled with possibilities. Legends of Druidawn offers guided adventures that are designed to provide ideas for original stories, and it incorporates a point system for moving characters up levels, which has the unique effect of motivating non-writers to get words on paper. Many students become quite attached to their characters and create rich histories and genealogies about them. This high level of character development makes it easy to step into story writing. This class will be led by an experienced 'Dungeon Master' and homeschool dad.

Skills required: Ability to write, motivation to improve in writing, imagination and enthusiasm. Note: This is a working lunch class.

Spanish - II  (ages 6-12)
Fridays 12:30:00 PM - 1:30:00 PM
Class Cost: $15.00
A fun immersion approach to Spanish through games, music and conversation. The first half-hour will utilize games, songs and repetition of words. The second half-hour will be geared toward reading and writing by following an assigned textbook and culture study. Some homework will be required.

So You Think You Can Dance  (ages 7-14)
Fridays 12:30:00 PM - 1:00:00 PM
Class Cost: $5.00
Do you like to boogie? Do you like to hip hop? Do you like to salsa, merengue or cha cha cha? We will learn a variety of contemporary dance styles in this exciting class and perform them in front of our classmates. Be ready to stay focused, memorize footwork patterns, recognize different styles of music, and most of all, have lots of fun!

Spanish - I  (ages 3-5)
Fridays 12:30:00 PM - 1:00:00 PM
Class Cost: $11.00
A fun immersion approach to Spanish through games, music and conversation. The half-hour will be geared to young, non-readers by way of games, songs and repetition of words.

Hands-On Science - II  (ages 8-14)
Fridays 1:00:00 PM - 2:00:00 PM
Class Cost: $103.00
Using a Montessori-like approach, this class will utilize hands-on age-appropriate science projects. Students will work on both individual and group projects in class. The emphasis will be on space and building engineering projects including small rockets and aircraft. Science principles such as Aerodynamics, Chemistry, Construction, Engineering, Mechanics, Physics and Thermodynamics will be related. Students will receive necessary materials and a worksheet for their project listing the scientific and technical principles involved. Project related web links will be provided for students to explore and extend the fun and learning at home. Check out the website here.

Young Rembrandts Drawing  (ages 3-6)
Fridays 1:00:00 PM - 1:45:00 PM
Class Cost: $53.00
During the winter weeks students will learn to draw several elements often found in cooler weather, including mittens, a snowman and falling snowflakes, while they learn about these winter subjects. The focus will be on the skills of drawing and coloring, developing fine motor skills, listening, staying on task, spatial organization and patience..

Dates: Jan. 22, 29, Feb. 5, 12, 19. (5 classes total).

X-Ray Perception  (ages 6-14)
Fridays 2:00:00 PM - 3:00:00 PM
Class Cost: $15.00
Students will learn about communication with others and , just as importantly, communication with oneself. Discovering that information is accessed through all the senses, students will learn that in order to process that information, they represent it to their mind in different ways, including through pictures in their mind of what they've seen or sounds of what they believe they've heard. Students will discover their dominant learning and communicating system (style) and identify it as Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Auditory-Digital or a combination of systems. In addition, they will also learn how to determine someone else's learning and communicating system and how to benefit from this information.

The goal will be to explore how to become more flexible with one's own communication style to "make more sense" to or connect more easily with others. Reading some of the unspoken signals that other people use to communicate and even discovering a strategy for better spelling will be part of this class using X-Ray Perception.

This class involves a lot of interaction and participation in group and partner exercises. For group and partner exercises, younger children will be matched with younger children and older children will be matched with older children. Parents will have just as much fun doing "homework" (practicing the skills) with their child at home.

Skills required: Ability to read at a 2nd grade level (i.e., Level 2 Reader books) and to write legibly and confidently. Students must be able and willing to follow directions and must be able to focus so as to not distract others.

Math Magic  (ages 8-14)
Fridays 2:00:00 PM - 3:00:00 PM
Class Cost: $8.00
Learn math tips and tricks in this fun class taught by one of our own Homeschoolers East math whiz kids! In this class, students will learn tricks to solving math puzzles and games, fun formulas and be introduced to pre-algebra and pre-geometry.

Skills required: an understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division concepts as well as an eagerness to have serious fun with math.