January | 2015 | Overberg Homeschoolers

The Overberg Homeschoolers will be hosting an information day for families that are new to or considering home education.

Date: Saturday 24 January
Venue: Amana Conference Centre, Vermont, Hermanus
Time: 14h00-17h00
Entrance: Free

Programme:

14h00-15h00 – time to mingle and view various curriculums used by local homeschooling families who will ‘show and tell’ informally on a one-to-one basis. Second hand products will also be available for sale in some cases.

15h00 – 16h00 – Short presentations by experienced homeschoolers: Bouwe van der Eems, Shirley Erwee, Debby Engelbrecht and Janice Anderson followed by a question and answer session.

16h00 -17h00 Tea, coffee and refreshments, Time to socialise and look at curricula on display again.The following products (and others still to be confirmed) will be on display:

Sonlight
Math-U-See
Footprints On Our Land
Singapore Maths
Apologia High School Science
Exploring Creation – Junior Science
Leer Afrikaans Lag-Lag
Lekker Afrikaans
Afrikaans Ant Books
Impak
LLATL
ACE
Letterland
ABC Fun & 1-2-3
Explode the Code -phonics
Progressive Phonics readers

Preferably No Children:
Please note that no children will be allowed in the hall. Preferably leave them with a caregiver at home, but if this is not possible, they are welcome to play on the ample grass around the venue outside.

This is a PARENT day for you to learn more about homeschooling. All our other events are centred around the children!

The reason for not having them inside is so that parents will be free to share testimonies about their children and discuss issues they may have or have overcome and ask questions, without other little friends overhearing sensitive information!

Donations are requested to cover the cost of the tea and coffee.

Please reply so that we know how many will be attending and can send you directions if necessary.
RSVP: Email shirleyerwee@gmail.com

In June 2014, a group of 42 homeschoolers including some grandparents, visited Abagold for a tour of the abalone factory and also to see the new hydro-electric project that is currently under construction – the first of its kind in the world.

At the factory, we were given a very interesting talk, by Margie, the abagold tour guide – all about abalone breeding, gender identification, feeding, habits, the different species and how it is farmed for the commercial market, mainly in the East.

We also had an opportunity to view a scale model of the planned hydro-electric project which is being built to supply the massive amounts of electricity that Abagold requires to continually pump water through the many tanks that make up the abalone farm.

At the new harbour we were amazed to see the huge volumes of water that is pumped out into the sea and Victor told us the exact quantity – some millions of litres of water per hour which circulate through the farm and back out into the sea.

It was also reassuring to hear that there are stringent environmental safety regulations which the abalone farm must adhere to in order to ensure minimal disturbance to the surrounding ecology.

We continued to brave the cold, windy winter weather to view the construction of the concrete wave pool that is being constructed to generate hydro-electricity by harnessing the power of the sea’s wave action. Impressive engineering!