November Meeting Location Change

Due to a previously planned event at the church, our November meeting will be held in an alternate location. We will meet at The Infant & Toddler Connection of Fairfax-Falls Church located at 3750 Old Lee Highway in Fairfax. A map can be found at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/csb/itc/ITC-FFCMap-English.pdf
Hope to see you on November 3rd!

DC Green Festival

We had a great time this weekend at the DC Green Festival. What a great event! For more information, check out: http://www.greenfestivals.org/

Thank you, Stephanie!

We had a GREAT October meeting on homeschooling with almost 50 people present. A huge thank you to Stephanie Elms for her presentation. For more information, visit:

http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/

Stephanie also provided some other great resources:

VaHomeschoolers has a couple of events coming up:
2010 VaHomeschoolers Conference and Resource Fair
March 12-13, 2009 - Glen Allen, Virginia
http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/conference/

Homeschooling and College Entrance Seminar
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - Richmond, Virginia
http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/seminars/

For folks who were not able to make it to the talk, here are a few links to start learning about what is required to homeschool in Virginia:
Filing Your Notice of Intent
http://vahomeschoolers.org/noi/filing_NOI.asp

Evaluations and Testing Requirements
http://vahomeschoolers.org/eval/

Finding Local Support
http://vahomeschoolers.org/support/

A couple of recommended email lists:
VirginiaEclecticHS - statewide homeschool email list and great way to start learning about homeschooling from other homeschoolers in Virginia
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VAEclecticHS/

NoVaUnschoolers - a Northern Virginia homeschool email list and a great way to start networking and learning about activities and events in the area
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NovaUnschoolers/

A couple of recommended books to start out with:
The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start by Linda Dobson

Teach Your Own and Learning All the Time by John Holt (Learning All the Time is a good book on how kids naturally learn, even if you do not plan on homeschooling).

Thank you, American Plant!

A huge thank you to Mitch Baker and American Plant for his SECOND great talk to our chapter. He presented on composting. He has kindly offered to be a resource to all HMNers with gardening questions. If your compost isn't ready for the end of this season, try some of their compost tea!

Please visit American Plant for your gardening needs!
American Plant (VA location)

10106 Georgetown Pike

Great Falls, VA 22066

Phone: (703) 438-8880

http://www.americanplant.net/

Mitch BakerHorticulturist,

American Plant

301-469-7690

mitch@apfgarden.com
He's very responsive - what a great resource! Be sure to let him know you're with HMN!

Thank you, Abby's Lane!

We thank Stephanie Daniels of Abby's Lane, LLC for a wonderful presentation on cloth diapering. She is a local mom who offers many informational classes at her home.

Please visit her website for more information and great products:

http://www.abbyslane.com/

Reston Festival

We had a booth at the Reston Festival this weekend to help spread the word about HMN.
Here is a peek into what we set up:

NEW MEETING SPACE AND SUMMER POTLUCK

We have been blessed with a new permanent meeting space! A huge thank you to one of our members, Kristen, who coordinated the new location.

Meetings will still be held the first Tuesday of every month from 6:30-8:30pm, but will no longer be held at the library.

NEW meeting location:
Fairfax Church of Christ**
3901 Rugby Road Fairfax, Virginia 22033
(703) 631-2100
Directions: http://www.fxcc.org/index.php/Parking/where-we-are.html

**We are not affiliated with the church in any way, but gratefully acknowledge their donation of meeting space to our group.

To kick off our new location, we will be holding our SUMMER POTLUCK on Tuesday, July 14th from 4-7pm. We will meet outside in the playground. (Event will be cancelled in the case of rain). We plan to have a tour of the building at 4:30pm and eat at 5pm. Come and check out the new location, enjoy some great food with friends and relax while the kids play in a great playground. We will provide drinks and all paper products. Please bring a healthy, labeled dish to share. Take a moment to add your dish to the database on the yahoo group or reply to hmnofnova@gmail.com. We hope to see you there!