2014-02-26

Post date: 05-Mar-2014 00:07:54

Minutes from Cork HS meeting on February 26th 2014/Kate’s house

notes taken by Sheelagh

In attendance; Kate, Don, Cara, Lisa, Sheelagh, Val, Meadhbh, Janet, Heather, Gordon, Catriona.

Appologies from Deirdre, Orla and Zarah.

Firstly we discussed some of the points raised at the last meeting.

Circus Don will check available dates in April/May and let us know what suits.
Maths Fair will take place on March 23^rd at the Ballyphelane centre.
Sporting day Heather/Don are looking in to this, probable location will be where it was held before (close to Don’s house). Probable day will be on a weekend, preferably Sunday so that partners who are otherwise engaged all week/other family members can join in.
Venues the space close to the airport is still viable, Orla will sort out a date to view the property and would like some of us to join her. The owners are in disagreement about the rent for the property, he wants to reinvest the money in the property and she wants the money (J).
Insurance Gordon gave us a handout with great information on this, and we discussed crowd funding as a way of covering it. Gordon would be happy to pay the fee up front and have it returned via paypal. Someone would need to volunteer to manage the paypal account. Another possibility would be via the HEN network if we were all to take out membership – Gordon is going to get in touch with the organization to find out more. HEN membership is EUR25/month.
Wiki Lisa introduced us to the new Wiki corkhomeschool page where we can post all of our events and clubs and important dates and add comments, including a resource page which everyone can add to. You need a google account to access this page and Lisa or Andy will send out the link to everyone to test it out. We decided that this page was to be accessible to fulltime homeschoolers only and that any new members or interested parties would be referred to the usual email notification service or to the facebook page until they have been vetted by any of us in person and until they are actually homeschooling. This is for privacy reasons. We decided that the website should be reviewed regularly. Anyone looking for more info/log in details should get in touch with Lisa ( lisa.petersheim@gmail.com ).
Garden Gordon and his wife once again invited everyone to join them in creating a garden space and gave a handout with various practical details. The ground must be turned and made ready and potatoes planted before St. Patrick’s Day to reduce the risk of blight. Gordon has said that weekends would suit him best to do this so anyone who is interested should contact him directly or via the wiki page. Note: bring your own refreshments!
Deirdre’s book club and the preceding book club in nature was given a mention as it sounds great and is also something for the bigger kids this time round. Everyone is looking forward to it.

Ideas/any other business

Val has a contact who would like to offer a workshop/course on painting on silk for homeschoolers. This was greeted with enthusiasm by everyone. More to come!
Mary is looking in to organising a night out for the parents somewhere in the city. Also more to follow!
Kate talked about organizing a walking tour of the city with a special twist to it and knows somebody who might be able to help out. All very interested in this.
Heather asked if we would be interested in a coach trip and we decided to check out the Wexford heritage centre as a possible location. Janet will follow up on this. Date would be at the start of the school year as a non-back to school tour.
Kate suggested the Geopark again and we will look in to this as a day trip.
Heather talked about sign language and this would be a great course to do, but it is very difficult to find someone to do this.
Heather is thinking of contact the French home edders and arranging a summer trip for 12+year olds, preceded by a short course in French conversation. Emma is interested in helping out.

Everyone agreed that we should arrange meet and greets for any new/potential homeschooling families.

The East/West divide was discussed and we all agreed we should continue to arrange at least one general meet up a month and we also agreed to post about any events that were of a general nature thus making them open for all and not restricted to a certain area.

Finally, a massive thanks to Kate’s Mum for her delicious cakes. Kate has set a precedent. NO meetings without cake.

We decided to meet once every two months and the next meeting will be on Tuesday April 29^th at Gordon’s house nr. Carrigaline.