Welcome Back!

              We are only one week away from the start of our Spring 2011 semester!  We had a great fall semester and look for the next 15 weeks to be even better!  We hope you are as excited as we are.  The first part of the year has its perks, but there is also quite a bit of adjustment time as beginning students learn their instruments and advanced students re-learn theirs.  Choir students have to be reminded of correct posture and breathing techniques.  And drama—well, I don’t think any of us have a problem with our children being dramatic!

                But that was last semester!  This semester we can all look forward to hearing an entire song played with fewer missed notes, songs sung with greater confidence, lines spoken with conviction, and hopefully a lot less blood, sweat and tears!

                We have a lot of great things coming this semester! Fundraisers are planned that will help the co-op as well as help lower your tuition for next semester.  In fact, we have one starting right away that you can read about in another article.  We have the TMEA conference in February that we hope many of our teachers will be able to attend.  We also have the Federation Festival in February that many of our students are going to be participating in.  We are really looking forward to our drama performances in May as well as the choir and band/strings concert!  We will have more information on everything as each event gets closer.

                We hope you take this next week to get prepared for the start of co-op.  Make sure instruments are in good working order, get the necessary books and papers in bags ready to go, and as Mrs. Duke would say, “Bring a pencil, WITH AN ERASER!”  Above all else, we hope that you will pray earnestly for the fortitude of our teachers and other volunteers, the dedication of our students, and that God will continuously be glorified in ALL that we do!

Mandatory Parents' Meeting

We are one week away from the start of co-op, but don’t forget about the mandatory parents’ meeting on Tuesday, January 11^th at 7pm.  ALL parents are required to attend, even those whose children are not enrolled in every class.  If you do not attend the parents’ meeting you will not receive any work credits for the spring semester. 

This meeting is basically to help us all re-group.  We’ll be discussing different events that will be going on this semester as well as going over some assignments that might have changed.  There are some items in the handbook that we’ll go over again for clarification.  There is also going to be an announcement that will affect each family for the Fall 2011 semester.  Again, ALL parents need to plan on attending this meeting.  We should be done before 8 pm.  We look forward to seeing you in a few days!

Candy Fundraiser

                Our fundraiser last year with World’s Finest Chocolate was a huge success, and we are planning on it being a great success this year as well!

                Candy will be available for you to take home on the first day of co-op, January 14^th.  You do NOT have to pay for the candy you check out on the 14^th.  Lisa Koplinski will check the candy out to you and you will have until February 4^th to sell it.  Any candy you do not sell can be turned back in to Lisa. This includes partial boxes of candy.   ALL money will need to be turned in to Lisa no later than February 4^th.  

                There will be boxes of $1 candy bars, boxes of $2 candy bars and boxes of chocolate covered almonds that sell for $2 each.  You may take as much as you think your family can sell.  If you need more candy after the 14^th or are not able to get candy on the 14^th you can make arrangements with Lisa to get more. 

                FYI:   World’s Finest Chocolate allows us to keep 50% of all money raised.   That means if your family sells $100 worth of chocolate the co-op makes a profit of $50.  Of that $50, half goes directly to the co-op and half will be applied to your Fall 2011 tuition.  So for every $100 your family sells, $25 will be counted towards your tuition.  These percentages apply for any amount your family sells.

Why a Newsletter?

            If you are reading this you have obviously figured out that we now have a newsletter/blog set up for the Galveston Homeschool Performing Arts Co-op.  There are several reasons we wanted to start a newsletter.  First, we want to help families in the co-op stay up to date on everything that is going on.  Announcements are made at the opening meetings as well as emails that are sent out, but communication is a big priority and this is one more avenue people can use to get information. 

Secondly, we hope to use the newsletter to help give a deeper insight into why we do some of the things we do.  Why do we take a day off in February for a TMEA conference?  Why do we stress our Theory classes so much?  How important is practicing at home for my children?  We hope to touch on these and other subjects as opportunities arise. 

We also want the newsletter to be something that families who are thinking about joining the co-op can sign up for and glean a better understanding of who we are and what we do so that they can decide if our co-op is right for them. 

Lastly, we want the newsletter to be a way for our friends and families to stay connected to what we are doing.  Our loved ones are such an important part of our lives and their support means so much to us.  This is a way for them to know what our children are doing each Friday!

We hope that this newsletter is a blessing to each one of you.  Anita Christmas is the editor so if you would like to see an article written about something, or if you would like to write an article please feel free to talk to her about it.  Any complaints however can be put in the complaint box that will NOT be available each Friday!  :)