Micro Business Club with Carol Topp

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The Micro Business Club will help teenagers earn money while learning how to start their own business. A micro business is simple to start, usually home-based, low risk, educational and easy for a busy student to run. This club will encourage students to come up with a viable business idea, avoid pitfalls, and start their business with no debt. The student projects will include: brainstorming ideas, conducting surveys to test their ideas, and creating a business plan. The second semester will explain sales and marketing techniques and wrap up with tips on customer service to keep the micro business going. Students will create business cards and flyers, design a website, and practice making a sales pitch.

The Micro Business Club will be led by author and accountant Carol Topp, CPA who has encouraged thousands of teenagers to start a micro business through her presentations, PBS television show, and the Micro Business for Teens curriculum. The club projects will include worksheets from Carol’s Micro Business for Teens Workbook. Purchasing Carol’s books on Starting a Micro Business and Running a Micro Business is not essential, but the books will greatly enhance the club experience for an enthusiastic student.

Carol's got a really neat vision for young people doing creative, productive, but realistic things. I liked the balance she strikes between neat opportunities to serve customers and earn money, and the fact that they're students and any business project has to take that into account.—Melanie Young, Mother of 6 sons and 2 daughters and author of Raising Real Men

As an accounting professor, I have been teaching college students to prepare business plans for startup businesses for more than ten years. Carol Topp’s book, Starting a Micro Business, is the first business planning resource that I have seen that is geared specifically for teens who are thinking of starting a business.—Michael P. Licata, Ph.D, Accounting Professor Villanova University

Click to learn more about this microbusiness club for homeschoolers.

ACCESS! HEALTHCARE WITH AMANDA HUNTER

​Are you fascinated with the human body? Do you have a strong desire to help others? Are you wondering if the healthcare field is right for you?We often think of doctors and nurses, but there are a multitude of options in the healthcare field, including pharmacists, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Dentists… just to name a few.

Join Pharmacist and the Academy at Bright Ideas Health and Anatomy and Physiology teacher, AmandaHunter, as we explore the healthcare field together!

• Explore various healthcare disciplines.
• Healthcare providers can be difficult to access! In our club, you will be able to participate in Q&A with different types of healthcare professionals (both in live discussions and by submitting questions beforehand).
• Learn basic medical terminology
• Participate in problem solving, teamwork, and communication activities, all of which are essential in the healthcare field. Teams will be given sample healthcare related-dilemmas and present their solutions in a timely fashion.
• Role play some of the ethical/legal parts of healthcare as we discuss patient confidentiality and more!
• Learn the pros and cons of different healthcare pathways and what personality types may be a good fit for a certain discipline.
• Discover what courses are beneficial to take in high school.

Click to learn more about this health club for homeschoolers.

Book Club: The History Hoppers!
Based on the historical American Girl® series of books

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Take a trip through time to meet the American Girls!  See important key events and American history through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl.  Each month we will read the first “Beforever” book based on one of the American Girls listed below.  (at least four chapters required – all  12 chapters is best to avoid spoilers).  We will meet to discuss, complete projects and share with other students!  Many, many project ideas will be provided to choose from, including crafts, cooking, sewing, art, research and more!

This book club for homeschoolers will include:

• Literature
• Crafts
• Writing
• Speaking
• All learning styles
• Engaging, hand-on activities
• Beginning literary analysis using the Socratic method

In this highly interactive club, your daughter will engage with historical events in a compelling story that makes history accessible and understandable. Students will begin to grasp the flow of history through time, the life of a girl near their ages in different time periods, how historical events impact the daily lives of people living through them, and elements of daily life in each time period – foods, games, lifestyles, family relationships – and sometimes, horses!

Click to learn more about The History Hoppers Book Club based on the American Girl series.

Healthy Grub Club with Amanda Hunter

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Do you like to eat? Do you enjoy experimenting with new foods and recipes? Do you need plenty of energy for all of your activities?

The Healthy Grub Club is for you! Play with your food with Pharmacist and Certified Health Coach, Amanda Hunter on the second Wednesday of each month and learn the best ways to fuel your body.

We will try new recipes and new ingredients, “healthify” family favorites, practice reading food labels, set goals and help to hold each other accountable via discussion boards and breakout rooms, and see how delicious healthy can be.

Every month, we will:

• Cover a new nutrition topic.
• Debunk dietary myths.
• Have an amazing cooking demonstration.
• Share healthy food “finds” and our favorite healthy cooking experiments.
• Set personal health & wellness goals and report back on last month’s goals.

Topics covered

• Nutrition Detectives - Making sense of the food label and food label claims.
• Eat the rainbow! Many people are intimidated by picking out and trying healthy foods. What exactly is a spaghetti squash? How do you cook it? How do you pick the perfect one?
• Aren’t all carbohydrates bad? Isn’t fat bad for you?
• Must.Have.Chocolate.Now - Sugar cravings, vegetables, and protein? Is there a connection? With holiday treats galore, we will learn how to make delicious treats that won’t lead to regret in January!
• Eating to prevent diseases such as Heart Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Osteoporosis, etc.  Good health as an adult begins with the habits you form today.
• Fueling for physical performance and energy – Do you love to run? Do you love to play basketball? Do you need energy for playing football in the yard with your buddies or chasing your little sister in a game of tag? Learn how to fuel for maximum energy.
• Burgers, pizza, pasta – oh my! Healthy restaurant dining? Learn tips and tricks for making wise choices and create a few scrumptious copy-cat restaurant meals too!
• Healthy meal planning on a budget and recipe makeovers – Bring your family favorite indulgent recipes to redo!

Click to learn more about this club for homeschoolers.

On Parle Ensemble! – A French Conversation Club (Let’s Chat Together!)

Sharpen your student’s language skills in a low-pressure, low-preparation, no-grades- involved club! Come put that French to work – improve your/your student’s skills with conversation practice! All levels of French are welcome to  come practice and improve in language ability! There is no set curriculum base so any student from any class source or curriculum is welcome. We will focus on using the most commonly used words (especially verb structures) in the language – this equips the student to acquire the language versus just repeating canned phrases. We use instructor-guided conversation about topics of high student interest such as: music, culture, foods, activities, families, movies, current events … and more, including language games and brief stories, poems, video clips, and songs. Conversation will be sculpted to overcome traditional “trouble spots” with French language structure and grammar in a real-life setting, far from pages of exercises and drills. Students will have access to supervised online French chat with each other outside of the live club meeting.

Learn more about this French club for homeschoolers.

¡Charlamos juntos! – A Spanish Conversation Club (Let’s Chat Together!)

Sharpen your student’s language skills in a low-pressure, low-preparation, no-grades- involved club! Come put that Spanish to work – improve your/your student’s skills with conversation practice! All levels of Spanish are welcome to come practice and improve in language ability! There is no set curriculum base so any student from any class source or curriculum is welcome. We will focus on using the most commonly used words (especially verb structures) in the language – this equips the student to acquire the language versus just repeating canned phrases. We use instructor-guided conversation about topics of high student interest such as: music, culture, foods, activities, families, movies, current events … and more, including language games and brief stories, poems, video clips, and songs. Conversation will be sculpted to overcome traditional “trouble spots” with Spanish language structure and grammar in a real-life setting, far from pages of exercises and drills. Students will have access to supervised online Spanish chat with each other outside of the live club meeting.

Learn more about this Spanish club for homeschoolers.