Jacksonville's Mandarin Info Blog

Archive for the ‘Mandarin Schools’ Category

For those who have children or would like to volunteer to help children you should look into the Boy and Girl Scouts of America organization. This is a great way for your children to learn about our environment, volunteerism and to have fun while doing. The Boys and Girls Councils of North Florida have lots of information on how to join and look forward to having your child become a boy or girl scout. The adults can also volunteer to help teach their children new skills that will serve them well as adults. For those who don’t have children or their children are grown it is a great opportunity to share you life learning skills with those who need it the most. Each fall the Boys and Girls Scouts starts their drive for new recruits. It is not too late just call your local council and they will be happy to help. There is a small yearly fee for each child and there will be uniform costs but each troop has various rules and some can help with some of the costs. So CALL TODAY!

FOR those who are already in a local troop and want to send me your link I will be happy to post it here. Just send me a message at: jolene.macfadden@jacksonvillesmandarin.info or become a subscriber and post a comment to this blog.

Here is some general information about each group and their contact information:

National Website:

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/ For Girl Scouts

http://scouting.org/for Boy Scouts

LOCAL INFORMATION:

Boy Scouts of America
North Florida Council
521 Edgewood Ave S
Jacksonville, FL 32205
904.388.0591
800.232.0845 Toll Free
904.387.4148 Fax
jana.metzger@scouting.org
http://www.nfcscouting.org

Girl Scouts of Gateway Council, Inc.
Jacksonville Service Center
1000 Shearer Street
Jacksonville, FL 32205-6055
(904) 388-4653
(800) 347-2688 – Local Toll Free Phone
Fax: (904) 384-1542
Email: info@girlscouts-gateway.org
Web Site: http://www.girlscouts-gateway.org
http://www.facebook.com/gsgcfl ON FACEBOOK

Youth Programs

BOYS
Tiger Cubs is a year-round family- and home-centered program that encourages the ethical decision-making skills for first-grade (or 7-year-old) boys. These boys participate in the program with their adult partners. The program emphasizes shared leadership, learning about the community, and family understanding.

Cub Scouts is a year-round family- and home-centered program that develops ethical decision-making skills for boys in the second through fifth grade (or who are 8, 9, and 10 years old). Activities emphasize character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness.

Boy Scouts is a year-round program that develops ethical decision-making skills for young men ages 11 to 18. Activities emphasize responsible citizenship, character development, and self-reliance through participation in a wide range of outdoor activities.

GIRLS
* Girl Scout Daisy, grades K-1
Girl Scout Daisies meet in groups of five to 10 with two or more adult leaders in a nurturing, inclusive environment. They go on trips, learn about nature and science, and explore the arts and their communities. Girl Scout Daisies can also earn Learning Petals and receive participation patches.

* Girl Scout Brownie, grades 2-3
Girl Scouts Brownies work together in groups, earn Girl Scout Brownie Try-Its, and explore their community. Friendship, fun, and age-appropriate activities begin at the Girl Scout Brownie meeting and move out to the community and wider world.

* Girl Scout Junior, grades 4-5
Girl Scout Juniors earn badges and discover what girl power is all about through new activities and by learning to take charge of their own plans. They gain self-confidence as they explore the world in partnership with their troop/group leaders.

* Girl Scout Cadette, grades 6-8; * Girl Scout Senior, grades 9-10; * Girl Scout Ambassador, grades 11-12

Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors participate in Girl Scouting in many ways. Under the guidance of a trained adult advisor, girls mix and match activities and resources to suit their needs while giving back to their communities. They connect with each other and build self-esteem and confidence in their skills as they work on a range of projects and gain life experiences.

FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Venturing is a year round program for young adults, men and women, between the ages of 14 (having completed the eighth grade) and 20. Its purpose is to provide positive experiences to help youth mature and to prepare them to become responsible adults.

Learning For Life Consists of Three Different Programs. For more information on any of the Learning For Life Programs, contact Ben Butler at 904.388.0591, or benjamin.butler@scouting.org.

Exploring is a worksite-based program for young men and women who are 14 through 20 years old. Exploring units have a focus on a career field, such as law enforcement, fire/rescue, health, law, aviation, engineering, or the like, and are sponsored by a government or business entity.

Character Education is a series of school-based programs designed to support schools and educational organizations in helping youth with character education, life skills, building self-esteem, and developing ethical decision-making skills.

Classroom Scouting is a school based program conducted in partnership with the Girl Scouts. The program is for children with physical, emotional and mental exceptionalities.

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admin (THANKS TO MANDARIN TROOP 50 FOR MAKING THIS SUGGESTION)

Good day to ya! We have added some files for our subscribers to use as well as adding more pictures to the slideshows on the pages. Our main focus this month has been the day care facilities, public parks and public schools in the Mandarin and Fruit Cove Areas (AKA St. Johns, Florida). These zip codes are for 32217, 32223, 32257, 32258 and 32259. The listings are in acrobat reader format, separated by zip codes and then alphabetized. The parks listing for 32259 is not complete yet and we are working on it. Hopefully, it will be done in a few days. The schools and day care center listings are complete however.

You can access these pages through either the page listing on the sidebar, the tabs in the middle top part of each page or just click on the links to the pages below:

Day Care Center Page

Public Parks Page

Public School Page

We hope you find the listings useful and comment if you are a subscriber or just sign out guestbook!

Cheers!

Here is your Author

Let me tell you upfront I have never been impressed by the Duval County School System.  I was born and raised here and went to schools here as have my mom, dad, half of my grandparents and all of my children.   As with almost all school systems throughout our country there are problems with over-crowding, under-budgeting, cutting of extra-curricular activities and shortages of qualified teachers.  Granted there are limited resources to go around but my goodness can’t we figure out how to get our children educated in more that taking the FCATs.  That is all that the schools have been concentrating on for the last 7 or 8 years.  They have cut off funding and canceled extra courses that round out our children’s education.  It really doesn’t matter which middle school or high school you put your child in or what Magnet Program they join.  Most of our children are way behind any other country in the World.  I don’t know what the solution to the problems is but we need to do something to help our children and our grandchildren before it is too late.

In the Mandarin area (that is zip codes 32217, 32223, 32257, 32258 and 32259) there are numerous elementary schools, a couple of middle schools and probably only 2 high schools.  I don’t know the exact number of private schools but I have only seen maybe 3 or 4 of those in this area.  Mandarin High School is a zoo of over 3000 students all crammed together trying to get through.  My two oldest kids didn’t make it through and finally just gave up and took the GED.  My younger son is going through that now.  I have taken my last child out of the public school system and am trying to homeschool her.  We are using a free resource call the Florida Virtual School that has the curriculum for 6th through 12th graders online with teachers from all over the state teaching the classes.  From the enrollment logs on my daughters listing the class size is a little smaller and she can go at her own pace.  All the information and tests are online.  The teachers require that the parent and student call them about once a month and a progress report is posted every couple of weeks.  As a parent or guardian you can check their gradebook every day at almost anytime of the day or night.  The only problem we have so far is keeping her on track and turning work in every week.  She gets ahead in the posted pace chart and figures she can take the rest of the week off.  But the teachers require that the students turn work in every week even though they are ahead.

We hope that this will give her an opportunity to progress and actually learn something.  She still has to take the FCAT every year and keep a copy of her work for inspection by the Home School People at the Duval County School Board.  She will not get a Duval County Diploma but we will worry about that in the future.  By the time she actually gets into 12th grade they may recognize the Florida Virtual School as a viable entity and grant their students a Florida High School Diploma.  They do have graduation ceremonies but I think they are in Orlando.

I cannot advise on where to place your child or even really advocate homeschooling I only know that something needs to change and we need to change it very soon!

Click here to go to a Mandarin Schools Page.