The Road Less Travelled…

The six-hour drive from Norfolk to our family farm tucked up amongst the gently rounded mountains of the Blue Ridge, is long.  We have taken many different roads to the farm in an effort to save time, improve food choices, and increase options for rest-type breaks, always remembering that time is of the essence.  Lately, flatter and straighter roads have become important due to some with sensitivity to motion. This requires larger highways and often involves a tunnel, which everyone in Hampton Roads tries to avoid.  

Leaving in late morning we hit The Tunnel at just the right time to see sailboats and fishing boats navigating dark gray water.  In the haze, an  international container ship stacked high with cargo entered the Bay, but  there was no traffic back up.  We stopped for lunch in Richmond at Short Pump, formerly farm country quilted with fields, now blanketed by vast stretches  of dining, shopping and hotels.  It never ceases to surprise me.  We enjoyed the climb over Afton Mountain, smaller now that it used to seem, and turned south around Staunton.  At which point the drive started feeling very hot, very crowded and very rushed.   Suddenly it didn’t seem so important to make time.  Turning east, we took a small road through Buena Vista and entered the Blue Ridge Parkway, and that made all the difference.

Immediately the car was 10 degrees cooler in the thick soothing shade of trees clasping hands across the road, an arch for a promenade, as  we wheeled southward.   We saw few others, just a few motorcycling couples.  The relaxed pace of the Blue Ridge Parkway, with it’s many overviews, hikes, and byways invites travelers to slow down, dawdle even.

Otter Creek was trickling by, first on the left, then on the right.  Finally, our curiosity got the best of us and we stopped, the first time just looking, peering down the embankment.  A second time, a much broader expanse of clear creek water sparkling in rogue rays of dappled sunlight seemed to invite, no, require, recently bared feet to step in and cool off, as it tripped over smooth, round stones of all sizes.   Small fish skittered away at our intrusion.   Larger rocks proved perfect for sitting, others were stepping-stones up and down and across the creek.  There was only one slip into the very shallow water, and I really don’t think it was a slip…Reluctantly, we gathered our shoes and returned to the car.  

Another few moments spent along  Thunder Ridge brought to mind a recent read-aloud scene from The Hobbit where very large trolls turned to very large stones in the morning sun.  This quick leg-stretcher hike wraps around a chain of immense boulders, which we cautiously skirted until ensuring they were, in fact, boulders.  The path then led through thickets of green, and with a sudden turn revealed a stone block parapet from which we surveyed the world like royalty surveying the kingdom!  Below us, a small valley spread out green and leafy, lined with trees, and far off across the expanse, sister ridges rose up in layers of purple, and shades of blue, and finally faded to misty grey as thin wispy clouds passed by.

The miles melted away as the parkway took us through the Jefferson National Forest where shafts of sunlight angled through the branches, and took on substance as the sun sunk lower in the sky.  Seemingly translucent leaves glowed golden green, and glossy.  Bright spring green meadows and glades appeared between stretches of trees, the fields dotted swiss by an abundance of creamy white Queen Anne’s lace swaying softly in the late afternoon breeze.  

The Peaks of Otter rose up on our left, and we stopped there too,  just for a moment, and soaked up the compositional beauty of the mountain, perfectly reflected in the lake just below, surrounded by cool green lawn. 

Continuing South on the Blue Ridge Parkway,  our destination demanded that we eventually emerge onto our next road, which led to progressively smaller roads, finally turning into a gravel drive that dips, then climbs, then stops before a small cottage, by a big red barn, which means we are at the farm.  Papa Gene was there, waving…

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I love Robert Frost – HERE is a link to a poetry site with the text to his poem, The Road Not Taken, and a voice recording.

Every child is an artist…

The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

We have had so much fun the last three days! 

Grace's mixing card, shaded shapes, and sunflower!

Grace and I had a blast and learned a lot during a fabulous 3-day morning art class for homeschooled students by Barry Stebbing.  Widely known for his excellent homeschool curriculum, How Great Thou Art, Mr.  Stebbing is a popular exhibitor at the  Home Educators of Virginia convention. I was excited to find he would be teaching in Chesapeake!  Even more so when I discovered mom’s could take the class too!  

 I can’t remember the last time I picked up a paint brush that didn’t have a Sherwin Williams bucket under it!  (I’m pretty sure that it was several decades ago in Mrs. Wagonshine’s Sunday School class.) I really did not know what to expect, but figured in a children’s art class, I couldn’t go wrong!  Seated at a table with a few younger kids, and their older (teenaged) sisters, I learned to mix the three primary colors and white, neatly on my paper plate palette to make several shades of green and ultimately whatever color I want!  I learned different brush strokes, and how to mix and place colors against a horizon or in consideration of light! 

A few different brush strokes used in my sunflower study

We all had fun learning to draw various cartoon characters using shapes and layering colors, how to make facial expressions, and draw hands (only three fingers!)!  We used water based art markers, and then found we could use a wet paint brush and make a light wash with them!  Mr. Stebbing demonstrated how to use colored pencils in various ways on the paper and how to layer them to get lighter and darker shading, and richer more complex colors!  Everything he demonstrated, we did at the same time on our matching worksheets.  Our hands-on learning included practicing with lines, shapes, shading, horizon, background, middle ground and foreground, and vanishing points from one and two point perspectives. 

After a homework assignment of a self-portrait the first night, we were all ready to learn the symmetry of the face; and correct a few common mistakes: placing eyes too far up (on the foreheads), drawing hair that is flat to the head, and sketching mismatched, and too small ears in the wrong place! 

Grace's self portrait - I think it looks pretty good! She got an A!

Mr.  Stebbing kept order in this class of 60 kids, many of whom were in the 6-10 age range.  He really moved the class along, which kept the kids from getting bored, and enabled him to cover a lot of ground.  To keep the artistic process stress-free, classical violin and piano favorites played lightly in the background while we worked on assignments. 

The teaching was consistent, with key reminders repeated every day:  ”Everyone get’s frustrated – keep working!”  “Lines, lines, lines,  circles, circles, circles, ellipses, ellipses, ellipses!”  He urged the children (and moms) to use color, LOTS of color, sketch light to dark, and always determine the direction of the light source.  

Bless Mr. Stebbing!  He started each day of class with a prayer, and a quick but effective slideshow packed with selections of beautiful art work by the masters which he introduced with interesting stories about the lives of the artists, and explanations of the style or period of the art, symbolism, artistic technique and notes on composition and framing.  He closed the third day with a slideshow of religious works focusing on the passion of Jesus Christ with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus playing!

Here is the study of proper proportion for faces, the eyes and mouth are still a little big...

He recommended and had available for sale at extremely good prices Prismacolor pencils (which have forever ruined me with their ease of blending and rich colors), sable paintbrushes and little kits of the primary plus white paint colors we used in class.  An abundance of curriculum was available for sale.  After the first day of class, Grace and I decided that we need to do art much more often because we both enjoyed it so very much! So, we purchased his curriculum God and the History of Art,  an Art History, Art Appreciation, Art Techniques curriculum.  We talked on the way home and decided that we are NOT waiting for our August 22 school start to begin working with God and the History of Art! 

Grace takes a weekly art class at Homeschool Plus co-op, which we will keep up in addition to our decision to draw and paint at home!  But this review was more about me – the intimidated, artistically unschooled adult!  I really encourage moms to take the class for no other reason than to see how easy, and mess-free artwork can be when you are as organized as Saundra Stebbing is! 

Barry’s lovely wife, Saundra has the three-day class routine down pretty well and was herself an inspiration, as she floated serenely amongst the mob of kids, working the cashier table, assisting with lighting and microphones, passing out art cards for the assignments and offering her own tips for keeping a clean palette and loading the paintbrush with paint! 

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We are very grateful to Ms. McCrea at Sovereign Grace Church in Chesapeake for making the class happen!   These three days of introductory artistic expression will easily be remembered as one of the highlights of our summer!  And just maybe the birth of a new discipline! 

“I drew, and I drew, and I drew some more.”    Michelangelo

Divide and Conquer!

Probably one of the most worrisome aspects of homeschooling for me this past year was knowing that standardized testing loomed ahead in the Spring.   Homeschooling parents in Virginia must show evidence of academic achievement, and a nationally normed test is the easiest, least subjective way to do that. For me, it was to be a true test of the success of our Garner Homeschool Venture.  Many experienced teachers and homeschoolers caution that testing is not a complete indication of a child’s ability, and I agree.  However, plummeting test scores in the third grade at our former Lutheran private school featured high on my list of motivations for bringing Grace home for schooling.   

Most troubling was the math computation score.  Math is completely foundational.  This problem had to be solved, and soon.  So we moved back on the number line, remediating third grade math in June of 2010.  This was more than a little humbling for Grace.  She had just finished a very rough and unpleasant third grade year, and here we were back at (home)school, and doing math! 

We used Horizon Math from Alpha Omega, based on a review by Cathy Duffy.  The lessons are colorful, with multiplication, addition and subtraction drills disguised as flowers, puzzles, word problems and such instead of rows and rows of problems to work.  The concepts are presented in a spiral manner, meaning that they never really go away.  Fractions, geometry, Roman numerals, forms of measurement crop up regularly providing consistent reminders and a great deal of variety for the student.

A placement test provided by Horizon confirmed that third grade was where we needed to start.  Grace worked solidly through last summer and fall, graduating to Horizon’s fourth grade math in January of our fourth grade year.  Whew!  Now we were on “grade level!” Grace was primarily glad to have a book with a big 4 on it instead of that 3! 

So far so good, but a look at the calendar reminded us that our achievement test in May would be covering a full year’s worth of instruction.  Grace pushed valiantly through the several weeks of review typical at the start of a new level of curriculum.  She sometimes finished two lessons a day, and with my permission occasionally skipped mastered concepts, and finally in early March, was sharpening her pencil on long division and fractions with impressive dedication. 

A few weeks before the scheduled test week, we worked through the test preparation booklets and were fairly comfortable.  During the week of testing we emphasized a good night’s sleep, and a big breakfast each morning.  In our morning prayers, we made a point to thank God for the gift of math!  And at the urging of the Testing Administrator, Ms. Moore, I pretty much cancelled school that week.  Then we settled in to wait for the test results…

Imagine our delight to receive test scores this past week that validate Grace’s tremendous effort!  At the end of last year, her testing indicated she was in the 18^th percentile in Mathematical Procedures in the National Percentile Rank-Stanine for third grade.  This year, using the same testing company, Stanford Achievement, she scored in the 92^nd percentile in Mathematical Procedures for fourth grade!  She also moved from average to above average in Total Reading, Social Science, and Listening and maintained the previous year’s above average scores in Language and Spelling, putting her above average overall in every category. 

As the homeschooling mom, what can I say?  I’m relieved!  I’m extremely proud of Grace for her persistence and dedication with relatively little complaining.  Most of all, I’m thankful to God for His guidance and His provision through this past year allowing me this wonderful opportunity to spend time with my daughter –  to teach her, to learn along with her, and to learn from her!

Garden Girl