The Beeches, Springfield, TN

  My good friend, Dianne Roberts, her husband Kerry and their kids very kindly welcomed us into their historic home, The Beeches, for a visit in Springfield, Tennessee.  Construction on the house began in 1864 before the end of the Civil War.  Both the home and the grounds are beautiful,  and the Roberts family are wonderful people!

 

 

 

 

 



The afternoon we arrived, we joined the Roberts family at a county-wide pep rally at the town square featuring the 4 high schools of the county.  We enjoyed the festivities and the small town atmosphere.

  We took advantage of the beautiful scenery at the house to take some photos of the family during our visit.  They are a great-looking bunch!

  Near The Beeches is Springfield's city park, J. Travis Price Park.  The kids had a great time there feeding the ducks and turtles in the pond, sliding on a slide that goes down a hill, riding the zip line and playing on all the other great park equipment.

My son always manages to find wildlife to show to everyone, and this time it was a giant caterpillar.  An older gentleman told him that it was commonly called a tobacco worm, and we discovered after some research that the species is Hyalophora cecropia.  I've never seen such a large worm! 

  We learned that this particular region of Tennessee has long been known for its tobacco crops.  We also learned that the barns with a ridge vent on the top are tobacco barns, and the tobacco is hung upside down for the leaves to dry, sometimes with charcoal fires to help maintain the correct heat and humidity as the tobacco leaves cure.  We passed several great examples of this in action, and had to stop for a few photos. 

  We couldn't be more appreciative of the gracious hospitality of Dianne and Kerry Roberts.  What a great visit!  

Traveling across Arkansas

  We've traveled across Arkansas many times because my mom's family is from Little Rock.  Up until just a few years ago we still had close relatives living in Little Rock.  This time around, we were able to see some beautiful scenery up in the mountains in the northwest part of the state before heading across the state on I-40. 

  After seeing Crystal Bridges, I ran up partway to Eureka Springs to take some curtain fabric to some good friends of mine, Sean and Juli.  We all worked together many years ago, and now they perform in The Illusionist & the Medium in the Intrigue Theater in Eureka Springs.  (They are amazing - check out the link to their theater in my links list on the right.)  Here's a few shots of them in action the last time I caught their show:

  On the way back to Bentonville, I caught this gorgeous sunset view.

  The drive up and down I-540 is full of great scenery.  The kids were very impressed with a tunnel cut into the side of a mountain.  It feels really strange to drive right up and into the mountain, but the kids loved it.  They started yelling that it was the tunnel from the safe driving commercial, which I had to look up to verify, but they were correct.  The tunnel was featured in this ad:  Nationwide Safe Driving Pursuit Commercial   It looks like it was under construction when the ad was filmed, which makes sense because I-540 is a fairly new stretch of highway that replaced the old and winding Hwy 71. 

  Another impressive site on this route is the Lake Fort Smith dam.  It's more easily visible as you drive north.  It was a little gray and rainy when I took this picture, but you still get a sense of the size of the dam. 

  We were able to stop on very short notice for my mom to visit an old friend from high school and college, Linda Kennedy.  She was such a gracious hostess, and provided us with a much better lunch than we would have scrounged on the road otherwise.  (She also very kindly didn't boot us out after my son decided to bring a toad in her house to show to us!)  I think one of the greatest parts of traveling is getting the chance to visit with old friends who are spread out around the country.  Nothing beats a face to face visit with friends! 

Our last stop in Arkansas was a quick visit to the cemetery where the kids' Great-great-great-great-grandparents are buried.  This is a German branch of my mom's family.  John Heel (Johannes Wolfgang Heel) and his wife and daughters came to the United States from Hamburg, Germany in 1883. 

 

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

  I've wanted to visit Crystal Bridges since I first heard about it last year.  Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was the driving force behind building a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas near the location of the first Walmart store.  The museum was designed by Moshe Safdie and opened on 11/11/11.  With over $300 million donated by Alice Walton, the museum has acquired an extensive collection of American art. 

  We took a beautiful scenic drive up 540 from Fort Smith to reach Bentonville, and stayed in Bentonville for the night.  The museum is open until 6pm, and the grounds stay open until dusk.  Admission is free (sponsored by Walmart), but the museum is closed on Tuesdays.  We arrived at the museum by about 3 in the afternoon.  The first thing you see when you arrive is an enormous silver tree sculpture, and an interesting rounded building that disappears down the hill. 

  After taking a quick picture by the tree sculpture, we headed to the overlook by the stairs and elevators and caught our first glimpses of the rest of the building. 

 

 

 

 

  After heading down several flights of stairs we came out into a round courtyard with the museum store on one side and the museum entrance on the other.  We checked in and received a copy of the Family Guide for each of the kids.  These booklets contain information about the galleries with some suggestions of pieces of art for them to find and questions and activities. 

 

  Since we only had a few hours to see everything, we chose to start with the permanent collection and see if we had time after that for the temporary exhibits which charge an additional fee.  We followed the galleries from Colonial era portraits all the way around through contemporary art.  One of my favorites was a set of artist palette's painted to look like children's faces, with the thumb holes where the mouth would be. 

  The gallery space winds around through the building and across one of the two crystal bridges. 

  We also enjoyed the Norman Rockwell painting of Rosie the Riveter.

  The modern art in the final gallery is a little more unique and varied than the paintings from the earlier years.  We liked this one, which was an amazingly lifelike (except for size!) self portrait of sorts.

 

This one was a giant red lens, which gave you an interesting view of the bridge and the courtyard space.

 

 

 There are many sculptures featured in the museum and on the "Art Trail" around the grounds.  There are miles of trails with beautiful landscaping, bridges, springs and more.  We spent another hour or two exploring the grounds.  The kids really liked the animal sculptures.

    The last of the trails we explored had bridges across the stream, one of which was a large rock slab.  The kids loved that area, and spent some time playing troll under the bridge.  These were some of my favorite photos from the day.

 

 

 

  We passed by the café and coffee shop in the second bridge, and the art studio where kids can work on a piece of art of their own, but did not have time to stay for long.  We also enjoyed the museum store, which had all sorts of fun and unique gifts.  If we make it back, we'll plan to spend a little longer, and have more time for the trails.  I'd also probably stay closer to the museum, because the trails were full of bikers and runners in the evening and it would be a gorgeous place to get some exercise. 

  I'd heard from several people that this was a beautiful museum and well worth a visit, and it didn't disappoint.  This was truly a unique experience and a one-of-a-kind setting.   I've added the link to the museum to our list of links on the right side of the page.  Check it out!

On the Road Again

  Well, we're on our way to explore new places.  It's hard to juggle pets and pet-sitters, getting everything packed, taking school work and necessary books and materials with us and trying not to forget anything important, but somehow we'll make it work.  My husband, Michael, is disappointed not to get to head out with us on our first trip of the school year, but someone has to hold down the fort and keep working to finance the trip.  We really appreciate him for doing that, and for letting us have the opportunity to do this! 

  Our oldest cat, Tigger, is more than 15 years old.  I always worry that he won't be there when we return, but he has proved to be tougher than we ever expected.  I wish there was some way to bring him with us, but I don't think he would enjoy it. 

  We headed up I-35 from San Antonio towards Dallas, which is a common route for us.  The first stop is a no-brainer. 

  Whether we need bathrooms, food, an Icee, Texas souvenirs or a gas fill-up, we always have to hit Buc-ee's.  Somehow we never make it out of there without finding something we need.  This time we bought maps for the kids to highlight our route and keep track of where they've been and a Texas flag bandana for me to wear in the next Spartan race, since it's out of state.  And some kolaches, muffins, jelly beans, drinks and maybe a few other things...

  We love the nice rest stops between Austin and Dallas on I-35.  We made a pit stop and discovered the perfect place to fit in a little training to stretch out sore muscles.  This was the rest stop just south of Belton.

 
 When we hit Oklahoma on Highway 75, we stopped again.  More rest stop fun, and a chance to work out the kinks from sitting in the car.  (Oklahoma-style, this time.)

  We've heard it said many times that everything is bigger in Texas, but Oklahoma may just take the cake on this roadside attraction, which we couldn't pass up as a photo op.  (It's actually a barbecue grill.)

  The drive up 75 to Fort Smith was beautiful, with many gorgeous views of Lake Eufala.  We passed through the Choctaw Nation, Muskogee (Creek) Nation and Cherokee Nation, to name a few.  I saw signs for the Cherokee Trail of Tears museum.  I'm thinking we're going to have to plan a trip back up to this area just to explore the Native American history in the region - we passed so many interesting spots and didn't have time to check them out.  I think we'll research a little more about the best places to visit and plan that for the spring months... 

  More about our first big stop in the next post!

Virtual School - How it Works

  Last year we started with Texarkana ISD Virtual Academy.  I talked about some of the reasons we made that choice in my last post, but the biggest reason ended up being the features and flexibility of the program.  I'll explain a little bit about how it all works. 

  In this program, we use the Calvert School curriculum.  Calvert has been in the business of homeschool curriculum for over 100 years.  We were impressed with the curriculum - it's plenty challenging and includes lots of critical thinking skills.  It gives the parent (or "learning guide") the opportunity to discuss many issues with their child without glossing over or cutting out important facts.  Some of the other curriculum programs we researched seemed to focus on a religious-based approach to the subject of science at the exclusion of all else.  We believe that God created the world, but we don't know exactly how He chose to do it, and the scientific principles that we see are all a part of God's creation.  Our son wants to be a scientist, and we want him to understand all of the different views that people have, and we want him to learn to think for himself.  We felt confident that this curriculum would not hold him back in that area. 

  Calvert is used by many homeschooling families, and they provide all of the textbooks, daily lesson plans, additional books, math manipulatives and science lab kits.  They have an "Advisory Teaching Service" that allows tests to be graded by a teacher so that the child receives extensive feedback about each subject.  In addition, Calvert has excellent online services that include many reference materials, the Discovery Channel's online subscription service, daily online checkpoints to make sure the student has mastered each lesson for the day, and online versions of most of the books and manuals with links to supplemental lessons and videos.  The general format is that you complete 10 lessons, one each day, followed by a review lesson.  After 10 more lessons you complete a test that is submitted to the grading service. 

  We considered purchasing a Calvert curriculum several years prior, but were hesitant to take the plunge.  When we found out they were partnering with school districts in different states to provide Virtual Academies, it eased some of our concerns about being entirely responsible for our kids' education. 

  With the Virtual Academy program, in addition to the services provided by Calvert, we have a principal and teachers who work directly with our kids.  They provide a calendar and "pacing guide" through the school district to match the Calvert lessons to the traditional school year.  Each week, there are videoconference classes in the various subjects so that the kids have interaction with both their teacher and the other kids in the class.  Texarkana ISD provides an additional "online classroom" website where the teachers communicate daily with the students.  Each week they let us know what lessons we should have completed, and there are assignments of daily work to be turned in for a grade.  The teachers are available by phone, e-mail or messaging through the website.  If a student needs additional help in a lesson he can request additional time to videoconference. 

  Through Texarkana ISD, we also have field trips around the state throughout the year.  We submit a PE log each week to keep track of physical activity.  The students still take the STAAR test and get a report card at the end of the year.  The nice thing about still being in public school is that it makes it much easier to transfer back into a different public school without having to take any tests or fighting to have your credits be recognized. 

  While we receive a pacing guide about what lessons to complete each week, we have enormous flexibility about how we choose to complete the work.  It's really great to be able to customize based on how your child learns - if you want to focus on a particular subject for a day and work through several lessons, you have the freedom to do so.  If your child responds better to working on practicing each subject each day, you can arrange it accordingly.  If you know you have a day or week that will be busy with other activities, you can work ahead in advance so as not to miss anything.  Being able to set your own pace gives you far more flexibility in other activities.  As long as you have the lessons completed by the time assigned on the calendar, you are good to go.  

  Knowing that we have flexibility of schedule was a major factor in deciding to put both of the kids in Virtual Academy this year so that we could learn through travel.  We've started a little early on our lessons so that we're ahead in case there are days where we are busy.  We have the online versions of most of the books and lesson manuals (but we are taking most of our books on the trip for the times when we are away from the computer.)  We'll make sure to schedule our time to be somewhere with internet when the kids have a videoconference class. 

  The number of books and resources was a little overwhelming when we first got started, but the program is actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it.  I like that I am a facilitator, but not the primary teacher.  I'm also really impressed with the way the kids are learning how to use technology as part of their schooling.  If there is any downside, it is that we have to have some discipline to stay on task with the work and not fall behind.  It's a tough curriculum, and it would be hard to catch up if you missed very many lessons. 

  I know that it isn't for everyone, but it has been a great fit for our family.  I really believe that as more people realize that different options exist to provide a more customized education for their kids, programs like virtual school will only increase in popularity. 

Why Virtual School?

  I get quite a few questions about our schooling choice and why we chose this option.  I'll cover the details about how our current school works in another post, and just explain how we ended up here.  For a long time, we sent our kids to our local public school without really knowing what else was out there.  It was an easy choice - I've always been a supporter of public schools and felt like the best way to make sure your school is a good one is to stay involved.  We couldn't really afford private school, so that wasn't much of an option.  I didn't want to homeschool and have the kids miss out on socialization and extracurricular opportunities.  I wanted them to have the experience of going all through school with same group of local kids.  We had looked into a few local charter schools and hadn't been all that impressed, and they were not located very near to us.  

  In spite of all of that, I felt a little trapped in the public school system.  I realized pretty quickly that every kid is different, and my two are no exception.  It's really hard for any teacher with a classroom full of kids to provide exactly what each of them might need.  The monotony of schedule was depressing to me.  I'm not a morning person, and getting up at 6:30 am to get the kids off to school every day for 8 years straight was a sobering thought.  I tried to supplement what my kids learned at home, but you can only spend so many hours of the day on school work.  Even though I was volunteering as many as 400-500 hours a year at the school and PTA, I really didn't feel like I had any part in their education in the classroom. 

  It became clear early on that my son is not your typical kid.  He's highly creative, NOT a people pleaser, and he thinks very much outside the box.  Although he's incredibly creative, his favorite subject is science and he's a regular encyclopedia of knowledge about all things science and nature related.  School has always been a bit of a challenge because he is so different from the other kids his age.  By 2nd grade, he was really struggling with a variety of issues like boredom in the classroom, lack of motivation, difficulty relating to the other kids on their level, and an overall disenchantment with school.  Over the next couple years, we watched his love of learning slowly being extinguished.  After exhausting our options in the local elementary school to challenge him and push him to work harder, we felt like we had to find a schooling option that would better meet his needs. 

  When he was in 2nd grade, a fellow parent had recommended Calvert homeschool curriculum to us.  We researched it and learned that it cost about $1500 for a year's curriculum.  At the time, Calvert was looking for school districts to partner with them and offer a virtual school as a free public school option.  They had not yet found a partner in Texas, and so we submitted a letter to our school district asking them to consider this option.  They declined.  When my son was completing 4th grade, he had already completed 5th grade math.  If he stayed in public school, I was going to have to drive him over to the middle school after lunch every day to get the next level of math.  We didn't think that would work well for any of us, so we took another look at Calvert.  We learned that they had found a partner district in Texas - Texarkana ISD.  We now had the option to use the Calvert curriculum for free through the Texarkana ISD Virtual Academy.  We decided to try it with him. 

  After so many years of questioning if we were doing the right thing for our son and wondering what else we could do to make it better for him, this past year with virtual schooling has been the first time since he started preschool that I truly felt like we had made the best possible choice for his education.  It has been such a burden lifted to feel that he is exactly where he needs to be for now, and to watch him get excited about learning again.  I had concerns about making such a big change, but now I just feel like we have gained our freedom.  This shift in attitude is part of what made me decide to travel with the kids - I want to open their eyes to the possibilities in the world, teach them that it's okay to stray from the normal beaten path, and help them see beyond what they already know and are familiar with.  It's easy to get caught up in what most people do and expect others to do, but we all have the choice to explore other options.  I don't think I'll ever forget that again, and I hope that by sharing some of our experience, we can open more eyes to the possibilities that exist.   

    

Getting Started!

  As I've discussed our plans for the coming year with friends and family, more than a few people have asked that we start a blog in order for them to follow along.  So, here it is!  I'll warn you, though -- I'm new to this, so it may take me a while to figure out what I'm doing.

 To summarize our plans for the year in a nutshell, we have enrolled both of our children in a virtual academy school program (free public school from home) and now are able to complete school anywhere that we can find internet.  With this freedom, we are going to travel as much as we are able.  The kids have asked that we travel to all 50 states, which is probably beyond what we can accomplish in a year on our budget, but we're going to give it our best shot!

  The kids are going to help plan the trip and our stops along the way, and we intend to include a good number of historical sites, battlefields, museums, monuments, National Parks and anything else that looks interesting.  We're hoping that this first-hand look at places of historical significance will greatly supplement the kids' knowledge of American history, and help create some framework and context that helps them to truly understand the diversity of our nation.

  We've already had one trip this summer which I will describe in more detail when I find the time.  I'll probably also toss in some posts that explain what our virtual school program is like and how we chose it.  The kids will also be chiming in from time to time with their own descriptions of places we visit.

  We hope you enjoy exploring with us!