DAM ART

Finally! We made it by the art museum on free day, man, it’s been a long time since we went! As we approached the building Hannah asked if we were going on the boat.

Kind of, we’re going in the boat, but it’s not a boat.

We stopped by the giant broom outside, kids love recognizable art.

Inside we finally got some game boys (usually they’re all out) and 1 art backpack (which Hannah insisted was hers and carried around.) Wait a minute you say, game boys at the art museum? You’re supposed to let them see the art, not play games!

Ahh, but here we have the best of both worlds. The kids got a game boy for a specific floor (we started on the 4th.) The game is a thief that has stolen a piece of art, or a pirate that has invaded the art museum or a guy that took off with your briefcase. Then you have to find the piece of art on your screen and go over to it. As you look at it the game boy asks you questions about the piece and you solve a little riddle. When you’ve done the whole floor the item stolen is returned. Pretty cool.

Hannah had the modern art backpack.

Inside were: make your own paper glasses (to view the art through), a piano/art game, prisms and a viewfinder that she could look through. It had a piece of the art up close and then a far away picture. She found all three pieces (but then kept looking through them on the other floors too.) We made rubbings in the oceanic art exhibit (and I overheard a kid say, ‘hey, this isn’t ocean art!’) We passed by the poetic overlook area and by an exhibit that asked, ‘What is art?’

We concluded that art must be whatever the individual wants to express, because it didn’t look like art to us! In the bubble pop area (a reactrix game in which you pop bubbles appearing on the floor) the kids uncovered puzzle pieces and then the piece of art appeared on the screen (and where to find it in the museum.) We went out on the over look balcony and gazed at the snow covered mountains.

We saw African art, modern art, oceanic art, and sculptures.

Then it was time to go turn in the game boys and back pack (Hannah was upset, she thought she was keeping it forever.)

Notice the blue sky? We hit 74 today, know what that means? Snow tomorrow, yay!

Do we belong in a HS group?

I’ve been thinking about what a great HS group I’m in. We’ve been HS’ing for 13 years now and we’ve been in only 3 groups in 2 states. So, we tend to stick around when we’ve found the right group. When I knew we were going back to Denver I started looking on the web for a group that had field trips and park days and opportunities for my children to speak and share their knowledge. Lo and behold, I stumbled across CCHFS very quickly in my search. Almost as soon as we unpacked I started showing up at events. What makes this group unique is the fact that it’s inclusive. Which is great for people like me, because we aren’t technically Hs’ing under the law.

See, we use a virtual charter school. They have the K12 curriculum which I LOVE. This curriculum lends itself so well to unit studies and lap-books and its very nature is to be flexible for each individual child. But, this curriculum is pretty expensive when you have 3 kids enrolled, so I chose to go with COVA (CO. Virtual Academy), because they pay for my curriculum (via my taxes that I pay anyway.) At first I was unsure who we were in the HS’ing community; I mean we’re not HS’ing under the law, so are we HS’ers? We unschool by taking advantage of the way the curriculum is laid out to do other things that surround our interests, but we’re not unschoolers either. Sometimes I think we’re eclectic because we use unit studies and field trips incorporated into our day to help us learn, but I guess that doesn’t fit either. I’m not sure that we’re the model virtual schooler either, since we’re not tied down all day to our computers. So, where does that leave us? We call ourselves HS’ers because even though we use a curriculum that is paid for by COVA, we are at home teaching it, and we are not always at home teaching it. We are at the library, museum, festival, we are at a co-op, recital, play, and we are at the park, BK, GS, CAP and so on.

I was once in a group that would not have approved of my schooling choice and would have told me that we couldn’t be in their HS group. They were exclusive. Now that I have found this group and am included, it helps. Still, I think people judge and don’t realize that each parent is given a choice about education. I think that any choice that allows YOU to be HOME teaching YOUR children should be considered Homeschooling.* So, I think that Homeschooler will fit us just fine.

* Just a note that as I told Sen. Harvey, I do not mean that HS laws should apply to anyone who is technically a charter school/public school student (as we are.) We are not bound by the HS laws; we are bound by the new rules and laws surrounding virtual charter on-line schools in CO from the committees and boards in the govt. I was a plain old HS’er for too long and I know the struggles we faced in the law regarding education and the freedom to choose what was best for our children