Weekly Wrap-up Feb 13

Lots of off-campus activities this month!

LSUHS Student tour of Liberty University – Getting started in the Welcome Center.

Occassionally, we have one of those months where there are quite a number of opportunties for the students on our radar and we manage to squeeze a bunch of them in. This is one of those months. We love to share these off-campus moments. We are always learning and, often times, a break from the routine really helps the brain and body! Check out our February Calendar Corral, to see what’s left this month. Many of our activities are open to the homeschooling community as well. Come join us!

Monday

We had a normal, albeit, drizzly start to the week! Monday’s academic pace was relaxed, as was the outside work due to weather. Student’s took advantage of the loose schedule to work on projects and learn new skills. One fun thing we did was to introduce a new journal to everyone, The Me Journal: A Questionnaire Keepsake by Shane Windham. This book is filled with diverse prompts and questions to guide us on a exploration of self. Students jumped right in and seemed to enjoy it. We filled out two pages and then had a very lively disuccuson over our answers. We are all looking forward to seeing where this particular journey takes us.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s schedule was more normal, even though it began with a short diversion. A few hungry students requested a McDonalds breakfast stop so we started the day there with some animated conversation among them, while I updated our school calendar. Back at the farm, the morning walk, meeting and outside work went as scheduled. We did our new journaling, followed by another interesting discussion. After lunch, we tackled our writing class and worked further on using keywords and iconic notes to re-write something in our own words. Then, those in the graphic design class dove further into Photoshop, wrapping up an advertisement using layered items and text.

Wednesday

We met Wednesday morning at the normal time but an alternate location – out on Hull street near 288. This was our jumping off point for the nearly 2-hour jaunt down to Liberty University with an LSUHS Alumna that recently was accepted into Liberty’s Criminal Justice program, an exchange sudent and our own LSUHS students.

Upon arrival, our alumna was able t take care of some admissions business while we relaxed briefly in the beautiful visitor center. We started the tour with a video presentation of life on campus, follwed by a brief question & answer session. Then, it was off to explore with a guide. Liberty is a 7,000+ acre campus. While we didn’t walk all of it, the walking portion of the tour was extensive and duanting to two of us that are recovering from foot and ankle injuries. The staff insisted on providing tour wheelchairs which gave me, at least, an interesting perspective for the day.

We toured many buildings and then took a bus for the reainder of the tour which covered the various housing options on campus and ended at the massive Marie F. Green Hall, which houses a multitude of recrational, athletic, and academic facilities. After the tour, we enjoyed lunch in the largest food court on campus. We had planned to spend a bit of time snow tubing on Liberty’s Snowflex Mountain, but the rains moved in. We ended up at the campus book store where some of the student’s enjoyied a sale on winter items. Students came away pleasantly tired, suitably impressed, and gifted with Liberty swag for taking the tour. We arrived back in Richmond after 7:30PM.

Thursday 

After a late finish on Wednesday, Thursday greeted us with an extra-early start! I have to hand it to them, the students rallied and we headed to Thursday’s event in Halifax pretty much on time. Everyone was signed up for a Farm Safety Workshop sponsored by VSU Small Farm Outreach and VA Cooperative Extension. Workshop presenter, Cliff Someriville, hosted the workshop in the Wedgewood Golf Center. We listened to an eye opening presentation about the many dangers present on fhe farm, followed by a session on tractor safety. A pre-test of the tractor safey indicated that our students are pretty savvy on safety operations! We took away some interesting things to work into our farm design so that visitors, students and their families will be safe on our working farm.

A steady rain inhibited the hands on portion of the workshop. By the time we left and went for lunch at the nearby Mexico Viegjo Mexican Grill (which was delicious by the way), the rain had calmed to a chilly misting. We took advantage of our lcoation, time, and tiny break in weather to explore two State Parks in the area: Staunton River State Park and the Staunton River Battlefield State Park. The river was at flood stage from days of rains in the area and further up stream, and large portions of both parks were closed. We explored what we could and got enough of a taste to want to return for futher exploration, maybe even camp.

—Terry Connell, Headmaster

Resources

Links to things and places referred to in this article:

• For more February events check out this month’s Calendar Corral.
• We found these The Me Journal  at our local Barnes & Noble.
• Adobe’s Creative suite includes Photoshop – the first software application we are covering in our graphic design class. This is available to students at a very low rate!
• We are using the Graphic Design 1 Curriculum from Leyden High Schools, Franklin Park, IL.
• We visited Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA
• VSU and VA Tech’s Cooperative Extension offer many workshops and learning opportunties through several programs including their Small Farm Outreach Program.