Everyday Educator - Learning Alongside Your Teen - Art Grant Proposal
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.680 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:04.960 | of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:00:07.840 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:09.380 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:12.600 | as we encourage one another,
00:00:15.440 | learn together and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:19.560 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:23.000 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:25.080 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:27.200 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:31.280 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:35.040 | But don't forget,
00:00:36.360 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:39.740 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:44.740 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:49.680 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:54.100 | Well, listeners, I'm super excited
00:00:56.240 | to welcome you to this episode.
00:00:58.540 | I have a great guest for you
00:01:01.500 | who is going to shed some light on homeschooling teenagers.
00:01:06.500 | Woo-hoo, we all need light about that.
00:01:09.220 | And about one of the specific projects
00:01:13.300 | that your challenge student either is going through
00:01:17.580 | or will be going through.
00:01:19.780 | So Deb Switzer is here.
00:01:21.700 | Deb, thank you so much for coming on
00:01:23.860 | to talk about the art grant proposal today.
00:01:27.160 | - Thank you so much for having me.
00:01:28.320 | I'm excited to talk about it.
00:01:29.760 | - Well, one of the reasons, Deb,
00:01:31.620 | I'm excited for you to be here
00:01:32.960 | is that you have experience, okay?
00:01:36.120 | You have experience with your own teenagers in your home.
00:01:40.760 | You have experience with teenagers in your local community.
00:01:45.360 | And I know that either they have rubbed off
00:01:49.720 | your rough edges through the years
00:01:53.520 | or you have just gained a lot of insight
00:01:55.960 | either from making all the mistakes
00:01:58.360 | or from doing everything right.
00:02:00.080 | And you're gonna share both of those with us, right?
00:02:02.240 | - Oh, absolutely.
00:02:03.240 | You better believe it.
00:02:04.880 | - So guys, if you tuned in and you really want to hear
00:02:09.800 | all about the art grant proposal project
00:02:12.760 | because you don't know anything about it,
00:02:15.240 | rest assured that we're gonna get there
00:02:17.600 | and we're gonna give you everything you need
00:02:19.560 | to go forward with joy.
00:02:21.280 | Now that's a big promise,
00:02:22.400 | but we're gonna do our best.
00:02:24.000 | But before we get there,
00:02:26.880 | I want to talk to Deb just for a minute
00:02:29.760 | about some general learning along with your teenager ideas.
00:02:34.760 | Do you hear what I said?
00:02:37.800 | Learning along with your teenager.
00:02:42.220 | Unless you are vastly different from me and I suspect Deb,
00:02:48.080 | you don't know everything yet.
00:02:50.900 | - You know, surprisingly that is definitely the road
00:02:55.400 | that I am on.
00:02:56.240 | I'm learning along the way.
00:02:58.320 | - Well, and I'll be really honest.
00:03:00.280 | Some of the things that I thought that I knew
00:03:03.200 | everything I needed to know about,
00:03:04.920 | I really shored up my education as I taught my girls at home.
00:03:10.520 | Like I seriously redeemed huge pieces of my own education
00:03:15.520 | by teaching them.
00:03:17.560 | - Yes, absolutely.
00:03:18.760 | And me too.
00:03:20.120 | It is incredible to walk through challenge
00:03:23.080 | with your teenagers and find out one,
00:03:26.200 | how much you don't know.
00:03:27.720 | And again, also have the opportunity
00:03:30.600 | to be able to learn alongside your teenagers.
00:03:34.200 | It opens up so many doors of opportunity for learning
00:03:38.400 | and understanding as you build relationship with your child
00:03:42.320 | and you read things together
00:03:43.920 | and you start to understand together.
00:03:46.200 | And it's also the most humbling place
00:03:48.800 | because there are so many opportunities
00:03:51.320 | where you just have to look at your teenagers.
00:03:54.160 | I don't know, I really don't know.
00:03:57.840 | And we're just gonna have to dive in here together
00:04:00.960 | and go on this learning journey together.
00:04:03.880 | But I do think that that's probably
00:04:05.360 | one of the most encouraging parts.
00:04:06.920 | It's humbling, but it's also encouraging
00:04:08.840 | because your kids get to see that one, you want to learn
00:04:13.160 | and two, that you're always learning.
00:04:15.920 | You're always on this journey.
00:04:17.640 | There's never this place where you've arrived.
00:04:19.840 | And so you get to do that with your kids.
00:04:22.640 | It's such a beautiful bonding time
00:04:24.960 | and a time of just growing together
00:04:27.200 | as mother and daughter or mother and son, it's beautiful.
00:04:31.720 | - I love that.
00:04:33.640 | I know that when I had my, my girls are grown now,
00:04:38.640 | but we went through all the way through high school with them
00:04:42.120 | so they marched through the entire challenge program
00:04:45.600 | with us nipping at their heels or leading them
00:04:49.120 | or in lockstep with them, depending on what subject
00:04:53.280 | and how familiar I already was.
00:04:55.320 | But I'll tell you, even in the subjects that I loved,
00:05:00.320 | so I had an affinity for it
00:05:03.080 | and/or I thought I got really good instruction
00:05:06.240 | either in high school or college,
00:05:09.000 | there were still assignments, books, projects
00:05:15.000 | that I had never done myself.
00:05:18.200 | And so there were times that even in subjects that I loved,
00:05:23.200 | I felt like the blind leading the blind.
00:05:29.080 | And so parents, I want you to take a deep breath.
00:05:32.920 | If you are stressed about the art grant proposal project,
00:05:37.920 | I want you to take a deep breath.
00:05:40.480 | Many of us never did anything like that.
00:05:43.520 | In school.
00:05:44.480 | And so we sort of think, I don't know what I'm doing
00:05:47.200 | and I'm supposed to be teaching this child.
00:05:49.240 | You're gonna have to help me.
00:05:50.520 | And so we're going to, we're going to.
00:05:53.320 | But like I said, I wanna just ask a couple of questions
00:05:56.560 | and help us explore maybe the challenges
00:06:01.560 | and the adventures of learning alongside our teenager.
00:06:06.040 | You, Deb, you already gave us some of the good stuff.
00:06:10.840 | It really builds camaraderie with your student
00:06:15.840 | for you to learn alongside of them.
00:06:19.640 | You are, I love what you said about, it is very humbling
00:06:24.640 | and it provides opportunities for our kids to see that,
00:06:30.040 | hey, mom, dad, they don't know all this stuff,
00:06:34.800 | but they are committed to learning still.
00:06:38.960 | This is a grownup who already has a college education
00:06:43.680 | or already has had a job or already is in charge of our home
00:06:48.680 | and they seem pretty with it,
00:06:52.160 | but they don't know how to do this
00:06:53.680 | and there's still things for them to learn.
00:06:55.360 | And I think it's a beautiful thing for our children
00:06:59.520 | to grow up thinking that learning
00:07:02.240 | is just what our family does together.
00:07:05.280 | - Yes, and at that environment
00:07:07.240 | that we get to create as parents,
00:07:09.720 | it just provides this place
00:07:11.960 | for open communication and questions.
00:07:14.960 | This whole classical model thing that we're doing
00:07:18.440 | is all about being able to ask questions
00:07:20.880 | and to discover along the way.
00:07:23.160 | And the world does not give us answers,
00:07:26.720 | just, hey, here's everything you have to do,
00:07:29.760 | point A, point B, point C,
00:07:31.360 | and let's go ahead and have you follow that.
00:07:33.800 | Instead, it's a journey of discovery
00:07:36.800 | for everything that we face.
00:07:38.440 | And so this common place
00:07:41.200 | of being able to ask questions and discover together
00:07:44.560 | without having all of the answers right in front of you,
00:07:47.720 | that's part of the growing process of becoming a teenager
00:07:51.640 | and becoming a lifelong learner
00:07:53.840 | is that we are able to find that place
00:07:56.480 | where we can ask the questions
00:07:57.640 | and go on that road of discovery.
00:08:00.280 | Our grant is a great place
00:08:02.520 | where we get to discover and learn along the way
00:08:05.480 | and not have all the answers right in front of us.
00:08:07.960 | - That is so great.
00:08:09.000 | That is very encouraging.
00:08:10.160 | Okay, so that's a great feather of encouragement.
00:08:14.000 | I'm gonna stick in my cap
00:08:15.160 | and we're gonna come back to it.
00:08:16.640 | What do you think, Deb?
00:08:17.840 | 'Cause I know you have been a challenge director
00:08:20.440 | for a number of years
00:08:22.280 | and you've seen the learning journey play out
00:08:26.800 | in countless families.
00:08:28.240 | What have you seen as the biggest challenge for parents
00:08:33.240 | as their students move into the upper challenge years?
00:08:38.120 | I mean, how do we stay involved?
00:08:40.480 | And I used to tell parents
00:08:43.720 | that what you're doing as a homeschool mom and dad,
00:08:46.800 | you're working your way out of a job.
00:08:51.040 | And so the older our students get,
00:08:53.200 | the less of a job we should still have.
00:08:56.680 | But what do students still need from us?
00:09:01.600 | - Yeah, there's no doubt that,
00:09:03.720 | especially I could speak from my own experience
00:09:06.400 | as my children got older
00:09:09.560 | and were going through the challenge years,
00:09:11.680 | that they were starting to learn things
00:09:14.200 | and experience things
00:09:15.040 | that I just couldn't keep up with anymore.
00:09:17.360 | When you have a bunch of children at home,
00:09:19.200 | you can only learn so much at a time.
00:09:21.560 | That's why it's a lifelong journey.
00:09:23.040 | And so as they were starting to get assignments
00:09:26.360 | that I didn't know or I didn't understand,
00:09:28.760 | I started to have those homeschool stress panic attacks.
00:09:32.920 | What do I do now?
00:09:35.360 | And am I gonna ruin their lives?
00:09:37.520 | 'Cause I don't know how to do this particular project.
00:09:39.960 | And so I think that having that time to just want,
00:09:44.960 | well, one, giving yourself tons of grace
00:09:48.080 | to know it is gonna all be okay.
00:09:50.680 | They're gonna work their way through that project
00:09:53.080 | and actually not being able to have everything right there
00:09:56.960 | is actually a beautiful growing experience for them,
00:09:59.560 | like I talked about before.
00:10:01.560 | But it's also this sense of just carving out,
00:10:04.440 | like I have a, my way of dealing with it
00:10:06.960 | was I carved out a little bit of time every week
00:10:10.000 | where I said, let's just touch base
00:10:11.920 | about the things that you're feeling uncomfortable with,
00:10:14.640 | or let's spend a little bit of time
00:10:16.800 | talking about something that you've learned
00:10:18.960 | that's been amazing this week.
00:10:20.960 | And then let's also figure out
00:10:22.320 | what we need to dive into together
00:10:24.400 | and finding that special time that was just for them
00:10:28.560 | where they knew they had my undivided attention,
00:10:30.840 | that I wasn't gonna be over here and over there
00:10:33.680 | and working with their siblings.
00:10:35.080 | But I said, you've got me for this half hour
00:10:38.440 | or this hour or whatever it might be,
00:10:40.400 | and I'm fully focused on you.
00:10:42.880 | That was a gift, not just to my kid,
00:10:45.920 | but it was a gift to me too,
00:10:47.200 | because it was an incredible time of just saying,
00:10:50.160 | I am completely focused on you right now.
00:10:53.400 | And I loved those special moments.
00:10:55.280 | I just, I talked with a mom recently who just said,
00:10:59.480 | I'm gonna take my daughter out once a month
00:11:01.680 | for a coffee date
00:11:02.520 | and just talk about the books that they're reading.
00:11:04.560 | And even if I haven't read them,
00:11:06.520 | we're just gonna talk about it
00:11:08.560 | because it's a special time
00:11:10.640 | to talk about what they're reading.
00:11:12.920 | So those little things in the midst of it
00:11:15.760 | being a little bit scary,
00:11:16.800 | I mean, like, I don't know what I'm doing,
00:11:19.040 | those times to just sit down and connect and say,
00:11:21.720 | well, we can work on it together.
00:11:23.680 | We can figure it out together.
00:11:25.680 | And I think that that's a blessing for the kids.
00:11:29.000 | They love when we spend
00:11:30.880 | just that little bit of time with them
00:11:32.480 | and they know that they have our undivided attention.
00:11:35.440 | - Undivided attention is something I think all of us value.
00:11:39.360 | I know that when I can tell
00:11:41.800 | that somebody is really listening to me,
00:11:45.320 | and when I feel like they have all the time in the world
00:11:49.120 | to spend with me doing whatever is most important to me,
00:11:53.800 | I feel important.
00:11:56.480 | And I feel supported by that person.
00:12:00.160 | I feel loved by that person.
00:12:02.040 | I feel heard.
00:12:03.720 | And it really helped.
00:12:05.160 | It gives me both freedom and the bravery
00:12:09.880 | to open up about things that are bothering me.
00:12:12.960 | Things I'm not good at.
00:12:15.680 | I mean, I think sometimes as our students get older,
00:12:20.680 | they feel like they're supposed to be good
00:12:23.920 | at fill in the blank by now, right?
00:12:27.480 | And so when they have a moment of,
00:12:30.720 | I don't quite have this, or I'm not sure about this,
00:12:34.600 | or I have hit a concept that is beyond me in the moment,
00:12:39.600 | a lot of times they don't want to admit that to us.
00:12:42.000 | And so I think, I love your idea of making sure
00:12:47.000 | that every week your child knows
00:12:50.440 | that they are going to have a period of time
00:12:53.360 | where they have your absolute undivided attention.
00:12:56.640 | And if there's nothing wrong,
00:12:58.240 | we'll talk about all the things that are right,
00:13:00.440 | or we will study something together that we both love,
00:13:04.200 | but there is time set aside that they know
00:13:08.200 | they'll have your ear and your eye and your full attention.
00:13:12.240 | And that is really important.
00:13:14.720 | - Yeah, and it's, again, you know,
00:13:17.360 | this whole homeschool thing ends up being
00:13:19.600 | so much about relationship.
00:13:21.120 | And I mean, just consider how incredible it would be to,
00:13:25.880 | you know, on those weeks where things are going well
00:13:28.000 | or whatever it might be that you can say,
00:13:30.920 | where did you find God in your studies this week?
00:13:33.720 | And we have this time and we can talk about that.
00:13:37.560 | And, you know, embrace that and enjoy that moment
00:13:41.600 | and that wonder of,
00:13:42.920 | oh, you saw God in the cells of biology
00:13:47.000 | or in the language of the choice that was, you know,
00:13:50.560 | there in the word and you saw it somewhere else
00:13:52.440 | and in a piece of literature
00:13:54.200 | and just being able to see God in all of it
00:13:58.440 | versus just like a Bible study or at church,
00:14:02.040 | but God's in all of it.
00:14:04.400 | And let's enjoy that together.
00:14:06.320 | And let's see that even in the struggle,
00:14:08.280 | God's in the struggle too.
00:14:09.640 | So let's enjoy that as well.
00:14:11.480 | - Yeah, and sometimes that meeting time every week
00:14:15.880 | is a prayer time.
00:14:17.000 | Lord, we do not get this.
00:14:19.320 | I'm not, I am missing the link.
00:14:21.880 | My student is missing the link
00:14:24.080 | and I am not helping to excavate this problem.
00:14:27.400 | I mean, I need help.
00:14:29.360 | What are we gonna do?
00:14:30.760 | - I can't even begin to tell you how many times
00:14:33.320 | with my oldest, who's now, you know,
00:14:36.240 | she just graduated and got married.
00:14:37.840 | And, but our big joke is chemistry
00:14:40.880 | because I had to dive through chemistry with my daughter.
00:14:45.720 | And I have hilarious pictures of her
00:14:48.000 | with her like hair over her head
00:14:50.520 | and just like hands in the head
00:14:53.320 | and just suffering through chemistry with me.
00:14:55.360 | And now it's like our biggest point of laughter
00:14:57.840 | because we just laugh about how much I blew it,
00:15:01.400 | but that we still struggled through it together.
00:15:04.120 | And it's a point of like just enjoyment in our lives.
00:15:07.840 | Now we just laugh about, you know,
00:15:09.320 | hey, you tried mom and you didn't do so great,
00:15:12.320 | but that's okay.
00:15:13.160 | - It brings you together.
00:15:14.640 | Yeah, I still have the twin whiteboards
00:15:17.000 | that me and my younger daughter used to do the,
00:15:20.360 | and that, you know, that's where I discovered that,
00:15:22.880 | oh, I don't have a chemistry problem.
00:15:24.360 | I have an advanced math problem.
00:15:26.720 | And so, and it's like, okay, we're gonna have to,
00:15:30.320 | there's only one way.
00:15:31.520 | We finally both came to the startling truth.
00:15:34.400 | There's only one way to the other side
00:15:37.600 | of this chemistry module and it is to go through it.
00:15:40.920 | And to do that, we're gonna have to press together.
00:15:43.880 | But you're right.
00:15:44.720 | It absolutely draws you together
00:15:47.920 | and it teaches you things about yourself.
00:15:51.440 | It teaches you things about your child.
00:15:54.200 | It teaches you things about the faithfulness of God
00:15:57.480 | that He leads you into hard things and through hard things.
00:16:02.080 | And He teaches you when you least expect.
00:16:04.440 | He taught us lessons that I was not expecting to learn
00:16:08.320 | in the midst of a different lesson.
00:16:10.240 | So it was great.
00:16:12.800 | - It's good to remember, I think in those moments
00:16:15.280 | when it's hard and you're ready to pull your hair out
00:16:17.920 | and say, why am I doing this?
00:16:20.400 | To just reflect back and say, you know, God, I prayed
00:16:24.560 | and I really believe you told me to do this.
00:16:27.520 | And it may not look today the way I thought
00:16:30.960 | it was going to look, but it doesn't change the fact
00:16:34.160 | that you told me to homeschool,
00:16:36.400 | that you want this for our family
00:16:39.160 | and that I can just embrace that on the days
00:16:42.400 | where it looks so beautiful and perfect and Pinterest-y.
00:16:46.000 | - That's awesome.
00:16:47.360 | - The days where I wouldn't post in a million years.
00:16:50.200 | - I need to say this.
00:16:51.240 | I mean, I feel like I need to remind us,
00:16:54.160 | probably nobody listening to this had God say,
00:16:58.240 | I intend for you to teach your child stoichiometry.
00:17:02.880 | I intend for your child to know the fourth principal part
00:17:07.000 | of the Latin verb, amore.
00:17:10.200 | No, I feel like what God called you to do
00:17:14.640 | is to raise your child in the nurture
00:17:17.120 | and admonition of the Lord,
00:17:18.920 | that you were called to teach your child
00:17:21.920 | to know God the Father,
00:17:24.200 | that you were called to help them along the way
00:17:28.680 | to become a beautiful human
00:17:30.680 | who knows how to worship the Lord.
00:17:32.560 | And so take a deep breath, parents.
00:17:36.880 | We are doing what God called us to do
00:17:40.080 | when we are introducing our child to the Lord Jesus.
00:17:43.200 | And we do that through all of these subjects
00:17:47.320 | and all of these projects and all of these problem sets
00:17:52.280 | and all of these books,
00:17:54.360 | and even through the art grant project.
00:17:58.080 | So let's go back to that.
00:18:00.320 | How can, Deb, how can parents
00:18:03.200 | move through assignments like this?
00:18:07.160 | What can parents do when they're called
00:18:08.840 | to shepherd a child through an assignment
00:18:12.680 | that they are wholly unfamiliar with?
00:18:14.800 | I mean, like I never had to write an art grant proposal
00:18:18.360 | in my life and never even attempted it
00:18:21.920 | until my girls were in challenge.
00:18:25.160 | What are we as parents supposed to do with stuff like that?
00:18:29.520 | - Oh, it's the most important thing is to remember,
00:18:32.240 | first of all, you're not alone, right?
00:18:34.320 | So, so many parents, including myself,
00:18:38.240 | have never done anything like this.
00:18:40.800 | And you sit there and you look at your computer
00:18:44.160 | or your guide and you go, I don't know what to do.
00:18:47.520 | So remember that you have this beautiful community with you.
00:18:52.520 | You have a director who is gonna be able to provide you
00:18:56.760 | with some great information
00:18:58.160 | and provide your student with some great information.
00:19:00.440 | And more than likely, or there's a good possibility
00:19:04.120 | that you've had a community
00:19:05.640 | that may have already gone through it
00:19:07.040 | with another challenge to community
00:19:09.320 | that's gone through it already.
00:19:10.440 | And you can go and you can ask questions.
00:19:12.680 | You can say, "Hey, did you do this last year?
00:19:15.840 | Can you show me what you did or what it was like?"
00:19:19.560 | Because those conversations are what helped to shape
00:19:23.840 | and form and put some more dimension
00:19:27.240 | into what is this project actually going to look like.
00:19:30.480 | So I would say use those resources first and foremost,
00:19:33.560 | ask questions in your community,
00:19:35.880 | ask questions of your director.
00:19:38.440 | Those, the conversations are what bring things to life
00:19:42.320 | much more than just reading the paragraph
00:19:44.880 | about the art grant and the guide.
00:19:46.240 | Although that's an important paragraph to read.
00:19:48.440 | - Yeah, yes, yes.
00:19:49.840 | - Those conversations really put the flesh on it.
00:19:53.160 | There's also like, you have your guide
00:19:55.400 | which gives you a good overview of the project
00:19:57.680 | and what's going to be expected.
00:19:59.120 | And there's a great tutorial overview
00:20:02.560 | on CC Connected about the art grant
00:20:05.000 | to give you a little bit of like, what is this project
00:20:08.480 | and how does it come together?
00:20:10.200 | So I really recommend that as well
00:20:12.720 | to just kind of get that overview,
00:20:14.120 | watch it with your student, watch it together.
00:20:16.080 | - Yes, oh that's great.
00:20:16.920 | - And then ask questions and answers together
00:20:19.080 | to kind of just help form it in your mind a little bit more.
00:20:22.120 | - I love that.
00:20:24.320 | Okay, so you have, all right.
00:20:26.520 | All right, parents, you might have to stop
00:20:28.040 | and then wind back a little bit
00:20:29.600 | 'cause Deb gave us a ton of good information
00:20:33.000 | and she mentioned several good resources.
00:20:35.960 | The guide, obviously.
00:20:37.840 | Okay, I say obviously.
00:20:39.080 | All right, I have to just be really transparent.
00:20:42.160 | I had been a challenge tutor myself for a while
00:20:47.040 | and one of my daughters made it to challenge one
00:20:51.120 | and she was working on her research paper
00:20:55.240 | and her dad was her challenge one director.
00:20:59.800 | And when she turned in her paper,
00:21:01.880 | he had some rather, I felt, critical feedback for her
00:21:07.480 | about some of the ancillary documents,
00:21:11.800 | about her bibliography and about some title page
00:21:14.800 | that she was supposed to have.
00:21:16.040 | And I was very affronted, okay, so why did you not?
00:21:20.680 | And he said, "It's in the guide.
00:21:23.440 | "I'm expecting all of my students and parents
00:21:27.160 | "to have availed themselves of the guide."
00:21:29.880 | And so parents, the guide is more than a syllabus
00:21:35.880 | that list when assignments are due.
00:21:39.080 | Is that not true, Deb?
00:21:40.760 | - Absolutely, the guide is there
00:21:43.600 | to help put all of these different dimensions
00:21:46.400 | of these projects together.
00:21:48.080 | And sometimes things are more vague
00:21:51.000 | and sometimes things are more specific, right?
00:21:53.080 | So you might have in that challenge one research paper,
00:21:55.560 | there's something very specific
00:21:56.960 | that someone might be looking for.
00:21:58.600 | In the art grant, you might say,
00:21:59.600 | "Well, give me the specifics.
00:22:00.960 | "Give me like this point A, point B, point C."
00:22:03.800 | And the guide isn't gonna do that for you
00:22:05.920 | on the challenge to our grant project
00:22:07.920 | and our type A personalities.
00:22:10.200 | If you're like me, you might start to--
00:22:11.760 | - I want a list.
00:22:13.080 | - Yes, give me my checklist and give me all the things.
00:22:15.800 | But this is a creative project.
00:22:18.680 | And we don't want to squash creativity
00:22:23.240 | with a checklist that makes students feel
00:22:26.520 | that they have to line up in a certain way
00:22:29.120 | to be able to succeed.
00:22:30.520 | We want them to explore ideas
00:22:33.680 | and to think through all the creative ideas
00:22:36.760 | that they might come up with.
00:22:38.040 | And how might I make a visual
00:22:40.040 | and what kind of visual do I want?
00:22:42.040 | But if you're on a certain timeline or checklist for that,
00:22:45.720 | it has the ability,
00:22:46.920 | especially with like such a variety of personalities
00:22:50.160 | and students to just box them in.
00:22:52.640 | And we want students to really explore their creativity
00:22:57.640 | and all the different dimensions of the project.
00:23:00.120 | So using the guide as your basic framework,
00:23:03.280 | but then understand that there's a lot of freedom here
00:23:05.720 | because we want students to explore their creative juices
00:23:08.600 | when it comes to this project.
00:23:10.360 | - Oh my gosh, that is so good.
00:23:12.080 | Okay, so you heard what she said.
00:23:14.360 | There are lots of places you can go to get help and support.
00:23:18.720 | If you feel utterly out of your depth,
00:23:21.240 | you're in the deep end and nobody gave you a kickboard,
00:23:24.280 | here's the deal.
00:23:25.320 | The guide is always there
00:23:28.040 | and it will have some guidance for you
00:23:32.120 | and your student about the art grant project.
00:23:35.400 | You also can talk to the tutor,
00:23:38.200 | the director of your child who will give some,
00:23:42.440 | hopefully some good suggestions gleaned
00:23:46.440 | from past experience, her own, his own,
00:23:50.720 | or other families' experiences.
00:23:52.880 | You can consult with other parents in the community.
00:23:58.040 | Community mentor moms and mentor dads
00:24:03.000 | are the best resource ever.
00:24:05.920 | Somebody who's got children a little older than yours
00:24:09.240 | who have walked through this, they have, listen, y'all,
00:24:12.000 | they have already made all the mistakes
00:24:14.120 | that you're getting ready to make,
00:24:15.760 | and in love can say to you, and don't forget this,
00:24:19.640 | and by all means, don't do that.
00:24:21.720 | And this was some, and this is what I wish I had done, okay?
00:24:26.160 | So avail yourselves of those.
00:24:28.400 | But then Deb, you mentioned something on CC Connected.
00:24:32.680 | What, how can parents get into that
00:24:36.560 | and what might they find there to help them?
00:24:39.200 | - Sure, so there is, there are two resources
00:24:42.000 | out on CC Connected for the art grant.
00:24:44.800 | So if you go into CC Connected
00:24:46.720 | and you just go into the Learning Center,
00:24:49.600 | you can type in art grant
00:24:51.400 | and it's gonna bring up two things.
00:24:52.880 | The first thing it's going to bring up
00:24:54.320 | is a tutorial overview.
00:24:56.480 | And so again, I think that is a great tutorial to watch
00:25:00.800 | right alongside with your student,
00:25:02.800 | take notes together, talk about it afterwards,
00:25:07.120 | start talking through ideas.
00:25:08.880 | That is such a huge benefit.
00:25:11.640 | Another portion of the art grant
00:25:13.480 | is as you come up with your idea,
00:25:15.160 | you're going to start to fill out
00:25:16.840 | what is called the art grant application.
00:25:19.480 | And so that has all kinds of different questions
00:25:23.280 | that are there for the invention stage.
00:25:25.920 | So it's a blank one
00:25:27.560 | so that you can have multiple copies of it.
00:25:29.320 | So you know how you write things in
00:25:31.800 | and you're like, it's a hot mess.
00:25:33.520 | I don't know what to do with this.
00:25:35.160 | - I wish I hadn't done that.
00:25:37.520 | - So you make a few copies of that
00:25:39.800 | 'cause your ideas are gonna change over and over again.
00:25:43.040 | And then you can fill that in
00:25:44.800 | and you can also type in it if you want to,
00:25:47.520 | 'cause it's a Word doc.
00:25:48.720 | But that's available to you to be able to have
00:25:51.320 | multiple versions as you keep going
00:25:53.680 | through the invention process.
00:25:55.600 | - Oh, that's so good.
00:25:56.920 | So there are lots of resources, okay?
00:25:59.720 | So y'all all take a deep breath with me.
00:26:02.320 | (Deb breathes deeply)
00:26:03.840 | There are resources, there are resources.
00:26:06.720 | All right, now let's talk a little bit about the project.
00:26:10.400 | Deb has whetted my appetite and yours too, I bet,
00:26:14.280 | by saying that this is a creative project,
00:26:19.240 | a bit looser in structure than some of the projects
00:26:22.920 | our Challenge students will tackle
00:26:25.440 | during the Challenge years,
00:26:27.040 | mostly because we want students to feel the freedom
00:26:32.040 | to create and to explore,
00:26:35.080 | and I dare say, to chase their interest a little bit.
00:26:39.280 | So let's talk specifically about the Art Grant Project.
00:26:43.480 | When does it happen?
00:26:45.360 | What challenge level is doing this?
00:26:47.560 | What time of the year?
00:26:49.200 | All of that stuff.
00:26:50.680 | - Sure, so the Art Grant Project happens in Challenge 2.
00:26:53.920 | It's a great connection with the Western Cultural Studies
00:26:57.640 | that all the students are engaged in
00:26:59.600 | 'cause they're studying the arts,
00:27:00.920 | they're studying art and music.
00:27:02.640 | So in the first semester, between week six and week 10,
00:27:06.960 | they're introduced to the Art Grant Project,
00:27:09.600 | which starts on week six and ends on week 10.
00:27:12.640 | And they get to basically think through,
00:27:15.880 | the arts are a place where people ask for money
00:27:18.720 | all the time, right?
00:27:19.560 | And so they're going to think through an idea
00:27:23.600 | that they could take any passion that they have
00:27:26.960 | and how that might connect to the arts
00:27:29.440 | and any form of the arts.
00:27:31.400 | And how would I pitch an idea, basically?
00:27:34.560 | The way I present it,
00:27:35.640 | we're in the middle of this right now with my students,
00:27:37.280 | I say, think about "Shark Tank," guys.
00:27:40.280 | All these inventors are coming in with all these ideas
00:27:43.480 | and they're pitching their ideas
00:27:45.280 | and then they have to take questions.
00:27:46.800 | It's an art version of the "Shark Tank."
00:27:50.200 | And so then they basically just think through an idea,
00:27:55.200 | how would it connect to the arts?
00:27:56.880 | They fill in the application, they create a visual.
00:28:00.240 | So that's another portion of it
00:28:02.040 | is they create some form of visual to go with their speech.
00:28:06.000 | It's a five minute memorized speech with their visual.
00:28:09.920 | And then they're basically looking at
00:28:11.960 | what is a fake board of their own students
00:28:15.320 | or their own peers.
00:28:16.800 | And they say, "Hey, here's my idea."
00:28:19.040 | And all their fellow students rank the ideas
00:28:22.520 | in terms of who do I think has the best idea
00:28:25.680 | for receiving a fake art grant.
00:28:29.600 | - Right.
00:28:30.440 | - And they have a ton of fun
00:28:32.320 | and they get to have a lot of creativity
00:28:34.960 | as they think through what kind of ideas they want to do.
00:28:37.480 | - Oh, that is so cool.
00:28:38.760 | All right, so I know you said
00:28:41.320 | that this happens in "Challenge 2"
00:28:43.160 | because it fits in really well
00:28:44.720 | with the cultural studies of art and music that they do.
00:28:49.720 | But more than that, why do we do this project?
00:28:54.640 | What skills are our students practicing?
00:28:57.960 | And how does this advance their grasp
00:29:04.040 | of knowledge and understanding and wisdom?
00:29:09.040 | Why are we doing this?
00:29:11.000 | - Yeah, so they are learning so many skills.
00:29:15.120 | It's one of my favorite projects
00:29:16.560 | 'cause they just learned so many different integrated skills
00:29:21.560 | for life and all the different content
00:29:23.880 | that they've been learning in "Challenge."
00:29:25.800 | So obviously one, they get to express their creativity
00:29:28.600 | and think through their passions.
00:29:30.000 | This whole project is a great precursor
00:29:33.240 | to the senior thesis in "Challenge 4"
00:29:36.400 | because they're going to find something
00:29:38.640 | that they're passionate about,
00:29:40.040 | they're going to be able to present that.
00:29:42.560 | And then they also have to take questions and answers
00:29:45.880 | about that project,
00:29:47.120 | which is very similar to the senior thesis,
00:29:49.280 | but this is on a much smaller level.
00:29:50.920 | So they're learning that skill
00:29:52.960 | of just being able to know their project so well
00:29:55.560 | that they can answer questions about it from the board
00:29:59.400 | or their colleagues or peers as they do that.
00:30:02.440 | They also just get to practice either technical skills
00:30:07.160 | or artistic skills,
00:30:08.120 | depending on how they want to do that visual.
00:30:10.600 | So some students are going to do a PowerPoint presentation
00:30:14.440 | and they get to think through
00:30:15.840 | what actually makes a PowerPoint presentation?
00:30:18.920 | I feel like that's a great business world skill.
00:30:21.800 | PowerPoints are done all the time.
00:30:23.280 | And this is one of the times where we're like,
00:30:25.800 | technology is okay, you can do PowerPoint here.
00:30:29.360 | And make something beautiful
00:30:31.240 | that enhances your presentation.
00:30:33.560 | Some students are very artistic
00:30:36.600 | and they want to create a board
00:30:38.400 | or they might create their own mini sculpture
00:30:40.760 | of a version of a sculpture
00:30:42.440 | that they want to promote it in a park.
00:30:44.560 | They get to work on those creative skills.
00:30:47.920 | I also love that it reinforces
00:30:51.560 | the challenge one budgeting skills.
00:30:53.640 | So all those economics discussions
00:30:58.480 | that they had in challenge one,
00:31:00.000 | now they get to put some flesh on it
00:31:02.720 | as they create a budget for their project.
00:31:05.240 | And what does that budget look like?
00:31:07.080 | And how would I enforce that budget
00:31:09.120 | and work within that budget?
00:31:10.840 | How much money do I actually need to do this project?
00:31:14.200 | Do I need more?
00:31:15.600 | Do I need less than what I'm asking for?
00:31:18.240 | And so those are all questions
00:31:20.200 | that are real life applications, right?
00:31:22.440 | We all have to deal with money.
00:31:24.640 | So that's definitely a skill that they're learning.
00:31:28.080 | And those great memorized speeches,
00:31:30.680 | they've been practicing those.
00:31:32.440 | And this is just another avenue
00:31:34.320 | of practicing a memorized speech
00:31:36.720 | and those rhetorical skills
00:31:38.240 | to really just practice being persuasive.
00:31:40.920 | Here's why my idea is worth you giving money to, right?
00:31:45.120 | - Yeah, that's great.
00:31:48.760 | You know, I discovered when my girls were doing this
00:31:53.280 | and we're gonna talk about,
00:31:55.360 | one of the hardest things,
00:31:57.400 | getting started and coming up with your idea.
00:32:00.040 | We're gonna talk about that in a minute.
00:32:01.680 | But I did notice that after we got started,
00:32:05.440 | after we got in the groove,
00:32:08.120 | these skills that you just mentioned
00:32:10.520 | really were sharpened in my children
00:32:13.880 | as they went through the steps and stages of this project.
00:32:17.960 | I watched them learn to manage their time
00:32:21.200 | because, you know, like you said,
00:32:23.680 | this happens sometime between week six and 10.
00:32:28.360 | Well, that's four weeks, you know,
00:32:31.200 | that's four weeks of time in there.
00:32:32.440 | And if you lollygag around until week nine,
00:32:36.800 | then that is not a good management of your time.
00:32:40.600 | And that bites you and you learn quickly.
00:32:43.360 | That was a bad idea.
00:32:44.640 | I hope I never do that again.
00:32:46.720 | And so I saw that my girls quickly began
00:32:51.320 | to manage their time better
00:32:52.600 | when some things took longer than they had anticipated.
00:32:57.600 | Or they had to start over
00:33:00.000 | because they had not considered all the possibilities
00:33:03.960 | of things that might happen to either derail
00:33:07.840 | or shift the focus of their projects.
00:33:11.480 | Not everything works out like you think it will.
00:33:15.080 | And when you get in the middle of it,
00:33:16.640 | you realize you have now gained valuable insights
00:33:19.680 | that you wish you had known
00:33:20.880 | at the beginning of this project.
00:33:23.000 | - Right, and I think that-
00:33:23.840 | - That's a great thing to learn.
00:33:26.440 | - It's a blessing to learn.
00:33:28.000 | So, you know, I think as parents,
00:33:30.480 | we can start to just be upset with our teenagers saying,
00:33:35.240 | "Oh, you waited till the last minute,"
00:33:36.720 | or "Why are you changing your idea?"
00:33:38.680 | Or, you know, but this is part of the process, right?
00:33:42.320 | Is that they are becoming a stronger decision-making adult
00:33:47.320 | as they go through this process
00:33:49.680 | and have to make choices
00:33:51.360 | and reap the consequences of those.
00:33:53.160 | So it's not a bad thing
00:33:55.560 | if your child is halfway through their project
00:33:58.000 | and says, "This idea is terrible.
00:34:01.000 | It's not gonna work."
00:34:02.480 | And we think, oh, you know,
00:34:04.240 | of course we would prefer that that didn't happen.
00:34:06.400 | It causes stress on mom too.
00:34:08.040 | - Yes, it does.
00:34:08.880 | - You know, I'm laughing 'cause I've had this conversation.
00:34:10.880 | I'm like, "Why are you changing your project right now?
00:34:13.320 | What?"
00:34:14.680 | 'Cause now I have to shift and adjust my whole life
00:34:17.240 | for this.
00:34:18.080 | - Right, exactly.
00:34:19.480 | Oh.
00:34:20.480 | - But I think it's, in a way,
00:34:23.320 | it's their learning as they go,
00:34:25.600 | the consequences of like,
00:34:28.640 | "Did I really go through that invention process well?
00:34:31.080 | Did I really think it through?
00:34:32.720 | Did I really spend time on that arrangement canon?"
00:34:37.080 | And, you know, "Consider the way I have to present it
00:34:40.720 | or is it gonna make me backtrack?"
00:34:42.520 | And so each of these canons is a learning process.
00:34:46.240 | And so the Art Grant gives them an opportunity
00:34:48.800 | to learn each canon of rhetoric.
00:34:50.760 | It involves all five.
00:34:52.400 | And they are able to see,
00:34:53.880 | "Hey, maybe I'm strong here,
00:34:57.360 | but my arrangement canon needs some serious help."
00:35:01.520 | And projects like these help you learn yourself
00:35:04.640 | and where your strengths and your weaknesses are
00:35:07.120 | so that you can know where I need,
00:35:09.120 | I'm gonna need to account for more time on this part.
00:35:11.760 | - Yes.
00:35:12.600 | - You know, because it's not my strength.
00:35:14.480 | And instead of just brushing through it
00:35:16.520 | and then finding out that it's a disaster later,
00:35:18.760 | I'm going to spend a little bit more time
00:35:20.800 | or ask for some more help
00:35:22.480 | when it comes to inventing or arranging or elocuting
00:35:25.440 | or I need you to drill me a little bit more
00:35:27.800 | for the memorizing.
00:35:29.040 | Whatever it might be,
00:35:30.600 | these are the projects that help you learn
00:35:32.000 | where your strengths and your weaknesses are.
00:35:33.720 | And it's good.
00:35:34.560 | It's a good thing.
00:35:35.680 | - And it helps you own the whole process,
00:35:39.760 | not just the finish, but the whole process.
00:35:42.120 | And you know what?
00:35:43.640 | I feel compelled to say,
00:35:44.920 | "Parents, let your child,
00:35:49.040 | let your student learn the hard lesson."
00:35:52.480 | And sometimes they have to learn it the hard way.
00:35:56.240 | Sometimes teenagers think,
00:35:58.120 | "I got this, I got this, I got this."
00:36:00.160 | And then they don't have it and it needs to buy.
00:36:04.880 | I feel like my daughter and I both
00:36:09.080 | very viscerally remember her art grant project
00:36:13.600 | because we were, like all of our families do,
00:36:17.840 | getting all our stuff together night before.
00:36:21.440 | Mom's a challenge director.
00:36:22.920 | She's got her art grant.
00:36:24.440 | Her sister has all her challenge A stuff.
00:36:27.480 | We're getting everything together.
00:36:29.400 | And I said, "Get all your stuff."
00:36:31.440 | And I drove a carpool of other kids
00:36:34.200 | and I was very committed to getting there early
00:36:36.920 | so I could meet with parents who had issues or questions.
00:36:40.720 | And so we, "Hurry, hurry, hurry, get in the car.
00:36:43.920 | Have you got all your stuff?"
00:36:44.960 | "Yes, I have everything."
00:36:46.400 | "Okay, we're getting ready to leave."
00:36:47.880 | "I'm ready."
00:36:48.800 | And we got halfway and she said, "Oh, we have to go back."
00:36:53.000 | I said, "Excuse me?"
00:36:54.720 | She said, "We have to go back."
00:36:55.560 | I left my poster.
00:36:56.840 | I left my visual aid and today is presentation.
00:37:00.160 | And I just kept driving.
00:37:01.440 | And she said, "I left my thing.
00:37:03.520 | We have to go back."
00:37:04.840 | And I said, "You know, you need for us to go back.
00:37:08.760 | I can't spare the time to go back."
00:37:11.120 | And she said, "Well, then I have to use your phone
00:37:13.920 | 'cause I need to call Daddy.
00:37:15.040 | I need to get."
00:37:15.880 | And I said, "Okay, you can call.
00:37:18.200 | I don't think Daddy will do it.
00:37:20.080 | And if Daddy asked me if he should,
00:37:22.000 | I'm gonna tell him no."
00:37:23.080 | And she was so mad at me.
00:37:25.120 | And in fact, she had to give her art grant project
00:37:28.640 | without her visual aid,
00:37:30.600 | which made it, you know, for the "Shark Tank" judges
00:37:33.520 | much less effective than it would have been.
00:37:36.240 | - Right.
00:37:37.080 | - And I think that she,
00:37:39.320 | it took a lot of weeks for her to quote, unquote,
00:37:42.120 | "Forgive me for that."
00:37:43.880 | But what I noticed is that it was a very valuable lesson
00:37:48.880 | because she became much more an advocate
00:37:52.920 | of getting her stuff together.
00:37:54.960 | And she has grown into a grown-up.
00:37:59.320 | - Yeah.
00:38:00.600 | - Makes her list and checks it twice.
00:38:02.440 | So it was a hard lesson.
00:38:04.320 | It was a hard lesson that it paid dividends, okay?
00:38:08.920 | I love that you laid out for us
00:38:13.640 | all through this parts of the project
00:38:16.200 | from settling on an idea
00:38:19.920 | to doing some research
00:38:23.160 | that would help you design a project
00:38:25.400 | and set a budget, you know,
00:38:29.320 | arrange how you would structure your proposal,
00:38:34.320 | but then also arrange how you would tell about it.
00:38:38.960 | And then creating your visual aid
00:38:42.720 | and actually delineating
00:38:47.440 | and practicing your presentation.
00:38:49.800 | I think one of the hardest things is to realize
00:38:52.400 | after you have put, you know,
00:38:54.720 | three or four or five weeks even into a project
00:38:57.960 | is realizing that everybody doesn't know
00:39:00.400 | what you know about it.
00:39:02.640 | And so you have to set the stage
00:39:05.120 | so that people can understand the passion that you feel
00:39:10.120 | and maybe buy into it.
00:39:12.400 | How much freedom do parents and students have
00:39:22.360 | to design a project that their students could feel
00:39:26.920 | that degree of passion about?
00:39:28.680 | How are they supposed to pick a topic?
00:39:31.120 | What would you say?
00:39:32.560 | - Yeah, the process,
00:39:34.200 | I think that's the hardest part of the Art Grant Project
00:39:37.120 | is choosing what on earth am I,
00:39:40.480 | what is this idea that I am going to pitch, right?
00:39:43.800 | - Yes.
00:39:44.640 | - And students often just sit there and look at you
00:39:49.080 | and they say, I have no idea what to do.
00:39:54.080 | Give me an idea.
00:39:55.640 | My kids looked at me at home and said,
00:39:59.160 | please just give me an idea.
00:40:00.560 | - Just tell me what to do.
00:40:02.720 | - And so it's kind of working your way backwards
00:40:05.880 | and saying, well, let's ask two,
00:40:08.200 | I had my kids answer two questions.
00:40:10.280 | I was like, what are you passionate about?
00:40:12.280 | What do you love?
00:40:13.960 | Let's figure out what you're passionate about
00:40:15.800 | and what you love.
00:40:16.880 | And then the second question after we would talk about that
00:40:20.760 | was we would say, okay,
00:40:22.160 | now how might we be able to incorporate that with the arts
00:40:26.680 | if it's not already an arts oriented thing?
00:40:29.800 | And then moved it one step further and said,
00:40:32.360 | how can that bless a community?
00:40:34.080 | So looking at three stages of it,
00:40:37.640 | what's your passion?
00:40:39.240 | How might that fit in with the arts somehow?
00:40:42.440 | And how might it bless a community?
00:40:44.200 | Because really when you're asking for the Art Grant,
00:40:46.800 | it doesn't have to be a service project,
00:40:49.040 | but quite often it's in some way blessing a community
00:40:52.920 | 'cause people are gonna be giving money to it, right?
00:40:54.920 | And so there's gotta be an audience
00:40:56.920 | that is going to enjoy it or participate in it.
00:41:00.280 | And so I know for my,
00:41:03.480 | I'll just speak for my own two children,
00:41:04.840 | like my daughter and my son are very different.
00:41:07.000 | So my daughter loved music.
00:41:08.960 | And so she was already there in term of the Arts Grant
00:41:11.800 | 'cause she's like, I'm a music person.
00:41:13.200 | I love the arts.
00:41:14.160 | This is great.
00:41:15.200 | And so she was thinking through
00:41:17.040 | about how to give lessons to inner city kids
00:41:21.360 | and give classical music lessons to them.
00:41:23.800 | And then my son though, he's a sports guy, right?
00:41:26.960 | And he's like, I don't know, I don't sing, I don't dance.
00:41:31.040 | I, you know, he's like, I play sports.
00:41:33.800 | And so, but he started to think about a missions trip
00:41:36.480 | that he was on and how all the kids played sports.
00:41:40.560 | And he was like, well,
00:41:41.400 | what if we were able to design clothes, you know,
00:41:45.360 | like little soccer uniforms for these kids overseas
00:41:49.120 | with like a clothing design
00:41:51.200 | that would help this missions organization.
00:41:53.480 | So he went from his passion of sports
00:41:56.440 | to thinking about how that could go with the arts
00:41:59.880 | and then moved it into how it could bless a community
00:42:02.880 | over in Botswana, Africa.
00:42:05.040 | And so that was his process.
00:42:07.480 | And lots of kids have things that they're passionate about,
00:42:11.120 | you know, I think I posted something in the form about,
00:42:13.920 | you know, if you're a Save the Turtles person, right?
00:42:17.520 | And you can create a mural on a, you know,
00:42:21.000 | in a city block or a statue of some sort
00:42:23.400 | that is going to try to bring awareness
00:42:27.000 | to that passion of yours.
00:42:29.560 | And so it's trying to meld those three things together,
00:42:32.840 | your passion, how it goes with the arts,
00:42:35.760 | and then how it blesses a community.
00:42:37.680 | Those three things are going to help you form
00:42:40.520 | that creative idea that you're looking for.
00:42:43.040 | - Oh man, Deb, that is absolutely perfect, okay?
00:42:47.040 | Because you have given us the big picture
00:42:51.880 | of why this project is so good
00:42:54.160 | and what skills our students are gonna sharpen
00:42:57.920 | that are gonna be useful to them for the rest of their lives
00:43:02.640 | but also how you've given us some really practical ways
00:43:08.480 | of narrowing down the hardest part of the whole project,
00:43:12.520 | deciding what to do.
00:43:14.320 | I think that you hit the perfect formula.
00:43:19.240 | What do you love?
00:43:20.800 | What are you passionate about?
00:43:23.000 | How is that related?
00:43:24.880 | How might that be related to the art?
00:43:28.480 | And what could you do with that to bless a community?
00:43:32.480 | How could this be a service
00:43:35.080 | that others would be motivated to support with giving?
00:43:40.080 | That is just really good.
00:43:42.000 | And what a beautiful outlet for our students
00:43:47.000 | to think about the way the Lord has placed giftings
00:43:54.000 | and yearnings in their own hearts,
00:43:57.320 | and then what they could do with the passion God
00:44:00.960 | has given them to serve the world
00:44:05.400 | in which he has placed them.
00:44:08.440 | - And I think people might even,
00:44:10.400 | I love the testimonies that come out
00:44:12.520 | of the Art Grant Project
00:44:13.880 | because it brings in a level of awareness
00:44:17.640 | for the student that they didn't know before
00:44:19.560 | where they're like, oh, I could actually do something
00:44:22.960 | that could serve the community,
00:44:24.480 | or I can have an idea, whether it's arts-based or not,
00:44:28.360 | that can actually be a blessing to others.
00:44:32.640 | And so I had a student a couple of years ago,
00:44:36.480 | and her art grant proposal was about music again,
00:44:40.280 | and working with music stores
00:44:42.680 | to get donations of instruments to impoverished families.
00:44:47.680 | And she did a great job,
00:44:50.400 | but the best part of the art grant
00:44:52.680 | was after the whole project was over,
00:44:55.200 | she actually went to a music store and pitched her idea
00:44:59.840 | and said, hey, there's this family that has eight kids,
00:45:03.680 | and they don't have the money for lessons,
00:45:05.960 | and I'd like to give them lessons for free,
00:45:08.120 | but they need to be able to have the cello
00:45:11.400 | to be able to rent.
00:45:12.920 | And the music company just listened to her idea
00:45:15.880 | and said, sure.
00:45:17.000 | And so they rented these cellos for free to this family
00:45:21.120 | so that my student could give free music lessons
00:45:24.280 | to this family.
00:45:25.120 | And it was such a beautiful application
00:45:27.840 | of living out these ideas.
00:45:31.960 | You never know what's gonna come out of this idea
00:45:35.600 | of breaking out of our normal academic mindset
00:45:39.640 | and saying, I wanna put hands-on application
00:45:42.960 | to the study of the arts and my passions
00:45:45.600 | and all these things and see it lived out.
00:45:47.720 | It's just, it's a beautiful thing to watch.
00:45:50.520 | - Oh my goodness.
00:45:51.480 | That's the most inspiring thing,
00:45:53.640 | that the testimony is from our students
00:45:58.520 | is that they are able to make a difference in the world.
00:46:03.520 | Can you imagine being more empowered as a teenager
00:46:09.880 | than to see that you have learned
00:46:13.800 | to make a lasting impact on the world?
00:46:17.480 | That's the coolest thing.
00:46:19.320 | I think that would be my favorite part
00:46:21.720 | of shepherding a class full of students
00:46:24.080 | through the Art Grant Project.
00:46:25.480 | Deb, thank you so much for making this seem like
00:46:28.480 | not a scary thing, but a very exciting
00:46:32.800 | and empowering assignment for our students.
00:46:36.080 | Thank you.
00:46:37.440 | - Thank you.
00:46:38.280 | - I just really appreciate it.
00:46:39.640 | And parents, I suspect that you now have
00:46:43.720 | a brand new appreciation for this process
00:46:49.120 | and for this project with your student.
00:46:52.640 | I suspect that we're going to have
00:46:54.280 | some stellar Art Grant Proposal Projects.
00:46:57.560 | And I would love to let you know of a way
00:47:00.200 | that you could celebrate your student,
00:47:02.800 | that you could celebrate your community,
00:47:05.200 | that we could all celebrate together
00:47:07.560 | at the wonderful ways that our students
00:47:09.680 | are impacting their communities.
00:47:12.200 | I want to tell you about something
00:47:15.200 | called Honorable Mention.
00:47:18.760 | It is a process for celebrating together.
00:47:23.480 | If your community or your student has done
00:47:26.880 | or is doing something noteworthy,
00:47:30.040 | I want you to know that we're collecting those stories,
00:47:32.640 | those accomplishments, those events.
00:47:34.680 | We want to celebrate and share
00:47:36.880 | the excitement of homeschooling.
00:47:39.080 | So we want you to provide as much information,
00:47:43.080 | as many details as possible to completely tell your story.
00:47:48.280 | And then share your story,
00:47:50.640 | whether it's of the Art Grant Proposal or something else,
00:47:55.400 | share your story at classicalconversations.com/celebrate-together.
00:48:00.400 | Okay, so it's all one word.
00:48:09.240 | Here we go again, classicalconversations.com/celebrate-together.
00:48:15.240 | That's where you can share your stories
00:48:18.120 | and we will celebrate our successes and our growth together.
00:48:23.120 | Again, Deb, thank you so much for being an inspiration
00:48:28.800 | to all of us who are tackling things
00:48:31.600 | we never thought we could.
00:48:33.520 | I appreciate you being with me today.
00:48:35.520 | - Oh, it was great to be here.
00:48:36.520 | Thanks so much, Lisa.
00:48:37.720 | - All right, families, we will see you guys again
00:48:40.480 | next time on "Honorable Mention."
00:48:42.880 | We'll see you guys again next week.
00:48:45.920 | Bye-bye.
00:48:46.800 | (gentle music)
00:48:49.400 | you
00:48:51.460 | [BLANK_AUDIO]