About Us

Art is the key to unlock the mind of many children who struggle with special needs.  Art is transcultural.  It is a language that transcends words.  Leonardo da Vinci said, “Art is the Queen of all sciences, communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.”  Art teaches children to be original and create.   It makes learning exciting.  God is a creative God and we were created in his image. We believe each child is imbued by God to be innately creative. It is our goal to bring out that special and creative individuality in each student that we teach. In teaching core skills through art, we belie ve that children learn better by doing. In Dale’s Cone of Learning, we see that people retain 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they hear and see, 70% of what they say and 90% of what they say and do. Doing art to support core learning not only make learning fun, but helps children retain what they learn. In teaching art skills, we believe it is important to introduce children to many different mediums and a variety of techniques so they have the skills necessary to express their creativity, individual thinking, and problem solving. We believe the study of master works of art can facilitate the student’s understanding of how techniques have been applied in the past. This gives them understanding of how previous masters have overcome various technical problems to express their creativity more fully. Most education today is geared to rote memorization of the facts, techniques and methods. An engineer or inventor needs to think outside of the box.  Art teaches this way of thinking to succeed.  Many times art is taught in a similar method to math, science, history, or English. Pressure to perform to arbitrary standards is often placed on students restricting their creativity to the demands of conformity, and to the need for expedience in measuring performance in relationship to the norm. We believe our method of teaching the core subjects through art is the very best for visual and kinesthetic learners. Creativity is as unique and individual as snowflakes. If three architects are presented with a design problem for a particular building, they will all solve the problem differently. Art is a catalyst for engineering and invention when taught properly. It generates excitement in the learning environment. So many of the greatest minds in history were independent thinkers and problem solvers. This is our goal for each Visual Manna student. In the teaching of techniques, vocabulary and art appreciation, we strive to produce students that have a well rounded and thorough understandng of art so they can use their creativity to the maximum. In teaching of core subjects, we use art as a fun supplement to core learning!

This was written before the death of my husband when Visual Manna just began with the writing of my Visual Manna Art Curriculum in 1992.

Who We Are… Advice on Teaching – My First Year of Homeschooling

 Before I begin to tell the story of my journey into homeschooling, I want to give what I feel is the most important advice in teaching your children to be creative individuals. Because my area of expertise is art, I want to share some very important ideas to encourage you as parent/teachers in the arts. The most important thing that art education can do is to teach children to think independently. When a younger child is showing you what is his own individual art project with happiness and joy; you are experiencing one of the great moments in education.

I believe it is far more important to allow younger children to be exposed to great works of art, vocabulary of the arts, and then a hands on project that allows them to express themselves and enhance fine motor skills than to do a structured program of learning how to draw. Most areas of the school day are very structured. Children do not have the freedom to put together materials and supplies and come up with something original. But in art this is very different. God created all the snowflakes differently and he did the same thing with children and the art that they do.

Older children require a more structured program in techniques and appreciation, but the primary goal should be showing children that every artist has his own individual style. By showing children pictures by various artists, it allows them to break away from the heavy pressure of performing in art to a certain standard to be correct. If you can show children an Impressionistic picture and then allow them to do a sponge painting to experience the technique of Impressionism; they will certainly remember the style. Renoir created some of his beautiful paintings with paintbrushes tied to his hands because of arthritis. He also wanted to paint beautiful things because there was so much ugliness in the world.

Creativity is such a fragile flower. It is easily crushed. Perhaps you have had that happen to you. As long as you are encouraging your children in the arts and making art a joyful experience, you will find that art will be the activity that refreshes you and your children/students the most during the school day!

It is my prayer that this story might be an encouragement to some of you that are in a similar position to the one I was in when I began homeschooling.