Showing Off

I have had requests to post a file with Marissa singing. But, I don’t have a way to do that. I have been trying to figure out how to capture a digital recording of Marissa singing since last year when Marissa tried to record a CD for her mom for Christmas. We scheduled time with an accompanist (Marissa’s vocal coach), Marissa picked the songs, she sang beautifully a whole CD worth of Christmas songs and, when we played it back, the only way you could hear anything was if you turned the volume to max and held the speaker to your ear (and you still didn’t hear very much). So, in lieu of a recording, here is a photo of my talented daughter using her wonderful gift. She is center stage singing with the Youth Worship Team. She also sang a duet that night with another girl.

I know that this photo dashes all those stereotypes about home schoolers. Here is my daughter singing with a bunch of her peers. Socializing! With the exception of the drummer and the bass guitarist, all the other kids go to public school. And, she is oozing confidence. Okay, she said she was nervous, but she looked calm, cool and collected as she walked on stage in front of over 100 people. I absolutely love this! Marissa told me that she likes to perform because when she does it’s like she doesn’t even have fetal alcohol syndrome. It is something she can do without any accommodations for her disability. Singing allows her to fly!

I distorted the photo with PaintShop. Besides the fact that I don’t parent any of the other young people on stage and I don’t have a photo release, the picture quality wasn’t that great. Marissa has worked and saved and pinched her pennies to buy a brand new D-SLR camera. Yes, my 16-year-old daughter officially has a nicer camera than mine. She finally got it 4-days ago. It takes beautiful photos when the ambient light is okay, but we cannot get the flash to fire — at all! We didn’t know this until she brought her camera to this youth event on Sunday evening. In order to capture enough light to take the photo, the shutter had to stay open for nearly ever and all the photos suffered a little camera shake. Additionally, their was a meal served with this variety show. The kids all acted as servers. Marissa wanted Ron and I to sit at her table, we are as far away from the stage as you can get. The lens that came with the camera really wasn’t appropriate for the job. I was afraid if I walked closer to snap a photo that Marissa might get distracted with thought of how uncool her mom is. “Why is mom using my camera? Does my hair look all right? I can’t believe she is doing this. How embarrassing!”

Marissa and I have started photography lessons. Neither of us knew much about photography. We are learning together and walking through the steps of moving from a novice to an expert. Because, let’s face it; the steps are the same whether you are learning photography, web design, gardening or jewelry making. Teaching our children to learn, rather than teaching them facts, is one of the benefits of home education.

Did you know that you have to understand fractions to learn about aperture and shutter speed? Marissa couldn’t believe that she has found yet another thing she wants to do that involves math. When I was helping Marissa learn about aperture (the adjustable opening in the lens that controls the amount of light entering the camera), she didn’t quite understand how it worked. She is a very visual learner. So, I taught her how to do pupil checks with a flashlight. She could see that my pupil got smaller in a lot of light and got larger when the light was removed. She declared my pupils round and reactive to light. I am neurologically intact! We are using the KISS Guide to Photography and Know Your Camera by Noella Ballenger to begin to understand photography terms.

Marissa will learn best by taking a lot of photos and taking notes. I am waiting for it to warm up so she can be out snapping away. Do you all know that it has snowed three times since Good Friday? I am so done with winter! I don’t want Marissa to get so wrapped up in technology that she doesn’t learn to see beauty in her environment. Hopefully the Technical Support question I submitted will be answered soon and I can figure out if the flash is defective or there is an operator error. Knowing when you don’t know the answer and consulting experts in the field is an important part of the learning process.  I wish I could find a way to talk to someone instead of send an email. I am kind of in to instant gratification when I am trying to accomplish something.

Show and Tell is a part of Home Education Week!
Check Dana’s blog for links to other homeschooler’s stories!