Preface

Sharon Jeffus has a B.S.S.E. in Art Education from John Brown University and continued on in her studies to be certified to teach English from the University of Arkansas. She studied painting at Metropolitan in Denver and sculpting at Southern Illinois University.

She has written over twenty books and has the internationally known company Visual Manna. Sharon wrote her first book in 1992 and developed the Visual Manna teaching method where art is integrated with art appreciation, techniques, vocabulary and core subjects. Sharon is a regular writer for The Old Schoolhouse magazine and has written for a number of other educational resources. She has also written an Indian Arts and Crafts program that was rated outstanding by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Sharon taught in the public schools for ten years in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. She then left the public school system to write books, travel and homeschool her two sons. Sharon and her late husband, Richard, started Visual Manna to encourage young Christians in the arts and meet the needs of visual and kinethestic leaners. Sharon and her husband Richard taught art to thousands of homeschoolers across America. Sharon taught Intensive English as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Missouri-Rolla and has given presentations on teaching art to college classes including Azusa Pacific University and Columbia College. She taught Christian school in Branson, Missouri and has also given presentations to the Associated Christian Schools International Conventions across America.
Sharon recently developed and presented workshops in coordination with Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Bass Pro on art and science. Her materials are recommended by Montessori.

Jonathan Jeffus/Teacher

Jonathan Jeffus is a homeschool graduate. He is running Visual Manna, the company that was founded by Richard and Sharon Jeffus, along with his brother Joshua. Jonathan started taking college classes at age 15 at Southwest Baptist College in Salem, MO. He was able to get a job as a computer programmer at one of the top firms in Nashville, Tennessee, Net Central, and worked there for one and one half years. He came home when his father was killed in a tragic accident to help his mother and assist in the family business. He does consulting and software development on the side and has made a CD available to homeschoolers that has over $4000.00 of open source software for educational purposes FREE. It also explains how to use the software. In the fall of 2005 he spent 3 months studying art in Europe. He is an enjoyable speaker and has lots of great information on homeschooling and teaching art.

Joshua Jeffus/Teacher

Joshua Jeffus is a homeschool graduate who actually got a walk on scholarship on the John Brown University Swim team. He is a very talented artist and has taught hundreds of children across America. He is now teaching workshops in the west. He also spent 3 months in Europe studying art.

"My goal is to provide educational materials for children to make them feel good about who they are. I want them to love learning and view it as an exciting discovery. Children who view themselves as being physically different, some with learning disabilities; children in schools in the inner city, children who are creatively gifted; all can benefit from finding their place to shine in the arts and can feel good about who God created them to be. "

The following was written about 2000.

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

Visual Manna is a family business that began around 1993 and has grown steadily. We are a family of four; and work together in different areas of our business. 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. When my husband and I were married in 1979, I was a very dedicated public school teacher. When my husband and I were married in 1979, I was a very dedicated public school teacher. I remember shortly thereafter having a conversation with my husband and his cousin in which my husband put forth the idea of teaching our children (not yet born) ourselves at home. His cousin (along with many other members of his family) was a public school teacher and was vehemently against even the thought of doing such a "crazy" thing.

During this particular discussion, his cousin got very upset and angry at us. How could we dare to think about teaching our own children at home? Her strong response managed to manipulate us to start our children in the public school when the time came. Besides my husband and I were both employed full time. How could we live on only one income? I felt as though God had called me to teach and encourage the children in my classes. I never really considered the condition of my own children, I was thinking about everyone's children except my own. Homeschooling was something I knew nothing about. Never in my wildest imagination did I believe I would end up homeschooling my own children. God started working on my heart ever so lightly. I began to believe I needed to put my own children first and He started to get my attention.

About two years before I started homeschooling, my family went to a Creation Science meeting in Kansas City where I meant a wonderful homeschool mom who found out I was an art teacher. She said that I should write an art curriculum for homeschoolers. That planted a seed. I always saved my projects and wrote my own curriculum so that seemed like a great idea. My teaching career was breezing along, with lots of my students winning competitions and good things happening in school....and then it happened. My teaching job got deleted from the curriculum because money had to be cut and art was the first thing to go. I remember going home and listening to James Dobson on the radio and the topc was homeschooling.

All of a sudden, much to my surprise, I felt an overwhelming desire to homeschool my boys. I felt like God was giving me this direction and over several weeks gave this idea much prayer. No one where I lived home schooled. There was no one I could talk to about it. My parents and brother thought I was making a terrible mistake. I had some Christian friends who were supporting and even admiring of what I wanted to do. They gave me the courage to write a letter to the superintendent saying that I would homeschool my two boys. My oldest was in the fifth grade and my youngest in the first grade. What an adventure! I immediately ordered two different well known curriculums for my boys. My oldest got all ACE and my youngest got all ABEKA. I wanted to be sure they received all that they needed and that I wasn't cheating them of anything.

I remember having my boys duck out of sight when we would drive through town during school hours. Being with them was a joy, but they didn't enjoy the curriculum I ordered for them and neither did I. I tried doing more unit study approach projects and things livened up quite a bit. Then it happened. A well respected English teacher in a town near here had to take a semester off to have a baby. She wanted me to be her substitute( I am also certified to teach English). I turned the job down once and then was offered such a marvelous salary I couldn't resist the offer--so I put my boys back in school for a semester--the last semester that they were in school. My oldest son is very creative and was penalized for writing a fabulous short story about a piano duel between Bach and Beethoven instead of finishing a story that was on a copy sheet. He went the extra mile and did extra work creatively, but was penalized for it. My other son was miserable as well.

God showed me that money was not worth what it cost my boys in neglect to their education. My art curriculum that I wrote(and my husband put together) was a wonderful business on the side. I could teach my boys and at the same time I could keep my feet wet in the teaching business.

Through many trials and errors, I have discovered the learning styles of my boys and we both have enjoyed the wonderful learning adventure. My oldest son has been taking on campus college classes since he was 15 and getting A's and B's. He loves learning and enjoys reading great literary classics, studying Greek, science, and repairing computers--he has even gotten paid to fix computers at the public school. He also DJ's at our local Christian radio station (he started as an apprentice). My younger son is quite an outdoorsman. I look forward to teaching him --and at thirteen he still needs the extra help.

I thank God for the wonderful privilege of really teaching and being with my own children. I can always work with other people's children when mine are gone from home, but a very wise lady, Kathleen Kutsch, once told me when I had a great opportunity dangling in front of me, "You only have one chance to be with your own children; when they are grown you can do what you want." There are so many people who are so much wiser than I in so many topics; and who are homeschooling or have been doing a marvelous job of classroom teaching for many years . I just thank God for the wonderful opportunity of being a part of it all and encouraging people to use art in all areas of the curriculum!