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Tinker Art

Observe the world through rainbow colored glasses in this multi-day course where science meets art. TOPICS: fibers and natural materials (paper-making); botany (seed bombs); print-making (pressing botanicals); natural pigments (make paint from flowers and other natural sources). handy-work skills (bind a book with hand-made paper); chemistry of acids and bases (change the color of flower paints by changing the pH with common kitchen ingredients).

Facilitator

Lauren Miller

Experience and CredentialsMy involvement in education extends all the way back to my adolescence, when I took a Red Cross babysitting course, spent countless hours babysitting, and fulfilled service hours by tutoring and volunteering at the Children's Museum of Acadiana.
I studied chemical engineering with an emphasis in biology at ULL, earning a bachelor with a minor in French, and returned for a second bachelor in biology with a minor in mathematics, all while working as a nanny and as a shift manager at McDonald's (talk about valuable work and life experience - to be honest, I use the thorough training I received at McDonald's in so many aspects of life; it is a brilliant model of process engineering for efficiency and consistency. Just saying!).After college I worked as a chemical and environmental engineer in oil and gas, specifically air, water, and waste permitting for production facilities, consisting of maintaining compliance and managing compliance programs through record keeping, emissions calculations, and reporting to the EPA, LDEQ, and various local and federal regulatory agencies. None of which was fulfilling to my curious and artsy soul!Side Journey: After being a very active young person involved in ballet, tap, and jazz dance and marching band, my mobility was drastically reduced from a minor back injury sustained in a car accident in 2008 at the beginning of my first pregnancy. The chiropractor kept me semi-mobile, but I was looking for something more practical after my daughter was born. Yoga got me moving again (Nintendo Wii balance board and Sadi Nardini on YouTube), and the insatiable learner in me jumped at the chance to take a 200-hour yoga teacher training with Lafayette Center for Yoga a few years later in 2014, along with my younger sister! My first yoga teaching job was a chair yoga class for the retired priests at the Jesuit Center in Grand Coteau, and it was always one of my favorites. My sister and I opened Twisted Sisters Yoga studio in Youngsville, and I continued my yoga training with Little Flower Yoga (Level 1) and Cosmic Kids Yoga, allowing me to offer kids' classes at our studio as well as to serve as a special needs yoga teacher through the D.R.E.A.M.S. Foundation of Acadiana.After finally leaving the oil and gas industry I ended up taking a huge leap into a new career - behavior therapy for autism and related disorders (ABA). Working as a behavior therapist was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I earned by BCAT (licensed through the state) and conducted therapy sessions in clinical, home, and school settings. I continued to work and progress in my field until COVID put an end to therapy sessions and to my career.Side Journey: When my daughter was in kindergarten we joined the Girl Scouts. We were SO lucky to have found such an amazing group of active and involved parents! I volunteered as a co-leader and led girls through journeys and skill badge activities on a very regular basis, even working on additional badges at home with my daughter. After first grade, our family transitioned to home schooling, but we have continued to be active with the same Girl Scout troop since 2013! Girl Scout programming is well constructed, thoroughly researched, and flexible, and has been influential to me as an educator.My family began our home schooling adventure in 2015 with one kid in second grade. I should probably mention that I technically started "home schooling" her before she turned 2 (flash cards and potty training at the same time worked like magic), and she was reading fluently by the time she was 3. Kindergarten was fun because it was French immersion (she won a French writing contest IN KINDERGARTEN), but first grade was rough due to excessive boredom. We gracefully bowed out to take our chances at home. I am a perfectionist and, therefore, an avid researcher. I conducted exhaustive research on pregnancy and child development while going through those phases of life, and educating my child was no different. I studied various methods of education, including classical, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, unschooling, self directed, lap books, unit studies, and anything else I could find. The book that made the biggest impact for me was Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind; The Whole-Brain Child and Unschooling also influenced my perspective on "education". Our approach is definitely eclectic - we have and sometimes use structured curriculum such as History, Writing and Grammar from the Well Trained Mind; MindUp (mindfulness); Latina Christiana (Latin / Memoria Press); Mortenson Math; Great Science Adventures; Adventures in Logic; etc. But through the years our home school has evolved; we have at times welcomed extra students for a season or a year or longer; our own family grew after ten years from one child to two, and then four years later from two to three! And in all that time I found that the real learning happens in the moments of engagement and direct concept application, whether or not that happens to be through the curriculum or, more often than not, just through life experience. So, we learn the grammar and the nuts and bolts with curricula and note cards and songs, and we supplement with unit studies and lap books and lots of handy crafts, experiments, games, projects, field trips, library visits, and nature walks. We are flexible with our schedules and relax school hours through the holidays. The goal is NOT to check off all the boxes and complete the curriculum. I want my children to leave my home school as capable adults who are prepared to go out into the world and make it a better place. I want to give my students the tools they need to learn anything they set their minds to. I have no idea what the future will bring, and I can't possibly teach younger generations everything they will need to know in their lives. But I can help to equip them for the job by fostering creativity and critical thinking skills, by challenging and encouraging them. The resources I design combine interactive hands-on processes with science and technology concepts and feature artistic expression and critical thinking. Activities are developmentally adjusted for each stage of learning along the lines of the classical education model (grammar, logic, rhetoric).In addition to home schooling my children, I work as a visual artist in a variety of media, including (but not limited to) watercolor, photography, and murals! Art has always been a natural part of my life and is very important to me. Even when I did not work as an artist, art was always a constant through every phase of my life. I am perpetually inspired by the natural world and know first-hand of the benefits and healing effects of spending time in nature. One of the greatest joys in my life is having the privilege of kindling sparks of creativity, the most valuable commodity of all, in the souls of future generations.In addition to making art, I love cooking, gardening, reading, and listening to audio books. I especially enjoy nonfiction (can't say enough about The Great Courses), particularly behavior science, neuroscience, productivity, philosophy, metaphysics, quantum physics, history, religion, theology, and ancient wisdom literature. My fiction literature consumption is primarily limited to classic literature with bits of modern such as Tolkein, Orson Scott Card, and Harry Potter :-)