82-Lancatter Farming, Saturday, January 22, 2000 Colonial Curb, Homezchoollng, 'A a Hinge Color Yellow Hill Farm JINNY WILT Adams Co. Correspondent BIGLERVILLE (Adams Co.Mf you’re looking for thorn less blackberries, fall red and golden raspberries, a peaceful respite in a rural setting, and a major house restoration project interspersed with lively conver sation from three young, home schooled women, take a trip to Yellow Hill Farm near here. The Bishop sisters-Meghan, 17; Laura, 12; and Cassie, 10, add sparkle to conversations about their experience with homeschooling and a 4-H pro ject. Originally from Connecticut, the family moved to Adams County when father, Craig Bishop, changed jobs. In addi tion to his full-time job, Bishop plants 28 acres of land. He has planted one-half acre in rows of raspberries and 400 feet of blackberries, watered with trick le irrigation. In season., the berries are served up to the pub lic on a pick-your-own basis. Bishop is also restoring what the family calls “This Old House.” A major addition project, which has involved two-plus years, is evolving into a bigger kitchen, a bedroom for Meghan and two new bathrooms, one with a bathtub and the other in combo with a laundry. Other areas of the home have already been restored and convey Bishop’s carpentry talents and creativity. He has exposed the old logs in some areas of the home and in other areas used cured wood from pine trees on the property installing it as beautiful flooring and doors. In keeping with the theme of the exposed logs in the downstairs, he has installed logs from the property in the ceilings of Meghan’s bedrodin and a bathroom. ” ' If this isn’t full time job involves engineering and design at Qualastat Electronics, in Gettysburg which manufactures wire har and hie as 0 '” Hie 0 The Bishop Sisters, Meghsn, 17, Cassie, 10, and Laura, 12, pose in Colonial dresses they each made. The girls, who are homeschooled, inarched in several parades in their 1860’s garb. As for wife and mother Natalie Bishop, a former agri cultural school teacher, has undertaken the task of teaching her own children at home. Home schooling is a full-time job, although she finds time for vol unteering in the community. While Meghan has a few years of public school experience and Laura went to public school kindergarten, Cassie has never been in the public school system at all. Ask Meghan how she, as a homeschooled teenager, social izes with youths her own age and you’ll get a quick and firm response, that “you do it just like anyone else. You say ‘hello, I’m so-and-so’ and go from there.” And don’t get her started on the benefits of being home schooled. She wonders, with a demeanor of near shock, at why all students don’t want to do the same thing when she considers the problems and fears facing youngsters in today’s public schools. Craig notes that “Homeschoolers tend to be more academic than sports oriented.” His older daughter is an exam ple of this for she has been accepted and starts in the fall at Florida College, a small Christian school in Temple Terrace, where she plans to earn a degree in history/english with a minor in music. Natalie said she believes that homeschooled children “have a mature attitude because they’ve already been in the real world. Kids who’ve been raised in a school system have been nur tured in a closed environment and they don’t know what the real world is like. They don’t know what a deadline is like. “They don’t know what punc tuality is like. They don’t know what actually completing a paper and doing the research on your own is like. They’ve always had the teacher standing over them telling them the next step in the project. Not until many students get to college do they th: I think that ' The Bishop family, Meghan, Laura, Craig, Natalie and The girls are homeschooled at the couple’s Yellow Hill pick-your-own raspberry and blackberry business. probably the biggest advantage to homeschoolers in high school. “Their mom is there, but she’s not saying you must do this next chapter. Meghan knows she must get through this math book in the course of the school year and if she dawdles on math because she’s spending time on history, or she’s doing a whole run of orchestra concerts-Meghan performs with three orchestras-and she does n’t get math, English, or history done, she’s going to sweat it like crazy. • “She learns to pace herself. I think that’s an advantage because that is the real world,” Natalie concludes. The girls have found a lot of fun and new experiences and learning in a recent sewing pro ject. They are members of the Biglerville Busy Beavers 4-H Club and last year, as seam stresses, completed dresses and undergarments from the 1860 s. Meghan said, “The dresses came about because we hated modeling for the 4-H Fashion Review.” When their mother sug gested it might be fun to have a big, graceful hoop skirt to sweep across the stage, the thought of modeling became more tolera ble. And, Laura adds, living in Gettysburg they knew they always enjoyed the Civil War era dresses. A store nearby to buy their dress patterns was also handy. Meghan said the girls did a lot of research looking in books and on the Internet so that the dresses would be authentic. She explained, “The well dressed lady wore eight layers and that was the minimum you had to wear or you were consid ered very immodest. First there was a chemise, then drawers, an underpetticoat-and if it was cold you might wear more than one under-petticoat.” At this point, she interjects with a laugh, that you leam very quickly to put your stockings and shoes on first or otherwise you won’t be able to get them on. She admits she learned this the hard way. Next come garments such as corsets, a hoop skirt, and an over-petticoat so that the bones of the hoop skirt don’t show through the dress. Meghan and Laura get into their apparel, which takes a bit of time, after they have noted that all such dresses always open down the front and are closed with hooks and eyes or buttons and button holes. Laura chuckles when she explains that she decided not to use hooks and eyes, “but then found that button holes weren’t that easy either.” Meghan continues that the Civil War-era woman always wore collars and under sleeves “because back then the first part of any garment to wear out was the cuffs and collars and they didn’t have much material. They had plenty of time, but no mate rial. What they did instead was made undersleeves (a separate piece from the dress) which would have cuffs on it and when the cuff wore out they just made another undersleeve. The collar would be basted in and when it wore out, you made a new collar or turned it around. Cassie is not to be left out of these sewing nroiects because Mother Natalia Bishop adds a finishing touch to daughter Laura’s bonnet Laura made an 1860’s dress with undergar ments and as a Junior 4-H’er was a rosette winner in the 4-H regional fashion revue. Cassie, gather for a picture. Farm, where they operate a she made, not only a Bacajawea costume that she wore when she participated in the county level 4-H Fashion Revue. She has also made a youngster’s dress from the 1860 s, which she wears with great pride. The three have worn their dresses and marched in several parades. Meghan advanced to 4-H State Days at Penn State with her dress, and Laura, who is a junior 4-H’er, was a rosette winner on the regional level with her dress. In addition to these activities, Laura plays cello in two orches* tras. She also writes and edits a monthly newspaper via Internet with a homeschool friend from the Pittsburgh area. She also enjoys suiting serial stories and has sorted her own mystery series books. Cassie was studying violin, but currently in looking for another teacher. She is a lover of animals-as a rescued sparrow in a box in the front room attests. She especially likes cats, bugs, nature, reading, and helping outside.
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