Education Begins at Birth
At what age should parents begin homeschooling?
This talk will challenge parents to think more broadly: “You might think that your child’s education begins in the first grade, but it actually begins at birth. When you teach them to hold a spoon, then you’re homeschooling. When you teach a child to sleep through the night, you’re teaching him good life habits. You’re homeschooling.”
Enter the Secrets of Childhood
Why does every baby put things in their mouth? Why does every teenager argue and oversleep? Why can’t they sit still? If every child does it, there must be a reason.
What if the child’s skull were transparent and we could see the mechanics of learning and development? Would our teaching approach change if we started with this question: “how is the brain designed to learn?” Before we talk about who we want our children to become, or what they should know, let’s take some time to examine exactly who they ARE. The child is best served and education is most successful when in cooperation with God’s natural design of the child.
Scientist turned educator Maria Montessori, developed her educational method by starting with scientific observations and working backward based on the natural needs of every child. Understanding her discoveries of the four plans of childhood development has been the single most important thing I’ve learned as a homeschooling mother.
Geared toward parents with children of all ages, this talk will present the science and psychology of childhood development in a delightful and easy-to-understand presentation full of humor, anecdotes, and practical advice on how to adapt your teaching to your child’s needs. Parents will come away with a deeper appreciation for the wonderful mysteries of childhood that will forever transform their homeschool.
You are your Child's Textbook
What if I told you there was a curriculum guaranteed to shape your child’s entire life for good or for bad depending on how you use it?
What if I told you that this curriculum could determine your child’s capacity for human happiness, fulfillment, and contribution to the world?
What if I told you this curriculum was so powerful, it would become the lens through which your child would come to understand everything about his life and the world?
What if I told you this curriculum is YOU?
YOU are your child’s education
But how can we give life if we feel lifeless?
In this talk, we will explore practical ways to form ourselves to be the adults who will inpier our children to live out their callings. If we form the parent, we can form the child.
CREATING A HOMESCHOOL DREAMBOARD
Imagine the home education of your dreams. What does it look like: Does it look like a family learning in harmony with each other? Does it look like well-ordered schedules or flexibility with lots of field trips and exploration? I bet frustration and anxiety and confusion are not on your dream board.
Dreams bring clarity. The opposite of that is anxiety. If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish in your homeschool, then you don’t have a map. You are just out there wandering around, prone to buy every new beautiful curriculum and chore chart that crosses your path. You may waste thousands of dollars, years of time, and far too much energy being frustrated. But if you know what you want in your heart of hearts for your children, you will have focus, direction, and ultimately peace. Once you know what you want, you can create a map, and learn the skills to make it a reality.
It is common for families to create a vision board to achieve their dream of buying a home or taking a dream vacation. But have you ever taken the time to imagine the world you wish to create for your children?
In this workshop session, I am going to give parents a worksheet and teach them to design a custom homeschool that will meet their unique needs and family culture.
ARE WE UN-EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN?
Protect your children from losing their love for learning
NASA developed a very sophisticated test to measure the creative potential of NASA’s rocket scientists and engineers. The test evaluated the ability to come up with new, different and innovative ideas to problems -- important skills for NASA scientists. But then someone had the idea of administering this test to 1,600 children ages 4 and 5. 98 percent of those toddlers fell in the genius category of imagination. They tested the same children five years later (the children were now 10) and found that only 30 percent of them remain in that genius category. By the time they were 15 only 12 percent. And adults? Only 2 percent of adults remain creative geniuses.
https://ideapod.com/born-creative-geniuses-education-system-dumbs-us-according-nasa-scientists/
Does it seem like we are educating the life force out of our children?
With all that creative energy, what are children naturally trying to accomplish? They are all trying to learn something. Look carefully at what they are trying to teach themselves and how are they going about it?
This talk will encourage parents to look beyond the grades to harness their child’s joy, enthusiasm, creativity, and natural genius. There are nine forms of intelligence. Only two are tested in schools. The result of neglecting the other forms of intelligence is stunted development and widespread depression. We can set our children free from the restraints of grades to let them truly learn.
TEACHING CHILDREN WHO STRUGGLE
I was that child! I used to hide my school books. My poor, exasperated mother! School time was tantrum time — filled with endless homework battles. Sound familiar?
Children with learning challenges suffer from unnecessary stress, frustration, and failing grades. Let me be the voice of your struggling child for the next few minutes.
I grew up with a learning disability that prevented me from being able to read until I was in high school and severely disrupted my daily life well into adulthood. Once I found the right therapist and was able to correct the issue, my whole life changed in more ways than I could have ever imagined. Now, being able to understand what a struggling child is experiencing, I have learned the secrets to thriving with a child who struggles in school.
In this talk, I will offer sympathy and practical advice for ending the homework battles, healing your relationship with your struggling child, and equipping them to excel in learning. It all starts by trying to see the world from the child’s perspective.
