Homeschooling Workshops
Is there life after homeschooling? I want to keep homeschooling forever! I love it!
My homeschooling journey has taken many twists and turns, but God knew exactly what He was doing when He called our family to homeschool. It has been a lifestyle of learning and growing together. We are so close to one another. I really can’t imagine life any other way.
Reading aloud, living books, unit studies, music, and mentoring with a splash of classical education has been our homeschool philosophy/methodology. We have studied Latin and Logic, but mostly we have immersed ourselves in good books and built strong relationships with the Lord and people.
Lives are changed in the context of relationships! So, our relationship with Jesus has been at the center of our homeschooling. I have sought to teach everything from a Christian worldview and apply the Bible to every area of life.
I have seen homeschooling as a birth to graduation kind of thing, trying to keep my eyes on the big picture, majoring on the majors, and minoring on the minors. Long ago, I wrote down my long-term goals and keep them posted near my desk. Each year, I have educational and spiritual goals for each child. I pray over these goals and work hard to see them fulfilled.
I do not believe in wasting time or sleeping the day away. Hard work honors Christ and idle hands are the devil’s workshop. My children work hard and sometimes they complain. Complaining doesn’t move me. We are set on a course, determined by the Lord and we will do our best to homeschool for the glory of God!
Learn Geography in the Kitchen
Meredith Curtis introduces you to global cuisine that your children can cook, bake, and eat. Learning is more fun in the kitchen and that’s true of geography, too. You can travel from continent to continent learning about popular foods and places to visit. A springboard to a unit study or delight-directed rabbit trail is always a possibility!
Homeschool the Fun Way with Living Books
In Homeschool the Fun Way with Living Books, Meredith shares her love of classic literature and living books. She will inspire you to share the joy of learning by exploring delightful books to your children. This session includes myriads of book suggestions for learning science, history, music, geography, architecture, and more! The greatest investment in your children’s education aside from providing living books is to instill a love of reading and Meredith will also give tips on cultivating that passion.
Teach History the Fun Way
Hands-on-Fun makes history exciting! Is history an adventure in your house or just rote memorization of dates and events? Let your family discover people, places, events, clothing, music, art, culture, and food from other times and places. As your family sees God’s providential hand in HIS Story, there will be an excitement and curiosity about history. Learn to use maps, timelines, crafts, historical fiction, movies, drama, and recipes in a fun, engaging way that delights your children and instills a love of history in their hearts.
Discover Geography Right Around the Corner
Meredith Curtis takes a walk with you through her neighborhood discovering landforms, flora (plants), fauna (animals), weather, and climate. Then she shares ways for you to find all these things in your town, as well as how to explore through mapping. Introduce geography and geographical terms in a natural way that will engage your kids and lay a foundation for future study.
How to Raise Children Who Love to Read
In our high-tech culture, is it possible to cultivate a love of reading in our children? Some kids just love to read. Other children need a little nudge. A genuine love of reading can’t be pushed, it must be gently cultivated. Discover ways to introduce your children to books, provide reading material, and dive into the world of reading together in a way that is fun and pressure-free.
Homeschool Socialization Hacks
Meredith shares how teaching her children at home has included other families. From involvement in homeschool support groups, lessons, sports, and co-ops to History Days and ministry, there have always been other homeschooling families involved in our lives. Meredith gives practical tips and fun ways to spend time with other families and learn at the same time.
When Personalities Collide
Would you like to motivate your children more effectively? Would you like to get rid of conflict in your home school? Would you like to understand why your children sometimes misunderstand you? More than learning styles, personalities tend to influence how students want to learn as they get older. Mom and Dad’s personalities affect their teaching styles Sometimes personalities collide, resulting in conflict, learning problems, and getting off track. Meredith will share ways to homeschool with your children’s and your own personalities in view. Be careful–she just might be talking about you!
Raising Our Daughters to be Beautiful
Every woman longs to be beautiful. Our daughters are getting the wrong message from the world on what beauty is, but God’s Word, as always, has the answer. Define loveliness for yourself and your daughters according to the Bible. Be beautiful inside and outside with these principles, tips, and beauty secrets. From hair care to modesty and from character to make-up tips, this workshop is fun for all ages.
Families Learning Together
What could be more fun than learning together as a family? Meredith creates unit studies for her children from the young years to the high school years. She also loves Christmas unit studies! In this workshop, she demonstrates the simple method she uses to put together unit studies for her family on a variety of subjects using living books as the foundation. Learn to add poetry, games, music, art, crafts, drama, research, baking, cooking, maps, timelines, experiments, and more hands-on-fun to turn learning into an exciting adventure.
How to Teach Your Child Just About Anything
How can I teach my own children? You can be an effective teacher by teaching to your children’s heads, hearts, and hands, so that they can remember and apply what they learn. Discover ways to make conversations educational and make the most of teachable moments. This workshop will also give you an easy tip to teach children things that you know little about yourself.
You Can Create Your Own Unit Study!
Would you like to create your own Unit Study for your family home school? It’s easier than you think! Meredith will show you how to create your own unit study step-by-step. You will learn to choose living books, crafts, hands-on fun, games, activities, writing assignments, and even movies to make learning an adventure. Unit studies make learning fun and they provide a great framework for all ages to learn together. Soon, you’ll be learning with the unit studies you’ve created yourself.
Flexible Scheduling Can Work for You
Meredith can help you if you feel overwhelmed by trying to get it all done. Is there a way to schedule that is flexible enough to deal with the interruptions every day brings? Can a free spirit live a scheduled life? Yes! If it’s flexible. Flexible scheduling brings order to the chaos while still leaving room to be spontaneous and fun!
Engaging Books From Birth to College
What is the best in reading materials (literature and great works) from birth to college? How can you instill a love of reading from the early years that keeps growing until they start college. Learn how reading is foundational, fascinating, and fun for the whole family. Receive tips for building a home library.
Include Creation in Your Home School
The Truth is our starting point. Truth includes the basics of the Christian faith, especially that God created the heavens and the earth. While Truth is undermined wherever we turn, we can educate our children with Genesis and the rest of Scripture as a foundation in in every area of your home school, especially science and history. History has a beginning and will have an end. God created the world in six days. He placed laws into existence that we can discover.
The Joy of Timeless Delightful Literature
Everybody loves a story. Your children will love stories. Timeless literature provides a painless education that cannot be duplicated with other methods. Introduce living books to your children in their homeschool classes or unit studies, while fostering a taste for excellence in literature. What makes a book a “classic”? We also take a look at the roots of Western Civilization: Judeo-Christian, Greek, & Roman. Learn to spot various worldviews in the books you read to make wise reading material choices.
How to Mentor Your Child
More is caught, than taught. Look at homeschooling in a new light, as an opportunity to imitate Jesus, who traveled with his disciples 24/ 7 for three years, teaching and training them. Apply Jesus’ style of mentoring to your own home and imitate Him in practical ways. This is not a program, but a lifestyle of modeling, loving, teaching, and training. Then we can raise our children to love Jesus and walk with Him all the days of their lives.
7 R's of Homeschooling
Are you worried that your children are learning what they need? How can you give your children the tools of learning so they can experience joy and success in all their educational pursuits? Meredith will show you how to “major on the majors” and “minor on the minors” in your homeschooling. Focus on the Seven R’s: Relationships, Reading, (w)Riting, (a)Rithmetic, Research, Rhetoric, and Right Living. This will lay a foundation in your children’s lives for all kinds of learning and growing so that they can walk in the path the Lord has chosen for them in the future.
The Joyful Homeschool Adventure
See your homeschooling in a new light: as a journey from your family’s starting place to graduation. Pack your bags for the adventure of a lifetime! Leave your final destination in the Lord’s hands, walking in faith as a family, enjoying a lifestyle of learning. Learn ways to grow as an educator, parent, mentor, and child of God.
Homeschool with Other Families
Our families have been friends for over fifteen years! Our children have practically grown up together. Beyond homeschooling together in co-ops, field trips, and nursing home adventures, we have enjoyed a deep friendship and encouraged each other in the Lord. Come hear about our funny adventures, successes, and mistakes, so that you can wisely homeschool with other families.
Create A Nurturing Environment
Women were created to bring forth and sustain life. Walk in your God-given anointing and create a nurturing environment in your home. Fill your house with excellent books, art works, music, instruments, art media, tools, and all kinds of things that can stir up curiousity. Meredith shares ways to create an atmosphere of love, acceptance, and curiosity to foster a lifestyle of learning.
How to Choose Curriculum
So many choices! Where should you begin? Learn how to investigate curriculum to see if it will work for your family and what to do with curriculum that is less than ideal once you have purchased it. Meredith shares simple principles that work every time you need to make curriculum choices.
Use Living Books to Instill Godly Character
Living books have impacted us, helping us to grow in wisdom and holy living. We pass those books on to our children. Novels, classics, inspirational books, and the Holy Bible are perfect tools to instill godly character in the lives of our children. Learn practical ways to use living books to transform lives and prepare children for the future when they have homes of their own.
Solar-Powered Homeschooling
Meredith is solar-powered. If the day is sunny, she is full of energy. A cloudy day brings lethargy. In a different way, her homeschooling is Solar-powered too. Jesus provides grace, energy, and principles that sustain the Curtis family homeschooling adventure. Learn to receive strength and vision from Jesus so that you can enjoy Solar-powered homeschooling too.
Teach Children & Teens about Sex
Most parents don’t like to talk about sex with their kids. The result? Most of what children learn about sex is from popular culture and peers. Do you feel underqualified or overwhelmed when you talk to your children or teens about this topic? Here is practical advice that goes beyond “the talk” to a lifestyle of open communication about physiology, sexual desires, and purity. Learn how to set the tone for honest conversation that balances clinical candor with reverent modesty. Meredith will also talk about how to protect children from sexual predators and what to do if something heartbreaking happens to your children.
Gear Up for a Great Year!
It’s time for a brand new school year! How can you make this the best one every? Meredith will share ways to evaluate the past year, make sensible priorities for the coming year, choose your destination, map your route, choose curriculum, make lesson plans, schedule, and get your home ready. Get ready for a great year on the next leg of your homeschool adventure.
Teach Writing Effectively
Cultivate gifted writers or give remedial help to a struggling writer. This workshop will include practical ideas and tips for teaching all levels of written communication from crafting sentences to writing essays and research papers.
The Secret to Joy in Homeschooling
Why do we struggle as homeschooling moms with frustration, anger, and discontentment? Can we homeschool through trials and difficulties? How do we find joy in our homeschooling journey when the path gets bumpy or boring? Meredith shares life-changing principles that will help you see life’s challenges from a different perspective and impart hope for the future!
Lessons from the Sound of Music
Mom and I watched The Sound of Music together for the first time when I was 6 years old. We sat enthralled by the scenery and the story. Homeschooling lessons abound in this movie. Learn to fill your house with the sound of music, make play clothes out of curtains, climb every mountain, and more.
Make Lesson Plans for the Whole Year in One Week
Plan your school year before it starts by making lesson plans for the coming year. Meredith shares a simple method to lay out lessons plans for the whole year, schedule in catch-up time, and leave room for unexpected learning adventures. And get it all done in one week!
Enjoy & Create Music in Your Homeschool
Music adds joy to life and homeschooling. How can you teach music in your home school? Meredith will share practical ways to teach your children to appreciate, understand, listen to, and create music. You do not have to have musical experience to teach music. From learning to sing and play instruments to recognizing elements of musical works, you will even discover ways to cultivate musically gifted children when you are not musically inclined.
Learn from Past Mistakes & Fail Forward
They are part of life, unwelcome maybe, but we all make mistakes. Instead of covering them up and pretending they never happened, let them be learning experiences. Others can learn from your mistakes too, especially your children. Meredith will show you how to make the best out of all those things you wish had never happened! In our homeschooling journey, we are always moving forward. Before we forget what’s behind, let’s learn and move forward in our lives wiser and full of hope for the future.
Write a Murder Mystery Together
Meredith taught a class that left her students wanting more, Who Dun It: Murder Mystery Literature and Writing Class is the high school course this talk is based upon. Join Meredith as she shares how to get your teens (and children!) excited about solving mysteries and creative writing! You and your children can read classic murder mysteries and write your own murder mystery!
Picture Book Read Alouds for All Ages
Starting with babies and all the way to high school, Meredith shows you what books are best for reading aloud in your home school. You will enjoy learning about classic storybooks and fresh new works. But, are there really picture books for high school? Everyone loves a well-written, beautifully illustrated picture book.
Exceptional Children with Godly Character
Building godly character in gifted children can sometimes be a challenge. Meredith will share ways to inspire your exceptional children to live wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ. She will also help you walk children through some common trouble areas such as pride, insecurity, boredom, and laziness. Join Meredith for encouragement and practical advice.
Travel to Learn US Geography
Pack your suitcases and grab your gear—it’s time for you and your kiddos to travel the USA in search of adventure, good food, natural wonders, landmarks, and stories worth repeating. This is the Curtis clan’s favorite way to learn U.S. geography as they explore parks, museums, historic sites, and more. With road mapping, research, music, cooking, and baking thrown in, you can see the whole country right from your family room! Learn ways to bring U.S. geography alive in your homeschool, too.
Reimagine Living Books from Preschool to High School
Take your children on a glorious adventure from preschool to high school graduation with timeless classics, exciting literature, and picture books for all ages. Reading increases our attention span, cultivates our imagination, and is the #1 tool of learning. Let Meredith help you to understand the process from prereading to literary analysis the easy way so you can guide your children smoothly through the years and help struggling readers enjoy books. Give your kids stories and great works that will increase their self-confidence just as specific books impacted our Founding Fathers, Charles Spurgeon, Elisabeth Eliot, Ronald Reagan, and Elon Musk. Meredith also gives tips on how to build a living book and audio book library in your home and on your tablet.
The Super-Power of Good Manners
We call them soft skills today, but it all goes back to old-fashioned manners based on Scripture. Kindness never goes out of style. Your children can learn at a young age to think of others first. Meredith Curtis shares how to teach children to greet, interrupt tactfully, disagree respectfully, use table manners, and show honor to the elderly. When your children are polite, they make others feel safe and cared for. This is the foundation for social skills at home, church, and in the business world that lead to success.
Continuing Education for Homeschool Moms
Just as our children enjoy a lifestyle of learning, wise homeschool moms keep growing in wisdom through books, articles, conferences, and relationships with other homeschool moms. This is self-care at its finest and helps us to be the best homeschool mom/leaders we can be. Meredith Curtis shares how she learned early on to set aside and guard time each month for her continuing education and how beautifully it impacted her children and cultivated the leader inside of each one.
Words of Life Grow Confident Leaders
Words of life instill confidence, courage, and camaraderie in your home school. Transform your speech and learn to encourage, affirm, and challenge your children to step out in faith as confident leaders. Meredith shares tips on how to correct with kindness so that children are built up and not torn down. Unleash the leader inside your child by speaking life-giving truth!
Teach History the Fun Way with Time Travel
Rescue your children from dry facts and boring lessons because our future leaders deserve to know what’s happened in the past so they can shape the future. Let history come alive with timelines, mapping, and reading aloud/discussions. Travel back in time with historical fiction, games, movies, TV shows, drama, art, music, and food! Rescue yourself and your kids from boredom! Explore the long ago and far away in a brand-new way and build relationships at the same time. Meredith’s philosophy is quick, easy, age-integrated, and fun! She will share examples from her decades of homeschooling 5 children and teaching history in homeschool co-ops to all ages together.
Your Children Can Be Super-Hero Leaders
Christian Super-Heroes and History Heroes were avid readers of God’s Word and living books. Picking up some of these classics and trying to read them can make the average adult’s brain explode. How can we introduce our children to classic literature and cultivate a lifelong love of reading? You don’t have to be Wonder Woman to raise a book lover. Meredith will show you how to create an inviting atmosphere to read, build a home library, and find the perfect books for each child. Learn practical ways to limit the kryptonite of screens and other distractions. Reading is a lifelong leadership skill for everyone. Don’t let your child miss out!
Wisdom for Screen Time
Meredith honestly shares how the power of the internet took her by surprise as a parent and as it became more emeshed in our daily lives, she needed wisdom! Meredith talks honestly about the damage she has seen from attention span issues to pornography addictions. She has sound insight that must be transmitted to our children so they can participate in making wise choices and become responsible in their screen time usage as adults.
Books Boys Love
Meredith Curtis, mother of a son who loves to read now, but didn’t always in those early years, had to search out books for her son to read. She found a treasure trove in authors like Howard Pyle, Paul Hutchens, RM Ballantyne, GA Henty, Sir Walter Scott, and Scott O’Dell. Meredith will share 21 authors that boys will enjoy reading throughout the homeschool years.
Books Girls Love
Meredith Curtis, mother of four girls, shares their family’s favorite authors, including beloved authors enjoyed for four generations. She talks about the books they wrote and why girls love them. We’ve all heard of Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, and Lucy Maud Montgomery. However, have you heard of Milly Howard, Lois Lenski, Elizabeth Yates, Patricia St. John, Kate Seredy, and Martha Finley? Find out why these books have delighted girls of all ages for decades.
61 Ways to Teach It!
Meredith gives homeschooling parents 61 teaching methods that work! Get out of a teaching rut and try out some new methods. From tried-and-true to out-of-the box, these 61 ways to teach your children will bring life to your homeschool adventure. Try a new teaching method this week.
Build Virtuous Patterns & Habits Thru Homeschooling
Meredith Curtis gives some practical reality to what Charlotte Mason calls “Patterns & Habits” by zeroing in on 8 character traits (humility, obedience, honor, industriousness, diligence, faithfulness, greeting, service). She gives practical tips and wisdom so that you can use habits and patterns to build these virtues into your children’s hearts and lives. How do you build habits that turn into patterns of living anyhow? Don’t worry! Meredith will show you how!
6 Ingredients of a Great Curriculum
Meredith can help if you feel overwhelmed by curriculum choices. There is so much out there! Meredith shares how she chooses curriculum for her family by using a simple checklist of 6 things. She gives practical wisdom on what to look for in homeschool resources including worldview, flexibility, content, usability, cost value, and the fun factor.
7 Ways to Make Jesus Lord of Your Home School
Meredith inspires you to make Jesus Christ the center of your homeschooling. Here are tried and true ways to homeschool to the glory of God and teach your children about Jesus in a way that is life changing. Don’t just tell your children about the Plan of Salvation, introduce them to the One Who Saves! It’s easier than you think!
7 Reasons I Teach Newspaper Reporting in Middle School
Meredith Curtis shares how she hones in our children’s writing before they start high school by teaching them to write like reporters. Not only do they learn to write clearly and concisely, they have fun putting together a newspaper and write with a purpose—for others to read their writing. Not only that, newspapers played a huge part in the history of the United States, so studying newspaper writing, though the newspaper industry is fading away, helps children understand our past with clarity by putting on their reporter and editor hats. Getting children ready for essays, research papers, and literary analysis doesn’t have to be boring. Writing like a reporter is super-fun and so is creating your own newspaper. Be inspired to enjoy middle school English while investing in your children’s long-term growth as writers.
Book Clubs Instead of Book Reports
Meredith Curtis weighs in on the question: should we write book reports or have a book club? She shares why book reports affect the way you read a book and how it is possible for them to suck the life out of reading. However, she gives tips for making them more interesting to write and read. Meredith explains how book clubs can revolutionize literature in your home school and treat the entire family to an hour of fun, food, and great learning. She also gives practical advice to help you get started and questions you can start with to get the ball rolling.
