With more than 15 years of experience as a homeschooler and classroom teacher, Kyndra Steinmann, brings humor and practical tips to the many situations faced by parent educators. Workshops range from 30-60 minutes and can be adapted to large audiences or small groups desiring a question and answer format. Please contact kfsteinmann at gmail dot com for calendar and fees.
Topics:
Foundations: The Child- The Image of God
Before we begin any task it is important to understand and articulate the vision that inspires us. This is certainly true of homeschooling, where we are working with the hearts, minds, and souls of our children. So how do we understand their existence as image bearers of God and educate and respect the whole child? What if the image is marred by a learning disability? Considering our own, unique, children in the light of a redeemed world changes everything.
Creating a Learning Environment
When students struggle with attention, processing, or executive function we must provide an environment that invites them to learn without overwhelming or distracting. Learn how to apply principles from Charlotte Mason, Maria Montessori, and others to create an environment that inspires creativity and curiosity while providing the reinforcement and practice that leads to retention.
Brain Breaks: The Body as Ally or Enemy
When the fidgets come calling what can you do? Often they are a sign that the brain is tired and needs a break; but breaks can get a child completely off focus and create their own problems. Learn to read the signs of a need for change and teach your child to recognize her body’s signals and use it focus her mind and smooth transitions.
Teaching Attention and Timeliness
In a homeschool environment it is easy to allow our children’s struggles to soften standards of attention and timeliness. What is our duty as we fit them to be independent adults? How do we walk the line between grace for their struggles and strengthening areas of weakness? Here are practical tips for teaching the habits of attention and timeliness as well as encouragement to stay at a task that can often seem futile!
Relationships Between Neuro-typical and Non Neurotypical Siblings
Where does grace end and accountability begin? Should neuro-typical siblings offer all the grace? Normal sibling relationships can be tricky enough but when executive function, global delays, or social handicaps are added to the mix, teaching children to love becomes much more complex. Here are practical tips as well as a vision for teaching understanding and the love that “bears all things.”
Hands- On Workshops
Bullet Journaling for the Homeschool Mom:
Are you trying to keep track of lesson plans, activities, and your own thoughts and plans, but you keep running out of space or losing your notes? Do you need a place to write down a great quote for later use? Do you want to be creative but have limited time? Bullet journaling combines planning with journaling to provide mothers (and fathers) with one place to keep their thoughts, plans, and dreams in an individualized and organized fashion. As a result, this hands-on workshop will teach you some of the principles and practices of bullet journaling while explaining how and why this method is uniquely suited to homeschooling.
Bullet Journaling With Children
Teaching children to be “keepers” of ideas, quotes, and their own schedule helps ensure that they will be learners for life. This hands-on workshop teaches some of the principles and ideas of bullet journaling while giving parents and children a practice of connecting with each other and the internalizing their experiences and ideas.
Notebook Keeping: The Spark That Unites
The practice of keeping notebooks for various subjects is highly practical and also allows the individual student to blossom as they interact with the lesson on their own terms. This method is especially well suited to families with a wide range of ages and abilities as it is done together but on individual levels. Workshop participants will be taught a short lesson and then walked through the steps of “keeping” so that they can experience what they will be modeling for their own children.