Preschool & Kindergarten Education at Home (Two one-hour workshops)
Understanding the developmental abilities of your young child is essential before planning a preschool/kindergarten curriculum. What should your child know by the age of six? Susan Chrisman, homeschool mom of five and grandmother of three, will show you the keys to early education, and how to set goals for and record what your young children need to know. You will learn the specifics of academic preparation for your young child.

A Home Educator’s Guide to Scheduling & Planning
Susan will break down the task of educating into step-by-step details that will get you started with a workable schedule. This practical session will help you with yearly, weekly and daily schedules and planning ideas, what to do with toddlers and preschoolers during school time, tips on lesson planning, and ideas on what to keep and where to put it.

What is Education?
Our view of education is usually limited to our own experience. Understanding what true education is will help you set your priorities, choose your curriculum, determine your schedule, visualize your overall educational picture and follow your daily plan. This workshop contains information to guide you as you lay a foundation for your many educational decisions, expanding your idea of what education is and how to achieve it.

Evaluation—How to Know What Your Child Really Knows
What are the best tools for evaluating what your child has learned? Are true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice tests really effective indicators of what your child knows? Join Susan, homeschool mother of five, to learn how to truly assess your child's proficiency.

When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
A workshop on burnout, Susan will show you how to watch for S-M-O-K-E in your life. As smoke is an indicator of fire, so are there indicators of potential burnout in the life of a homeschool mom. Hear Susan, a mom with twenty-five years homeschooling experience, share her heart along with the warning signs of burnout and how to avoid it.

Relating to Your Children as God Relates to You
God has revealed through His word, through His example as our Father, how to relate to your children. Learn practical ways to develop those vital relationships, guiding your children into a relationship with God through discipline, academics, character formation, and family life. Learn the difference between schooling them with facts and information, and mentoring them for life, leaving a legacy for your family.

The Will: Bend It? Break It? Develop It? What's a Parent to Do?
Do you have a toddler who throws himself on the floor, crying unconsolably for something he should not have, or a defiant child demanding his way, or a young person who is merely outwardly compliant? We parents need to understand the will, its function and its power in order to guide our children toward building a strong inner person. This workshop offers a realistic and practical look at the will and how it should be developed in our children.

Scheduling: A Routine or Regime?
Whether you have preschoolers, toddlers and infants, or elementary, middle school and high school-age children, or any combination of them all, a schedule helps mom and students know what is expected. But a schedule does not have to become a regime. Learn the importance of healthy routines and how to benefit from having them. 

 

Charlotte Mason Workshops

 

Building on a Strong Foundation with Charlotte Mason
Join Susan Chrisman for an overview of the foundational tenants of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education. This workshop provides practical help for those wanting to guide their children to a lifelong love of learning. Learn why Miss Mason’s ideas and methods are relevant and useful today.

Art & Music: Icing on the Cake or Essential Food for the Soul and Brain?
Is it important to introduce our children to the best that man has to offer in music and art? In addition to literature and history, art and music reveal to us the thoughts of great minds. This study not only enhances an appreciation for art and music in our children, but also guides them to understand beauty and to recognize it. Join Susan in a practical demonstration of how to incorporate the works of great musicians/composers and great artists into your weekly schedule. (A Charlotte Mason workshop)

Thinking Toward High School with Charlotte Mason
Come explore the philosophy and methods of Charlotte Mason as they relate to our high school-age students. Susan Chrisman, homeschool mom of twenty-five years, will discuss key elements in the philosophy and how those ideas practically took shape in the education of her high school students. Learn how to help guide your children to develop a life-long love for learning.

Living Books for a Living Education
What are living books? Where does one find them? How are living books used in the study of history, literature, science or mathematics? Why are living books important? Susan will answer these questions and assist you in bringing life into your homeschool by including living books for children of all ages. She will share the wisdom of Charlotte Mason concerning what our children should read.

Habit Training: Key to Maintaining your Sanity
All parents train their children in habits—good ones and bad ones—whether purposefully or not. The habits we teach our children will ultimately help in the formation of their character. Join Susan Chrisman in a study of Charlotte Mason’s teaching on habits; a practical workshop on how to teach habits to your children which will make for easier days at home and bring character formation into focus.

A Practical Guide to Habit Development
This workshop will give parents hands-on opportunity in developing a plan for training their children in the habits of obedience, attention, and other vital habits as time allows.  The hows and whys of habit training will also be discussed.

Curiosity, Exploration, Wonder = Nature Study
Discover how the child who studies God’s creation out of doors is given an advantage academically, spiritually, and intellectually. Learn about nature study from the perspective of Charlotte Mason who said, “We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things…” Susan Chrisman, home educating mom of five, presents a practical, thorough look at nature study.

History for All Ages the Charlotte Mason Way
Learn what should be included in the study of history—how it is much more than memorizing facts, dates and events. Discover how to plan history studies for multiple ages. Gain an understanding of what is important for your child to know as a result of studying history. Susan will help equip you to teach the pivot of a Charlotte Mason education.

Planning Ahead
Learn how to see the big picture in your child's education and then break that overview down into workable sections. With the information in this workshop, you will be able to make a plan that will give you confidence and make your days a little easier. Bring your planner or purchase a Practical Planner for Home Education at the seminar.

 

Workshops for Women’s Retreats

 

Prayer Life in the Real World
Scripture tells us to pray. In the life of a homeschool mom, who has so many responsibilities, what is a Biblical, but realistic prayer life to look like? Susan Chrisman will share from scripture and from her journey as a twenty-five year veteran home educator the liberty and power God offers to those who pray. There is no condemnation in this workshop, only truth to encourage and empower.

That I May Know Him
The knowledge of God is more essential for the Christian than any other knowledge. We will love Him and trust Him only in proportion as we know Him. Deepen your knowledge of God by studying with Susan what He has revealed to us about Himself through His names.

In the Tower of His Name
Proverbs 18:10 states, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe." Learn more about God and how He reveals Himself to us through His names. In the real world, how does His name become a tower, how do we get into this tower, and what happens when we are there? Come learn why Jesus prayed in John 17, "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name…"