Homeschooling Teacher Development Class THIS January

REGISTER NOW FOR YOUR JANUARY TDC!
Lodestar/EFL is now offering HOMESCHOOL TEACHER DEVELOPMENT CLASSES.(TDCs)

TDCs are designed for:
ALL homeschooling Parents
ALL levels of experience
Small interactive groups with your needs in mind
  Encouragement and equipping you as a teacher for your children
Focused time with Cheryl and the Lodestar team to help train, support, equip, and encourage you as a homeschooling teacher.

VERY practical and applicable to your homeschooling life.

What will we do at a TDC?

At a TDC, we will discuss, demonstrate, and provide practical advice on a variety of topics of importance to you as a homeschooling teacher
At a TDC, you will have the opportunity to hear teaching strategies, ideas, and methods on subjects and areas of interest to you.
At a TDC, there will be time to explore issues generally and specifically about handling your homeschooling as a teacher and mom.

How often are TDCs offered? 
At the present, TDCs are only offered twice a year – at the beginning of the Spring and Fall semesters.

How will you know what topics are most important to ME for a TDC?
Registrants can go online and set the actual agenda by “voting” and telling us exactly which topics you want to talk about and prioritizing them. We will organize the TDC according to what you say.(Sample topics at the bottom of this page.)

What size are TDCs?  

TDCs are intentionally small. Our limit is 12 attendees each. As circumstances allow, our desire is to arrange TDCs for families with increasingly similar focuses  and

interests.
When can I register for my own TDC?
  Now!  Go straight to our registration site.   Learn more. Reserve your place!

Remember -  registration will be limited.  No more than 12 attendees in any TDC.  And so spots are  on a first come basis.

Questions? Let us know.

A few sample topics for TDCs:

(These are just a few ideas – remember you get to help set the agenda for your TDC!)

How to teach beginning reading
How to get away from worksheets
How to balance older and younger children at the same time
Help setting up a realistic schedule
How to focus on relationships and cover information too
How to make Jesus the focus and center of all we do
How do we include Dad in the homeschooling process
How to develop a love of learning
What are clues that they are ready to read, write, study math…
How can I have accountability
Discussing grading, scheduling, curriculum
How do I deal with distractions that slow us down
How to make science more engaging and interesting
How do we increase academics and keep interest through jr and sr high
Where do I get ideas to reinforce learning through good reading
Activities for spiritual development and learning
How do we “get it all done”?
How do we teach geography/history
How do I learn their learning style
How do we get it all in in High school
How do you teach language arts – grammar, writing, spelling, vocabulary…
What math curriculum should I use
How do you teach besides “read the chapter and answer the questions”?
How can we blend all that we study together
How do you balance studies and great opportunities outside of studies
How do you teach respect
How do you teach writing
Would you please tell me it’s ok NOT to get it ALL done ALL perfectly ALL the time!
How do we get them to take ownership their own education
How do I teach boys differently from girls
How do you answer criticism from friends and family
What should we really be doing with our little ones under 6
What about “struggling learners”
Preparation for college
How do we develop character and work ethic
How do I have something “leftover” for my husband at night
With all that is on me, how do I reduce my stress level
How to use games and fun as education

The TDCs are coming!

Yes we will have them!

Due to the great response, we are going to begin offering TDCs!

What is a TDC?

TDC’s are our latest project at Lodestar – offering interactive classes for you as a homeschooling teacher.  Teacher Development Classes.

      TDCs are not specifically about philosophy or deciding whether to homeschool.  (Although we will be discussing and applying your personal teaching and parenting philosophies during the class.)

TDC’s are practical help for real life issues in both education and daily routine.

TDCs are for both newbies AND for those with lots of homeschooling experience.

We will utilize our expertise, knowledge, research, and decades of experience to help address your specific concerns and questions.

Your TDC will be 3 VERY FULL hours – working on your schedules, questions and answers, focusing on your issues, organizing, discussing lesson plans, suggesting materials, teaching strategies,… whatever areas the parents who come need to develop.

In fact, the parents enrolled will “vote” on what topics they want to focus on in their TDC!  And so you will help set the agenda for your class.

3 hours of VERY PRACTICAL work using our focused time, expertise, thought, input, help, and encouragement.

Our first TDC is tentatively scheduled for Saturday January 14 (in Edmond) and will be intentionally limited in size to maximize the impact and personal help for you.

There will be an enrollment fee but one appropriate to this small group of focused work time not a private consultation or large group teaching.

Enrollment will be very limited in each TDC.  Be sure to sign up early to reserve your spot.

Watch for our sign up announcement!

                                            TDC’s here are for you!

Our Sons’ Bibs

A new word has developed to describe a phenomenon in our society.

It affects us generally as a culture and also specifically as families.  It will certainly have greater impact as we have children who are out of their childhood.

Adultlescents.

I think John Piper addresses this issue from many different aspects with a response for the church.

However, I think it might help equip us with tools and goals in our intentional relationship with our children if we generally replaced the word “church” with “our family” or “our family will have a church which…”

I have begun rethinking some of my ideas and views through the challenges that Dr. Piper presents here. Aspects I hadn’t thought of.   It’s tough.  Not like life was in the ’40′s and previous generations.

For example, extended education for my sons by necessity does delay their full entrance into society as fully operating adults.  Marriage is a huge key to that maturity.  So what is the balanced philosophy of getting married during schooling rather than waiting until a man is ready to provide for his family?  I don’t know. But I am thinking it through and will be discussing this article and its implications and ideas with my son at home.

Even if your children aren’t Adultlescents, they are submerged in a culture full of them as you are. And you will know many people who are struggling with this issue. Adutlescents is becoming the standard not the exception.  Where am I fostering this in my children’s lives?

What kind of Bib will  your son wear?

This

or  this

You may help make that difference!

We need to operate in Grace but with Wisdom as well.  Go read the rest of the blog http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/a-church-based-hope-for-adultolescents

Resting in Grace,
Cheryl

A Church-Based Hope for ‘Adultolescents’
John Piper

Christian Smith, professor of sociology at Notre Dame, wrote in the most recent Books and Culture a review of six books that deal with the new phenomenon of “adultolescence”—that is, the postponement of adulthood into the thirties. I want to relate this phenomenon to the church. But first here is a summary from Smith’s article of what it is and how it came about.
What is Adultolescence?

Smith writes,

“Teenager” and “adolescence” as representing a distinct stage of life were very much 20th-century inventions, brought into being by changes in mass education, child labor laws, urbanization and suburbanization, mass consumerism, and the media. Similarly, a new, distinct, and important stage in life, situated between the teenage years and full-fledged adulthood, has emerged in our culture in recent decades—reshaping the meaning of self, youth, relationships, and life commitments as well as a variety of behaviors and dispositions among the young.

What has emerged from this new situation has been variously labeled “extended adolescence,” “youthhood,” “adultolescence,” “young adulthood,” the “twenty-somethings,” and “emerging adulthood.”

Go read the rest of the article.  It should give you plenty to think about.