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One Day Workshops/Convention Workshops

Workshops are necessary forms of encouragement to homeschool parents/teachers as well as anyone else involved in the education and learning of children. People, especially those teaching others, can become burned out. Kathryn Stout can help you keep a fresh prespective on your teaching and your children's development—helping to keep you from burning out.

Interested in have Kathryn Stout speak to your group, organization, or school district? Find out how to make it a reality with One-Day Workshops; contact us.

Kathryn Stout offers a variety of workshops. Choose from any one of her past convention workshops (see descriptions below) or experience the one-on-one care that is offered through her one-day workshop "The Art of Teaching: Paint by number or Masterpiece?" As a high quality speaker Kathryn can deliver the perfect message suited for your group or organizations. With a background in special education and trouble shooting problem learners new topics are always being prepared for those who are willing to learn from the best: new workshops are being created that deal with specialized issues such as mental disabilities like autism, and other issues like early childhood development. For any questions about Workshop topics please email or call (1.800.965.2719)

Below find:
One-Day Workshop typical schedule
Summarization of "The Art of Teaching"
Descriptions of Past Convention Workshops


One-Day Workshop typical schedule

One-Day Workshop typical schedule (based on "The Art of Teaching")
9:00 – 9:30 a.m. Registration

9:30 – 10:15 a.m. How to Teach So Kids Will Love to Learn
Keep your kids excited about learning. Turn them into thinkers without exhausting yourself or your checking account.

10:15 – 11:00 a.m. Making History Interesting, Real, and Valuable
It’s important for children to learn the ideas, interrelationships, and values of the people in the past, not just names and dates. Accomplish this while having fun!

11:00 – 11:15 a.m. Break

11:15 – 12:15 p.m. Simple Techniques for Success in Science and Math
Teach to promote discovery, reasoning, understanding and retention of concepts and skills.

12:15 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch Break (Question & Answer Time/Shopping)

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Teaching English: Literature and Reading Comprehension
Teach your children to analyze, appreciate, and learn from literature while building skill in critical thinking.

2:00 – 2:10 p.m. Break

2:10 – 3:00 p.m. Teaching Composition, Spelling, and Grammar
Here are the keys for building clarity of thought as part of the writing process as well as strategies to build confidence and retention in spelling.

3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Organizational Ideas for Pulling It All Together
Spend less time planning and keeping records so you have more time to actually teach!

3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Ask Kathryn questions or look over the Design-A-Study books and tapes available at the workshop.

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Summarization of "The Art of Teaching"

"The Kathryn Stout [all-day seminar] is one of the very few workshops that I’ve ever attended that I could take home the ideas and immediately put them to use. Kathryn will teach you how to teach—anything. I highly recommend this workshop and the Kathryn Stout Design-A-Study curriculum, for both new and experienced homeschool parents!" Vicki Falco, Director, Champion Preparatory Academy

Find out how to keep kids excited about learning. Turn them into thinkers and independent learners without exhausting you or your checking account. Kathryn Stout, Christian educator, consultant, and author will share teaching strategies that promote a problem solving atmosphere, replace boredom or frustration with a love of learning, and overcome the "I can't, I won't" syndrome. Her insights will help you teach every age—toddler through teens—with greater success.

She will show you how to teach:
• to different learning styles, including children with disabilities
• to strengthen weak areas
• to enhance love of learning
• to develop problem solving and critical thinking skills
• using a variety of techniques, including unit studies, to teach multi-levels
• history so that people seem real
• composition so that growth is evident
• poor spellers to spell
• critical reading comprehension skills
• science that actually sticks
(what good is memorization when they don't understand the concepts?)
• math so that it makes sense
(get past the "I don't get it, just tell me what to do" stage)
AND
• She will share organizational ideas for pulling it all together.

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Descriptions of Past Convention Workshops

Classic Movies as Literature
Are your teens able to analyze literature? Can they articulate why they like or don't like a movie? If not, they may find themselves accepting a jumble of philosophies without really thinking. Stories entertain, but they also teach. By developing the ability to critique movies, teens will not only be better protected from absorbing wrong influences, but will be better able to analyze any literature. This workshop includes a discussion of story elements and film techniques, questions to ask, and movies that can be used for students ages 13-18.

Developing Attitudes and Habits: What’s Important—And When
There’s a best time for developing attitudes and habits that affect not only your child’s character, but also his ability to learn beyond high school. If bad habits have already been acquired there are techniques to replace them with good ones. Kathryn shares specific goals, explains their importance, and provides teaching strategies to reach those objectives. This workshop is a must not only for those wanting to get the right start, but for anyone teaching a child between ages 11and 14 that has been in a public school.

Homeschooling the Challenging Child
Kathryn Stout describes methods for effectively teaching children that seem to require a great deal of one-on-one attention. This includes children who are gifted, those who have difficulty with understanding and/or retention, those that can’t seem to pay attention, and children who just seem to protest everything you assign. Specific suggestions are made for balancing your time so that your other children are not neglected.

How to Teach Composition
Every child should be able to express himself logically and succinctly. Kathryn shows
you how to teach composition so that even kids who "hate to write" will change their minds. Practical suggestions include how to remove common obstacles to good writing, ways to hone skills at a pace comfortable for each child, and ideas for tying composition topics to other subject areas to keep writing relevant (and save you teaching time). She also gives keys to evaluation so that you can help your children build skills instead of simply completing assignments.

The Hows and Whys of a Unit-Study Approach to History
Save planning time while helping kids develop a greater understanding of the people and events being studied. Not only will history become real and exciting, but geography and science lessons will make more sense, too. Use nonfiction books that have kid-appeal, literature that broadens their perspective, and enjoyable activities that leave them with English skills that would have otherwise been tedious to acquire. Kathryn Stout, author and educator, will share specifics for all ages, including discussion and composition topics for grades 7 - 12 that require analytical thinking.

Make It Easy on Yourself
Put the spark back into your homeschool! Turn kids into thinkers and independent learners without exhausting yourself or your bank account. Children trained to love learning become a joy to teach. Learning becomes their goal, not just another assignment. If that's what you want for your children, here are specific methods to use with children of all ages. Examples include activity ideas and methods for teaching multi-levelly that will make your job easier while developing these qualities in your children.

Math That Makes Sense
Children need to understand math, not just memorize formulas and reproduce them with practice. Help kids get past the “I don’t get it, just tell me what to do” stage with these practical techniques for teaching children from preschool to grade 8. Encourage discovery, logic, and reasoning in order to develop the "math sense" necessary for your children's future day-to-day living.

Science That Sticks
Everyone loves to "do" science--but do the concepts “stick”? Kathryn explains how to teach science to children of all ages with a minimum of planning, using a variety of fun and interesting materials, and with the assurance that basic concepts and skills will be understood and retained.

Strategies for Teaching and Learning Spelling
Give your children (or yourself) the tools needed to learn and retain correct spelling. Kathryn explains why so many approaches fail to help children remember how to spell words beyond the test. She offers simple techniques that anyone can use to turn that around. This is not an attempt at photographic memory. Rather, it is the use of strategies that allow children to become confident in their ability to learn. These approaches are used in Kathryn's award-winning book Natural Speller, a complete spelling program for all ages.

Teaching English – What’s Essential?
Do your children dig beyond the basic plot, analyzing, appreciating, and learning life lessons from literature? Do they compose interesting and well-supported essays that reflect their ability to think critically? Or, do they merely parrot back the plot and fill in the blanks by rote? Kathryn discusses the components of English in light of ultimate goals. She explains how to get the essentials out of English, even while working toward objectives in other subjects.

Teaching Kids to Think
Too often we merely tell our children what to think. However, if we don't also teach them how to think, they may become easy prey for anyone who appears to speak with authority. A few minutes each week filling out critical thinking worksheets is not enough. Instead, we need to create a learning atmosphere that encourages reasoning, supporting opinions, and problem-solving. Kathryn shows you how to do this with a minimum of effort while covering requirements in basic subjects—reading comprehension, composition, science, and math.

Teaching Teenagers to Think Critically
Arm your teens with protection from worldly propaganda. Kathryn Stout offers teaching strategies that are easily incorporated into basic subjects—literature, composition, history, and government—and certain to build skills in analyzing what is read, watched, and heard. Examples focus on teaching students in junior and senior high school.

Teaching Tips That Really Work
Whether your child is gifted, struggling, a bit of both, or somewhere in between, there are approaches that will replace boredom or frustration with a love of learning. Kathryn discusses how to overcome the "I can't, I won't" syndrome, teach through strengths, build up weak areas, and create a problem-solving atmosphere.

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