The Other Side of Cultivated Lives

Cultivated Lives is not only the home of my blog, but it also is the connecting point for our speaking ministry.  That's right.  In case you hadn't noticed the "Speaking" button at the top of the page, it includes our workshop topics and speaker bio's.

While I have a couple of workshops that I offer on my own, what I love best about the speaking side of Cultivated Lives is getting to partner with my mom!

Have you heard the saying, "Like Mother, Like Daughter?"

Well each of us girls in my family take after my mom in some fashion.  For me, it is a shared passion in the area of educational philosophy and encouraging parents who have embarked on the adventure of homeschooling.  We both love learning about learning and will talk endlessly with anyone who wants to listen!

What I love about speaking together is the perspectives each of us bring to the table.  My mother homeschooled 3 daughters, wrote curriculum (KONOS Russia unit study), was a state homeschool leader alongside my father and has counseled countless families over the years.  She brings wisdom and years of experience.  I bring the biology/science side of things into the equation as well as the perspective of one who was homeschooled (and survived) and is currently in the midst of homeschooling my three boys.

While most of our talks are applicable to the whole spectrum of the homeschool experience, several workshops are specially focused on helping and encouraging those with young children.  Young children learn so differently than we do as adults or even as older children do.  But that isn't often reflected in the early childhood educational trends of today.

If you live in Arizona, we hope to meet some of you this summer at the Arizona Homeschool Convention.  I'll be encouraging families to stay the course in the nitty gritty's by providing a long-term perspective in my talk, Confident, Grateful Graduates.  My mom and I will jointly be giving the following workshops, Developing Life Long Readers, Missional Homeschooling and "Turn Right to Go Left" - Important Lessons from CARS (our early education focused workshop).

If you are interested in hearing us speak, put in a request to your local homeschool convention leaders and direct them this way!  They start booking conference speakers up to a year in advance, so it is never to early to send in your suggestions!