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Mary Hood Presentations
(Click any presentation to see description.)
The Relaxed Home School Lifestyle: Is it for you? How to Look More Like a Family, Less Like a School How to Loosen Up Without Losing Control Home-Schooling Moms: Soldiers in a Spiritual War Child Development Workshop 1- Working with Babies and Toddlers Child Development Workshops 2 - Working with Preschoolers Child Development Workshop 3 - Working with Primary-Aged Children Child Development Workshop 4 - Working With Elementary-Aged Children Countdown to Consistency Elementary Methods Workshop 1 - Reading and Writing the Natural Way Elementary Methods Workshop 2 - Taking the Frustration Out of Math Elementary Methods Workshop 3 - Relaxed Unit Studies in Science and Social Studies Elementary Methods Workshop 4 - Using Children’s Literature Wisely Elementary Methods Workshop 5 - Teaching Children to Use the Public Library Elementary Methods Workshop 6 - Relaxed Record Keeping/Teaching Test-Taking Strategies Beat the Middle School Blahs Tailoring High School to the Individual Making a Successful Transition to College How to Get (Almost) Anything You Want in Life (motivational talk for teens)
The Relaxed Home School Lifestyle: Is it for you?
This is an introductory workshop for those who are still trying to decide whether or not homeschooling is a lifestyle they can live with. It gives reasons for considering homeschooling, discusses pros and cons, and then sketches out a family-style way of learning together which is less stressful than most people perceive when they picture their potential lives as homeschoolers.
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How to Look More Like a Family, Less Like a School
In this workshop, Mary compares and contrasts the school model of education versus the relaxed family model. She compares the roles of principal vs. father, and teacher vs. mother, and discusses differences in the learning environments and disciplinary atmospheres of schools and family homes.
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How to Loosen Up Without Losing Control
Mary discusses the importance of establishing a basic structure for discipline and learning together in a relaxed family setting, and discusses the importance of communication between family members when setting goals and implementing instruction. She also discusses six specific areas of goals: values, attitudes, habits, skills, talents & interests, and knowledge, and how to evaluate and plan based on your own goals, rather than someone else's ideas of "what should be happening in the second grade."
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Home-Schooling Moms: Soldiers in a Spiritual War
This is Mary's workshop on spiritual warfare as it relates to the homeschooling mom. She discusses the importance of recognizing spiritual attacks and how to combat them on a daily basis and the enemy's frequent use of discouragement and feelings of incompetence to sabotage the homeschooling mother.
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Child Development Workshop 1- Working with Babies and Toddlers
These four are workshops dealing primarily with child development. They focus on helping parents understand the characteristics of each age group, including what children are capable of at each age, and what are appropriate learning experiences, methods, and materials. They can be presented as a set or individually.)
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Child Development Workshops 2 - Working with Preschoolers
These four are workshops dealing primarily with child development. They focus on helping parents understand the characteristics of each age group, including what children are capable of at each age, and what are appropriate learning experiences, methods, and materials. They can be presented as a set or individually.)
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Child Development Workshop 3 - Working with Primary-Aged Children
These four are workshops dealing primarily with child development. They focus on helping parents understand the characteristics of each age group, including what children are capable of at each age, and what are appropriate learning experiences, methods, and materials. They can be presented as a set or individually.)
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Child Development Workshop 4 - Working With Elementary-Aged Children
These four are workshops dealing primarily with child development. They focus on helping parents understand the characteristics of each age group, including what children are capable of at each age, and what are appropriate learning experiences, methods, and materials. They can be presented as a set or individually.)
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Countdown to Consistency
This workshop explains the history of the homeschooling movement in America, and explains four separate educational philosophies that have influenced its development (essentialism, perennialism, existentialism, and progressivism). Far from being "academic", this workshop is extremely practical in helping parents recognize their own educational beliefs and develop a consistent plan to work towards their goals. It is particularly important for parents to take the workshop together so they can understand their own differences and work together as a team. To be done properly this workshop requires a minimum of two full hours, which may be spread out over two workshop sessions.
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Elementary Methods Workshop 1 - Reading and Writing the Natural Way
This workshop addresses four main topics: how to develop a literate home, issues of motivation and readiness, learning styles, and potential learning challenges. Mary truly believes that in a literate home, learning to read and write should be as natural a process as learning to walk and talk. Her success with helping her own five children to develop literacy without tedious lessons in language arts speaks for itself.
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Elementary Methods Workshop 2 - Taking the Frustration Out of Math
In this workshop, Mary discusses the stages that children pass through in developing math understanding, and how to understand difficulties they may be having in the area of math. She includes specific, practical suggestions for preschoolers through the end of elementary school, and helps parents to recognize when teenagers are ready for algebra (and what to do if they aren't!)
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Elementary Methods Workshop 3 - Relaxed Unit Studies in Science and Social Studies
Mary discusses the concept of unit studies, and the way to add fun and adventure to your studies in the areas of social studies and science. Practical suggestions are included for such things as history adventures, nature studies, and incorporating learning centers and living books into the curriculum.
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Elementary Methods Workshop 4 - Using Children’s Literature Wisely
In this workshop, Mary discusses many of her own favorite children's authors and illustrators, and gives concrete suggestions for incorporating the use of living books into the curriculum.
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Elementary Methods Workshop 5 - Teaching Children to Use the Public Library
In this workshop, Mary teaches parents how to understand the Dewey Decimal System and the set up of the public library, and how to help their children locate books on their own at an early age.
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Elementary Methods Workshop 6 - Relaxed Record Keeping/Teaching Test-Taking Strategies
Mary discusses the twin concepts of evaluation and record keeping, including the importance of using parental journals and/or scrapbooks to document learning. She also discusses high school record keeping, and the importance of helping children develop test taking strategies from an early age.
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Beat the Middle School Blahs
This is one of Mary's most popular talks. In it, she discusses the developmental needs of the middle school student, in such areas as cognitive development social development, and physical and emotional development. She includes specific suggestions on how to best work with this age group (from approximately 11-14 years of age), and how to help prepare them for high school level in the process.
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Tailoring High School to the Individual
Mary talks about the importance of recognizing individual goals, strengths & weaknesses, and personality traits when developing a high school curriculum, and gives concrete suggestions on how to balance these issues with the demands of college entrance officials. An explanation of the college entrance process and how to create effective transcripts is included.
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Making a Successful Transition to College
This is Mary's other workshop for teenagers, particularly designed to help high school juniors and seniors prepare for making the transition to the college atmosphere following the completion of high school. Mary's own experiences in college and as a college teacher have given her a unique ability to communicate to teens the importance of learning to take charge of their own lives as they move away from home for the first time.
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How to Get (Almost) Anything You Want in Life (motivational talk for teens)
This is Mary's motivational workshop for teenagers. She helps the teens understand the importance of goal setting, and how to change wishful thinking into specific plans with to-do lists for each new day. (Sometimes moms and dads like to come to this workshop, too!)
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