Homeschool High School Workshops
Homeschooling high school is awesome! I really enjoyed my children during the teen years. My grown children are my best friends. They are wacky and wonderful, full of enthusiasm for all kinds of things. I love this season of life! High school is awesome because now you can tackle extremely intellectual things, dig deeply into Scripture, and minister side by side.
I participated with 2 other homeschooling moms in a question and answer session about homeschooling high school for 2 hours at a local library. When I left, I told my husband that I was so sad that the parents asked the wrong questions. Instead of focusing on raising godly children who would be confident and successful, they focused on how to homeschool to meet the state requirements for graduation. In that moment, the vision for Finish Well, a homeschooling conference, was born and we hosted it for eight years.
My heart is for parents to enjoy their teens, enjoy homeschooling, and enjoy serving the Lord together as a family–all for the glory of God!
Having seen homeschool grads fall away from the Lord, my greatest desire is to help parents cultivate a strong relationship with the True and Living God that will last a lifetime.
The summer before Katie Beth started 8th grade, I began to pray and plan for her high school years. After lots of investigating, I decided to write my own classes/curriculum for her high school years using mainly living books, research, and writing assignments. We had great success with these classes. Over the years, they have been adapted for our other children and other families. I can teach you how to create your own courses or offer you our high school resrouces.
Wacky, Wonderful Teens
Even the most godly of children can be a little wacky when they hit puberty. With hormones rushing through their bloodstream, teens can be highly emotional, need more sleep, and have serious lapses in judgment. Yet, they are wonderful, interesting, funny, energetic, and enchanting. If they fall in love with Jesus, they are full of zeal and live passionately for the purposes of God. How can you enjoy your teenager, maintain parental authority, and guide them to adult independence?
Create Your Own High School Courses
Once we have the framework for high school (credits, transcripts, reading lists), how do we design our classes and curriculum to meet the needs of our children? Meredith has designed four years of high school classes using living book, customizing each class for her own and other teenagers. You can to! She likes to keep record keeping and lesson plans simple, so she uses an EZ folder method that she wil share with you. Attendees will learn to mix academic structure with delight-directed learning.
DG: The Secret to Success
Let’s look at a missing ingredient in the lives of many young people, and older folks, too. Meredith discusses how delayed gratification can impact our personal lives and professional lives, helping us to experience joy and success. Meredith will explain what delayed gratification is, how it works, and how to build the DG muscle.
Homeschool High School 101
This is a basics workshop for those who are homeschooling high school or considering homeschooling as an option for the teen years. Meredith will tackle state requirements, planning courses, delight-directed classes, choosing curriculum, writing transcripts, college preparation, volunteer hours, personal responsibility, and relationships.
Celebrate Graduation
Attention homeschooling parents and teens! Does this sound like you? You have worked so hard for so many years but aren’t quite sure how to wrap things up. You want to make a special event of finishing high school but don’t know how to create an event that is worthy of the occasion? Or have you participated in graduation events in the past that didn’t quite capture the spirit of what you were trying to say to your student. This month Meredith and Laura would like to share with you the ways that they have celebrated graduation with their nine graduates.
Homeschool High School for the Glory of God
Homeschooling high school is a call from God. Let Him lead you in this ministry. Meredith shares ways to teach high school subjects from a biblical worldview and cultivate a lifelong love of Jesus and learning in your teen. This workshop touches on mentoring, high school basics, designing courses, and relationships.
Understanding the Times & Defending the Faith
Are our teens ready to enter college and not be seduced by undermining “vain philosophies”? Meredith will present a way to pass the baton of faith in Jesus to the next generation by establishing the necessary evidence for our faith. She will also give vital keys to teaching our teens the relevance of God’s Word in politics, economics, science, philosophy, government, religion, and history that will shape their worldview to confront unbiblical views (humanism, socialism, post-modernism, and New Age) that are presently shaping our world today. Let’s equip our children to be world changers!
Don't Waste Your Life
Meredith reveals how to live every moment for God during the Teen Years. Learn how to avoid the devil’s traps and press into Jesus in practical ways. These ladies will share honestly how to avoid the pitfalls they fell into and how to get out if you have already fallen in. Serving Jesus is the most exciting thing you can ever do! Build a foundation NOW that will last you the rest of your life.
Should Your Teen Join a High School Youth Group?
Many parents homeschool in order to cultivate a strong relationship between their teens and the Lord. To their horror, their chidlren run into bad influences in the church teen group. Are all teen groups created equally? How can you spot a good teen group or a bad one? Should your teen join the church youth group?
The Problem with Pornography & What to Do about It
Meredith Curtis talks about the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about but is destroying the hearts of minds of Christians across the world. She addresses the problem with pornography and why it brings devastation. She reveals how to experience freedom and where to go for help—no matter how young or old you are. This is a problem that both parents and teens can face. Meredith also gives parents some practical advice on what to do and say if your son or daughter is indulging in, or addicted to, pornography.
How to Talk to Teens about Sex
Most parents don’t like to talk about sex with their kids. The result? Most of what children learn about sex is from popular culture and dirty jokes. Do you feel underqualified or overwhelmed when you talk to your children or teens about this topic? Here is practical advice that goes beyond “the talk” to a lifestyle of open communication about physiology, sexual desires, and purity. Learn how to set the tone for honest conversation that balances clinical candor with reverent modesty.
Make Your Home the Teen Hangout
Meredith Curtis shares how she and her husband, a former teen pastor, created an atmosphere of welcome so that their house could be the teen hangout. Would you like to welcome your teens’ friends and get to know them? The Curtis family has had a blast having fun with teens over decades and build lasting friendships along the way.
Healing from Sexual Abuse
Meredith Curtis examines a horrible side of life in the 21stCentury with honesty, compassion, and truth. She offers hope from the Word of God to define sexual abuse and to process what has happened to you. She also explains why certain lies are often believed by victims, how to reject them, and how Jesus brings healing to the brokenness that often results from sexual abuse. There is healing and freedom, but it is a process. To all those who have been wounded, my heart breaks for you and I am praying that you know the precious love of Jesus that can heal you physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Build Lifelong Friendships with Your Teens
Would you like to build a friendship with your teen? Do you struggle to communicate with one another? Is there a power struggle? Meredith shares ways you can foster honest communication and mutual respect. She explains how to make time to strengthen your relationship, as well as how to work through conflict without losing it. This is a great workshop to bring your teens along, too. Meredith will challenge teens and parents to love and respect one another.
How Sexual Predators Groom Their Victims & What to Do about It
Meredith Curtis talks about the cunning and manipulative process pedophiles use to target their unsuspecting victims and their parents. Grooming breaks down the natural barriers that protect children and teens from becoming victims. She explains how to recognize toxic behavior and protect your children and teens from this evil.
Teach Teens about Money
From economic principles to starting a business, Meredith will show you how to raise children who understand money and make wise financial decisions. With living books and curriculum recommendations, Meredith will give practical advice and simple tips to spark your children’s interest and build healthy financial habits.
Recognize Worldviews at College
You might embrace the Bible and a Christian worldview, but if you are heading to college, you will be bombarded with all kinds of worldview and feel confused and frustrated. There is a simple solution: learn about popular worldviews in our culture today so you can recognize them and refute them respectfully. Meredith will share about the Christian, Muslim, Humanist, New Age, Post-Modern, and Marxist worldviews and mention resources (like Understanding the Times by David Noebel) to use to learn more.
College Success
Grow in confidence in your relationships and academic endeavors. Meredith will share wisdom on choosing, building, and keeping friendships, as well as working effectively with your professors. And speaking of academics: study smarter, not harder. Find out what your professor is looking for in writing assignments, tests, and class discussions so that you can excel. Schedule your time effectively so that you can stay ahead of the game. Meredith will give you study tips for reading, writing, and test taking. Be prepared to thrive at college, not just survive.
Parents Love Thy Teens
This is an encouraging and timely word! Meredith will share ways to truly love your teens and to build relationships based on mutual respect and kindness. She will remind you what love is and what love isn’t, as well as help you navigate through the challenges of this transition time between childhood and adulthood. Set yourself up for a lifetime of friendship with your soon-to-be adult.
Go To College Debt-Free
Meredith will show you how to go to college debt-free, giving real life examples of how she and other homeschool grads have made it through college without borrowing any money.
Teach Economics & Government in High School
Is it possible to teach economics and government without boring your kids to death?
Are there any living books that your teens can read to get a handle on this subject?
Are there hands-on-practical ways to apply what they learn?
Now, more than ever, we need to raise children who understand biblical principles of economics and government.
How I Teach High School English
Learn to develop an effective, life-impacting high school English course as well as incorporate living books into other courses while cultivating a lifelong love of literature.
Learn to teach writing using the basic ingredients of writing (words, ideas, sentences, paragraphs). What kind of writing should your teen do in high school? What is the different between good, bad, and excellent writing?
Suggestions are given for books teens should read and writing suggestions in high school.
Teach History & Geography in High School
The earth is the Lord’s and history is God’s story! What exciting subjects to teach your high school students. But, with so much to learn, where do you start? Meredith will give you wisdom, tips, and tools that you can use to teach history and geography from a Christ-centered perspective. She will share ways to include your high schoolers in family unit studies and independent study project ideas.
Prepare Your Teens for Real Life
There are so many daily skills we take for granted: balancing the check book, paying bills, cleaning the house, throwing a party, making introductions, planting a garden, wallpapering a bathroom, living on a budget, running a meeting, working through a conflict, or changing a diaper. How do we prepare our children for real life, giving them the skills they need to be productive and successful?
Teach Bible in High School
The Bible is the most important book you will ever read. How can you give your teens a firm foundation in Scriptures, as well as a love for God and His Word? What is the best way to teach the Old Testament and New Testament in high school. Meredith will share the way she teaches Bible to her teens with lots of creative ideas and practical tips. She will also teach you to help your teen establish a daily quiet time with the Lord.
Shine Your Light at College
Can you go beyond surviving and thriving on a secular campus to making a difference in the lives of those around you? Meredith will tell you how she did it and how others are doing it right now! As the academic world wages war on Christian values, get the inside scoop on pitfalls to avoid weapons to use in the classroom to defend the faith, and wisdom to live passionately for Jesus. Meredith will equip you with practical study habits, scheduling tips, and ways to build lifelong friendships.
Reimagine Christian Ministry with Your Teen
Your teens are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. Let them loose! Teens can serve in almost any area of ministry in the local church as well at the local crisis pregnancy center, YMCA, and soup kitchen. Ministering to the needs of others cultivates responsibility, compassion, and self-confidence. Volunteering can be done in one small block of time a week. Plus it looks great on a transcript! Let Meredith Curtis envision you for ministry and share a ton of ideas with you. One of them is sure to interest your family.
6 Easy Ways to Cultivate Faithfulness, Integrity, & Industriousness in Your Teen
We all want to see our teens launch as responsible adults who enjoy success in their lives. Yet we see them struggle to finish their schoolwork and take out the trash. Is it too late for your teen? No way! Meredith shares 6 time-tested ways to cultivate faithfulness, integrity, and industriousness with Scripture, relationships, natural consequences, family projects, replacing screen time, and flexible scheduling. These things are practical and easy to implement in your home–you will love the changes you see in your teen!
Equipping Teens to Write a Cozy Mystery
Meredith’s teens wrote fiction in high school, devoting one year of high school English to reading literature and planning and writing their own novel. Since they loved mysteries, the younger 3 wrote cozy mysteries. Writing a who-dun-it is like creating a puzzle for your reader to solve. Teens design an amateur detective, create suspects with motives, leave clues and red herrings, set up a plot with conflict and complications, and wrap it all up logically in the end. Meredith Curtis shares the nuts and bolts of how to write a cozy mystery with your teen for high school English and the surprising educational benefits.
Create High School Courses for Your Teens with Living Books
I created high school courses for my children with living books at the center of each class (except math). I started with a book list of what I wanted my teens to read including literature, classic works, historical fiction, and modern classics. From this list, I built classes with practical life application.
Where Have All the Heroes Gone?
Meredith looks at the fascination with Super-Heroes in today’s culture, how they’ve changed, and why we love Heroes. Meredith discusses Christian heroes, how they can impact our personal lives, and how they can inspire us to greatness. As a special bonus, six Super-Heroes drop in to tell their story. You will meet Pope Gregory, Lady Jane Grey, Lottie Moon, Brother Andrew, Elisabeth Eliot, and Nicky Cruz. We will end with instructions to host your own Heroes for Jesus Party.
Teens, Take Charge of Your Health & Get High School Credit!
Meredith Curtis shares practical things to include in your teen’s health class that will motivate healthy lifestyle changes. Teens can do health as an independent study if they want to start adding healthier habits to their lives. Or parents can create a health class that is practical and helpful. Healthy nutrition, exercise, hygiene, sleep, and relationship habits can start now and last a lifetime.
Why I Wrote My Own Government Course
Meredith Curtis shares her homeschool journey in search a government course that would impart earnest wisdom into her children’s hearts and lives. She finally decided to design her own course, Government, God’s Blueprint/Man’s Agenda—a little bit textbook, a little bit unit study, and a little bit notebook. Her 1-credit high school government course has a fresh, innovative approach based on the truth revealed in God’s Word that all government derives from Him and that the Lord delegates authority and responsibility to the individual, family, church, and sovereign nations. We are in critical times, where preteens and teens need to learn about God’s heart and plan for ruling in all spheres of life!
When Will I Be Loved?
Meredith Curtis addresses the longings of our heart to be loved, especially during the teen years. All of us long to be loved by that special someone. Where is that special someone and when will he/she come into my life? And why is that desperation there in the first place? Meredith speaks straight to your hearts, revealing the Lord’s purpose in placing those desires inside you.
