Leigh! at Lunch 2012-2013 Season

Homeschooling parents DO NOT WANT to miss Leigh's talk with Kate Deddens! She is an outstanding mom and wife. Kate has been 'officially teaching' in her family's Classical Christian Homeschool for a decade, but she knows that all homeschooling truly begins at birth (and all parents homeschool in some fashion whether they recognize it or not). She homeschools at the rhetoric level with her high school junior daughter, at the grammar-going-on-logic stage with her fifth grade daughter, and at the grammar stage with her second grade son and one year old son. Kate has been enormously blessed during this academic year as Director of a Classical Conversations' Foundations program in Owensboro, Kentucky. In addition to her husband and children, Kate helps care for her 84 year old mother-in-law (diagnosed with dementia and bedridden) who lives in the home with Kate's family. Kate is active in her Missouri Synod Lutheran Church congregation, and has a passion for her faith, Classical Christian education, homeschooling, good literature, music, and fellowship, writing, traveling, and being a Mom. Kate and her husband Ted celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary last summer. Ted designs, sculpts and manufactures his own handmade line of military miniatures (www.tedtoy.com). They also operate a military miniatures, toys, and books shop in downtown Owensboro, Kentucky. Ted and Kate relocated to Kentucky fifteen years ago from Annapolis, Maryland, where they had both graduated with BAs from the St. John's College Great Books Program. Before committing to homeschooling her children when her eldest was six, Kate worked in a variety of fields (a librarian, a freelance writer and editor, in financial consulting, in management for an international building products corporation, and in counseling) and earned an MA in Mental Health Counseling from Western Kentucky University. Kate was born in Tehran, Iran, the sixth child in an American Presbyterian missionary famil

PLEASE join Leigh! as she talks with Dr. George Wiedmaier on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. EST. Dr. George Wiedmaier is the new Parenting Outreach Director for Focus on the Family. In addition to bringing a passion for the centrality and importance of parenting in our culture, he brings a unique, rich and intimate knowledge of parenting. He and his wife served as surrogate parents to 42 children and youth of poverty from urban NYC, Philadelphia, rural Pennsylvania, California, Washington and other regions of the U.S. Some of the daily activities included teaching academic enrichment programs, social skills curriculums, character education modules, daily devotions and personal health programs while modeling and living with school age youth as their surrogate parents. Dr. Wiedmaier received his master’s in Counseling from Alfred University and received his doctoral degree from the NOVA Southeastern University. His dissertation and research interest have surrounded parental education programs. His doctoral work delivered an extensive qualitative description of parents increasing personal awareness of their parenting style’s efficacy in motivating individual youth. As the work concentrated on surrogate parents, an emphasis and passion of his work resides in the topic of breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage through the medium of surrogate parenting. Dr. Wiedmaier lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Allysia and two daughters. This is an episode of blogtalkradio with 1SmartMama that you WILL NOT WANT TO MISS!

Rea Berg founded Beautiful Feet Books in 1984 to encourage the use of classic and historic literature in the home schooling community. She has written numerous guides for teaching history through literature that have been popular with parents and students alike. She and her husband Russ have brought back into print many notable children's works. Rea has a BA in English from Simmons College and recently earned a Master's Degree in Children’s Literature at the Center for the Study of Children's Literature in Boston where she was named a Virginia Haviland Scholar. She can be emailed at rea@bfbooks.com. The Beautiful Feet website is: www.bfbooks.com

Alan Schaeffer works for the Alliance for Separation of School and State. Alan majored in philosophy at Gordon College. Being both a mechanic and philosopher, he has a passion to understand how things work, or don't work and why. Alan found that just selecting an educational alternative is not enough. Without understanding the causes of the school mess, people are still victims of it. His questions led him to the first Alliance conference in 1984. He, his wife, and their five home-educated children now live in California. He has put his passion to work by helping parents understand their vocation as parents. He has re-designed the approach the Alliance takes to help more people come to know what they can do about the school mess.

Mark Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English at UCLA in 1988. He has taught at Emory since 1989. His latest book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future; Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30 (www.dumbestgeneration.com), was published in May 2008. Bauerlein tells us that Young American have more schooling, more money, more leisure time, more news and information and they spend their time downloading, uploading, IMing, posting, chatting, networking, watching TV and playing video games. Do you know what they DON'T DO? Young America doesn't read, follow politics, maintain a brisk work ethic, or vote regularly!! Please join Leigh and Mark Bauerlein as they discuss what is jeopardizing OUR CHILDREN'S future!!

Join us live or chat with us as we encourage the world to purchase art created by families of young children and then donate the proceeds to Christian schools in northern India.

Join us as families describe their art and why they are participating in a worldwide art auction on Ebay to raise funds for Christian schools in India.

Leigh! will be discussing testing with Keith Denton, Executive Director of Business Operations for Classical Conversation. Keith has been working for CC for two years. His wife, Julie, is the South Carolina State Manager for CC. He and Julie have three beautiful children and have been participating in Classical Conversations for six years now. We are sorry that Nedra Pickler could not be on the show today. However, we are trying to reschedule this show.

Mr. Pudewa is the director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing and a homeschooling father of seven. Presenting throughout North America, he addresses issues relating to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music with clarity, insight, practical experience, and humor.

If you are a director, tutor, or CC Parent, Student Practicums are an easy, fun way to equip and encourage students ages 9-18 in their writing skills. Topics include Essentials of the English Language, IEW Student Writing, SAT Prep and College Essay. Please join Leigh as she talks with Shelly Stockton, Director of Student Practicums about these wonderful events.

On Wednesday, January 21st, at 12:00 noon EST Leigh will discuss Classical Christian Education with Douglas Wilson, Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, ID. Mr. Wilson is a strong supporter of the Classical Christian model and wrote the books Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning and The Case for Classical Christian Education. Please join Leigh at Lunch! and call in or email Leigh with your questions.

Amidst the gloom and doom of the economy, our country seems to have forgotten that God is still on the throne. Not a single resource has been diminished. Be encouraged to join CC for a big Celebration in January as we remember whose we are in this broadcast.

Note time change form 12pm to 1pm. Join me as I interview one of my favorite politcal leaders, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Please do not call in until you can hear his voice on the phone. We want to keep a line open for our important guest.

Parents who intentionally educate their children are concerned about what to teach and how to keep the task enjoyable. I keep up my enthusiam as a mom and a life-long learner by taking classes and meeting with my friends to discuss certain topics in-depth. This may seem obvious, but busy moms often forget to develop their own brain and reinvigorate their souls. We receive so much energy while engaging the minds of kindred spirits in lively discussions. Learn about opportunities to learn with other classical home schoolers.

Get a quick run down on memorizing tables for Logic seminars.