Speaking | A Gentle Feast

In 2023, I will be at the following events:

*** Use code FEAST23 to save $10 off any Great Homeschool Convention

If you for your interest in having, Julie Ross, the creator of A Gentle Feast come speak at your event, please send an email to [email protected]. Please see the list below for potential speaking topics.

2023 speaking topics

The F.E.A.S.T. of the Charlotte Mason Method

“We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programmes and each small guest assimilates what he can.” (Charlotte Mason, Vol. 6, p. 183) Charlotte Mason states that a child’s mind must be fed a consistent diet of living ideas in order to grow intellectually in the same way a child’s body needs nourishing food for proper development. She proposed that the role of the educator is to consistently prepare this abundant and rich feast. In this 101 workshop, you will be given an overview of Charlotte Mason’s foundational principles, leaving you inspired to create an educational feast for your family. Come whet your appetite and see how this Victorian educational pioneer can transform your home school!

2. Getting Unstuck: Get Out of The Mental Ruts That Are Holding You Back

As the thermostats of our home, we are constantly setting the temperatures within our family by the thoughts that we repeatedly think. In order to transform our homeschools, we need to transform the negative thoughts that keep us stuck in self-defeating cycles. In this powerful talk, Certified Christian Life Coach and creator of A Gentle Feast, Julie Ross, will help you identify your negative mental patterns and give you practical tools to develop a success mindset. Including a combination of Charlotte Mason’s teaching on mental habits, cutting edge neuroscience, and Biblical principles, this talk will leave you empowered to transform your thoughts for a more positive homeschool.

3. Creating Nourishing Routines and Rhythms to Grow Heart, Souls, and Minds

We often can become so focused on “covering the basics” that we forget the importance of filling our homeschool days with truth, beauty, and goodness- then we wonder why homeschooling can feel so draining! In this talk, Julie Ross, the creator of A Gentle Feast, will explore how we can easily add more beauty in our days through nourishing routines and rhythms that will breathe life into our homes. Julie will show you how poetry, art, music, etc. are just as vital as any other subject in the educational feast. In fact, they are absolutely essential if our goal as homeschoolers is to develop students that are whole persons and magnanimous citizens that can bless the world with living ideas and love to learn for knowledge’s sake through the rest of their lives.

4. The Pageant of History in a Charlotte Mason Education

Charlotte Mason said, “Next in order to religious knowledge, history is the pivot upon which our curriculum turns.” (Vol. 6, p. 273) What does this mean? How is Charlotte Mason’s approach to history different than unit studies? What order did her programmes give to History? Is teaching History with living books the only way her philosophy impacts the study of this subject? In this in-depth workshop, Julie H Ross, creator of A Gentle Feast will break down how to practically approach History with Miss Mason’s methods of living ideas, narration, short lessons, notebooks, and more.

5. Nitty Gritty Narration

“As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should ‘tell back’ after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read. A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarizing. and the like.” (Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles)

“Where are all the workbooks, study guides, comprehension questions, and tests?” Julie H Ross often gets asked this common question when she shows the stack of books she is using for the coming school year. When she told a mother about Charlotte Mason’s powerful practice of having the students retell, or narrate, back what they read or heard, the mother responded, “It sounds too good to be true. Is it really that easy?” Julie’s answer: “It is far from easy, but the practice is powerful.” Join Julie H Ross for this informative workshop where she breaks down this powerful method into simple steps that will equip you to start implementing this practice right away.

6. The Gentle Art of Teaching Reading

Charlotte Mason wrote that the traditional methods of teaching reading in her day were “one of the many ways in which children are needlessly and cruelly oppressed,” and were “an abuse of his intelligence.”

What were those methods she so vehemently spoke out against? Unfortunately, many of them are still used to teach reading today. In her volumes, Miss Mason outlined steps in a reading lesson that would arouse the imagination and awaken the “joyous interest which is the real secret of success.” In this super practical workshop, Julie H Ross (who has taught dozens of children how to read), will guide you through Miss Mason’s approach to reading lessons. You will walk away ready to implement this method in your home without spending any money on expensive curriculum or fancy manipulatives.

7. Language Arts in a Charlotte Mason Education

Grammar, Composition, Spelling, Dictation…Oh my! Language Arts can feel like it is consuming your homeschool day when each individual component has its own workbooks and lesson plans take over an hour. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Charlotte Mason created a beautiful, integrated plan for teaching all the components of Language Arts in a literature rich, in depth progression that builds a robust education overflowing with the language of living ideas. Take back your child’s language arts education with this beautiful approach! In this workshop, Julie Ross, the creator of A Gentle Feast gives you practical tips to make learning this valuable literacy skills delightful and effortless.