When asked, “What are the language arts?” people may respond by listing numerous subjects: spelling, phonics, grammar, penmanship, copying, dictation, narration, and composition. But actually it’s much simpler! For those adhering to the classical model, those ascribing to a Charlotte Mason approach, or those who just want a common-sense curriculum, there are really only four core language arts: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and attending well to the first two makes teaching the latter two so much easier. Come prepared to have your educational paradigm adjusted, your load lightened, and your commitment to excellence renewed as you focus on the most important things in the limited time you have.

Evaluating a student’s writing can be very difficult, especially for the parent who may feel less than perfectly confident. Learn how to provide specific models and stylistic goals for each composition, giving specific assignments to your students for both fiction and non-fiction. Solve the “How long does it have to be?” problem. Never again hear yourself say, “Don’t you want to add a little more detail?” With confidence and precision, you can design and communicate to your students goal- and model-based writing assignments, and can have a concrete tool to objectively evaluate their efforts.

Many children (and some adults) have difficulty learning to spell, but the difficulty may not be with the student so much as with the method of presentation. Learn how spelling information is most efficiently stored in the brain, and why. With a greater insight parents and teachers will be well-equipped to meet the needs of all their children, not just the naturally good spellers.

Recent years have seen an enormous increase in the use of technology in education. But is technology really the cure that many believe it to be? While traditional skills such as cursive penmanship are seen as unnecessary in the modern world, the actual research tells a different story. Learn the compelling reasons to choose paper books instead of electronic devices for reading, to handwrite instead of type when note-taking, to teach cursive instead of printing for penmanship, and to grab a pen instead of pencil for composition. Discover how to unleash creativity that goes beyond technology.

Many think that good readers will naturally become good writers. Others think that writing talent is just that a natural ability. Both are myths. What are the two most critical things you can do as a parent to develop a high level of writing aptitude, from a young age and into high school? You will hear the two easy but unbelievably powerful things you can do to build language patterns and nurture competent communicators in your family.

As schools believe that producing good readers will solve all their academic problems. Many children—the dyslexic, the easily distracted, the auditorily challenged—are truly left behind in the rush to improve test scores. Reading is not simply being able to rapidly decode symbols with the eyes. Hear stories and strategies for helping students who need to engage the cognitive processes of reading, but who are more likely to excel through a wider variety of practical, creative, and imaginative approaches.

Music has become such an ever-present influence in our daily lives, we seldom stop to consider what effect it has on us. Man has changed over the last 100 years from being music makers to music consumers. We gradually lost control over, and even awareness of, our auditory environment. In what way is music beneficial to our bodies and minds? Can it actually be harmful? Scientific research provides some astounding answers to such questions—indeed, facts that must not be ignored.

This is part 2 and uses musical samples to help listeners learn to hear more actively, both to gain the most out of their listening experience as well as to encourage defensive listening with greater discernment. Musical selections of baroque, classical, folk, and popular genres are played and discussed. Without saying, “This is good, this is bad,” Mr. Pudewa presents a unique perspective on the question of whether all music is equally beneficial to the Christian.