Mary Ann’s Magic

If you actively parented as long as I did (39 years) and if you raised as many children as I did (7) and if you worked with as many children as I have (thousands) then you would have made a lot of mistakes and you would have learned a thing or two. And that’s the magic! I did learn a thing or two. I grew and I made changes and I progressed. I became wiser! Today I share that wisdom with other parents who are walking the path I walked and when they hear magic happens! Mary Ann Johnson is a teacher, mentor, writer and a homeschool coach. She has a masters degree in education from George Wythe University, Magna Cum Laude, has taught thousands of children over 40 years, and has worked as a homeschooling facilitator and coach for hundreds of families. She is passionate about teaching parents to have confidence in raising their children and educating them at home. Mary Ann is the founder of Home School Coach Limited, a company that provides mentoring, consulting, training, workshops and presentations for homeschooling families and all parents. Mary Ann got her start in the Girl Scout program, working with the leaders in the Billings, Montana area for over ten years. She was also the chairman of multiple day and overnight camps, coordinating week-long camps for over 100 girls at a time. During her tenure, she trained over fifty leaders how to teach and work with children.

Playing around and enjoying our own company

Mary Ann also taught community education programs, ranging in topic from crafts, to cooking, and holiday projects. Her students affectionately called her the Gingerbread Lady. She taught classes every summer for over ten years, serving over a thousand children. Because of demand in the surrounding school districts, Mary Ann produced videos of her teaching techniques to five other area schools throughout Montana.

Don, Mary Ann and a few of the grandkids

Mary Ann ran a private preschool for two years, providing an alternative for parents who were unhappy with worksheet-driven curriculum. She created a hands-on, experiential program that focused on imaginative play, open learning activities, basic life skills, and following directions. Her students left the school year with a love of learning. In addition to the preschool, Mary Ann ran a private homeschool faciliation center for three years. This center provided a place for families with homeschooled children to get help with science, math, English, and history curriculum. Her students ranged in age from 8-18. She worked with over 20 students a year, gaining the rare achievement of inspiring even the most reticent children and teens. Her lessons focused on experiential activities–one of the student favorites in a history lesson was taping out the dimensions of a huge ship with masking tape in the parking lot. Mary Ann definitely knows how to engage children in learning.

The Johnson Clan, well some of them anyway!

Mary Ann spends her time now teaching workshops on improving parent behaviors and deepening relationships with children. She also frequently presents on her famous educational tool called the Spark Station, a tool to help parents utilize inspiring materials in their homeschooling curriculum. She works with a limited amount of private clients, teaching parents to resolve family issues. Her product line includes a 13-cd mastery course, a training DVD to teach parents how to research, and idea packets to make homeschooling or conneting with your children easy.

Don and Mary Ann on their 40th anniversary trip to the west coast

You can find Mary Ann most days reading history and autobiography’s. She is married to her husband of 40 years, and enjoys spending time with her 7 grown children, 11 grandchildren, working in the garden and having “grandma school”.

Grandma school is just the BEST!