Join us on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 3:30pm Central (1:30pm Pacific). Click here to join us live on the Homeschool Channel.

If you missed our previous marriage webinar, “Don’t Let Homeschooling Ruin Your Marriage,” you can watch the replay here.

You see, God considers my Facebook friend a real person, or He wouldn’t have used me spiritually in her life.

This is not to justify spending hours upon hours on Facebook, neglecting the flesh and blood people in our lives, especially our spouses and children. Facebook can be idolatry just like anything else. The key is to ask God what you should be doing at each moment. If you feel guilty that you’re not doing something, for heaven’s sake, get up and go do the thing that you know you should be doing.

Silence, I mean opening up your spirit to God, is more important than the amount of Scripture you read, if you expect to actually live it. For example, let’s say you read a verse in Proverbs about anger. It convicted you. Now look up. Stop what you’re doing. Chew on the verse. Ask God to make that verse a reality to you. Even in the midst of kid noise, you can silence your own heart and open yourself up to God.

If you want to delve deeper into a particular topic, you can look up every verse on that topic in a Bible concordance. Then read the verses and surprise yourself. Right now I absolutely love reading about prayer and challenging myself to have a deeper prayer life. But in the past I’ve looked up verses on pride, anger, rest, and many other topics.

One day I was spending time with God, reading His Word, and my daughter came into the room. I have to say that it’s usually better to be totally alone with God so that you can give God your undivided attention and hear Him. But on this particular day, I let my daughter watch me as I studied and wrote down what God was teaching me from His Word. She smiled at me, left, and came back with a Bible and a sheet of paper. She opened up her Bible to Ruth and started copying down Ruth. You see, my 6-year-old girl wanted to be like Mommy. What I was doing looked delightful to her because she saw how delighted I was in what I was learning. It was a sweet moment I will never forget.

Another time my son Nathaniel was sick with a snotty nose. So I stayed home from church with him while everyone else left. I opened the Bible study that I was doing, and he did it with me. We had such a deep spiritual conversation, and every Scripture seemed to apply to a specific sin issue in his life. It was as if God had orchestrated for us to be home that day, and for me to land directly on the verses that my son needed. I saw visible spiritual growth in my son’s understanding. I tell you, it’s moments like these that make a grown woman cry for joy. But if you’re not studying your Bible, these moments will not happen.

I was just talking to my sister the other day over the phone, and I was telling her how desperately important it was to know the Word of God. If you don’t spend time in Scripture, God can’t bring the verses to your mind when you need them, to convict you of sin, or to know what to say to someone in need; to comfort you at just the right time, or to give wisdom for a major decision. You must study the Word of God. Choose to read pure Scripture. Proper Bible studies can be great, or they can be an anvil around your neck. Ask God before studying each topic. But please, at least pick up and read the pure Word of God. You will never regret having done so.

• The Benefits of Exercise
• The Psychology Behind Exercising
• Fitting in Exercise
• Exercise Videos
• Staying Physically Fit
• Finding the Desire to Exercise

Zumba

• Zumba: Dance Your Way to Fitness
• Hidden Benefits of Zumba

Running

• A Good Pair of Running Shoes
• My First 12K Race

Weight Loss

• Losing Ten Pounds
• Sickness Helps Fitness Goals
• How Food Affects Weight Loss

Sleep

• Getting Better Sleep (Part 1)
• Getting Better Sleep (Part 2)

How Exercise and Fitness Affect Marriage

• You are Not Your Own
• Take Care of Your Body

Exercise with Children

• Jump Sky High Trampolines
• Practicing Sports Skills
• Archery
• Volleyball is “Torture Ball”
• Ping Pong Hilarity
• Flag Football
• The Pros and Cons of Sports

Of course, his sister was the one who tattled on him. His brothers knew well what he was doing, since they sleep in the same room. I guess I know who’s loyal to whom. And even though Stephen was being disobedient to be up after we had put him to bed, how can any decent parent spank a child who is diligently doing his math? This is just a plain weird situation.

The sad part of it all for Stephen is the fact that he did the entire bonus section in the back of the book, which I wasn’t going to require him to do. Yep. He did six MORE days of math than was required by me, and I don’t have the heart to tell him that he did too much. Maybe that will be his punishment…

Using Simple Costumes and Props to Teach the Bible (2:30pm Friday, Room 111)
How do you get your children excited about the Word of God? How about living it? Bring Scripture to life for your kids with easy costumes and props, and help them to find delight in the Word of God for a lifetime. There are so many wonderful stories in the Bible that will cause your children to internalize the characters and therefore understand the Word of God with greater clarity. Come see how easy it can be! (This is a 2-part session, with a half-hour break between the 2 sessions.)

Homeschooling a Reluctant Writer ( 10:30am Saturday, Room 8 )
How do you get the reluctant writers in your homeschool to enjoy writing? Susan Evans will show you a low-stress way to pull a fun story out of your children, allowing their interests and personality to shine through. Your children will actually want to write more, because they will be excited about their topic. She will show you how to break up writing assignments so they are not so overwhelming. She will also let you in on the most important key to successful revisions without tears. If you have a reluctant writer in your homeschool, you will not want to miss this session.

Anyone attending my live workshops will get 20% off everything on my table. There is a fee at the door to the entire conference (I think it’s $20 at the door, which is less than half of most conferences.) The money is used to fly in speakers from out of town to make the homeschool conference awesome.

To see a list of the other speakers, click on the link above.

The vendor hall includes Timberdoodle, Answers in Genesis, Rod and Staff Books, Sonlight Curriculum, Teaching Textbooks, and more. It’s a great time to touch the actual curriculum and flip through it to see if it’s what you want to buy instead of ordering something and being disappointed that it was different than what you thought.

Homeschool conferences are a refreshing place to get re-charged to continue homeschooling, and to be inspired to have new ideas of what you would like to incorporate into your homeschool next year. I can’t wait to see you there!

Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study is on the public domain and available to download for free at this site. It is both an encyclopedia and a living book. I love the way she writes in a personal style, completely unlike any other book with nature descriptions. I quote from this book in my homeschool conference workshop Using Journals to Teach Writing.

Armed with the best nature study book, a book list for each grade level, and some fun activities to do outdoors, these three sites should help you to homeschool if you enjoy using the Charlotte Mason method.

These sessions are free if you come live, so it’s a waste to at least not attend these workshops, which highlight big name speakers. Here is the link to join us: Listen Live page

Monday April 30

10am (Central)  Raising World Changers (Meredith Curtis) Twelve men, mentored by Jesus, turned the world upside-down. Your homeschooled teens can change the world for the glory of God before and after graduation. Homeschool with purpose so that you focus on what is truly the most important as you equip your children for life, beginning in the early years.

12 noon (Central) Cathy Duffy: Interview  Come bring your questions to Cathy Duffy, who has an extensive knowledge in the area of homeschool curriculum, having reviewed it since 1984.

Tuesday May 1

8am (Central) Give Me One Good Reason to Homeschool (Davis Carman, president of Apologia Curriculum)  In this session, Davis discusses the moral, academic, and practical reasons to homeschool, and helps dispel the myths we all tend to believe.

12 noon (Central) Building a Home Library (Mary Jo Tate) Mary Jo shares the influences that developed her lifelong love of books and encourages homeschoolers to use “living books” with their children. She offers practical suggestions for finding worthy books and incorporating them into your family’s life and education.

 Wednesday May 2

8am (Central) Become Published (Carol Topp) Find out how you or your child can become a published author. Carol Topp specializes in helping teens start micro-businesses.

12 noon (Central) Busy Homeschool Mom (Heidi St. John) Have you ever experienced a series of days, weeks or even months when you felt like you just could NOT get on top of all that you had to do? Have you just decided that it’s either school or dinner? Most moms struggle with finding a balance when it comes to homeschooling and staying on top of the rest of your day.

Thursday May 2

8am (Central) The Lazy Student: What’s a Mom to Do? (Kim Katuzer) No matter how much time you allow, why is it that your student waits till the very last minute to tackle a writing assignment? Is it procrastination . . . or just plain laziness? In this session, Kim helps you discover the similarities and differences between procrastination and laziness, and offers practical advice on helping your dawdler set—and meet—writing goals and deadlines.

12 noon (Central) Packing a Punch with Maps and Timelines (Tyler Hogan) Do timelines intimidate you? Maps make you crosseyed? These two tools can be your best friends for history, geography, literature, and so much more. Come learn how to make the most of these wonderful resources in a way that works for your family!

Friday May 3

8am (Central) Lapbook Tips (Katie Kubesh) We know that lapbooking can be a little overwhelming, especially for new lapbookers or those who have many students to work with.  So we have compiled a list of some tips and tricks that we have found helpful when completing lapbooks with our children and some helpful hints that have been passed on to us by our customers!

12 noon (Central) Hal and Melanie Young will deliver the grand finale workshop. They specialize in raising real men: surviving, teaching and appreciating boys in your homeschooling.