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Homeschool Conference in Spokane

Friday, April 5th, 2013

I will be speaking at a homeschool conference in Spokane, WA on April 13, 2013. This conference is free because for the first time in years we are not flying in any out-of-town speakers. The conference is from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Location: Valley Bible Church, 3021 S. Sullivan Rd, Veradale, WA 99037. The full schedule is here.

I will be teaching the following two workshops, which I will be recording on DVD:

homeschool-conference-in-spokaneLiving Geography: Travel the World from your Living Room

Learn how to plunge into different cultures from your own living room! Lots of hands-on and edible experiences will be demonstrated, along with how to incorporate creative writing into your study of geography. Map-making, cultural foods, fake passports, geocaching, and virtual world travel will be presented in this wonderful workshop that will pump life into your homeschool geography class!

homeschool-conference-in-spokane-3Living Science: Bringing the Outdoors into your Home

This workshop will show you how to bring the outdoors into your home, so that your children can observe nature first-hand in a more in-depth manner, even during the winter. Find out how to bring to life different science topics, creating unit studies for your elementary-aged children. Set up science learning centers and create three-dimensional models of whatever you are studying. Make a tunnel slide for the esophagus on your stairs, traveling to the the stomach (the landing) with squirting water, then winding down the stairs through the intestines. Your science will never be the same!

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New Unit Studies for April

Monday, April 1st, 2013

unit-studiesTonight I’m uploading 5 new unit studies to the Unit Study Treasure Vault:

  • Invertebrates Unit Study
  • Crustacean Unit Study
  • Spider Unit Study
  • Insect Unit Study
  • Feast of Purim

Here is the behind-the-scenes story of how I was able to pull off 5 new unit studies while finishing the revisions on the manuscript of my book on prayer, meeting an agent of a Christian publishing company, attending a writers’ conference, writing a book proposal, attending a wedding out of town, and going to choir practice and singing in choir twice on Easter while hosting a homeschooling family with 7 children at my house 3 nights over Easter weekend. The mother of the homeschooling family went to prom with my husband, just to complicate matters. And when I said to my mother that I wasn’t cooking Easter dinner this year because of choir, God had other plans obviously, because somehow I threw a big Easter dinner on the table. (Yes, the ham was cold because I had to cook it a couple of days before. And we had a lovely centerpiece with the empty tomb.)

I just want to mention briefly that when my sister announced that she was going to get married in two weeks (instead of in June; why wait?), my husband was out of town that weekend at the Shepherd’s Conference at John MacArthur’s church in California. My in-laws watched the kids, and I got (miraculously) inexpensive plane tickets just days before the wedding. Since I’m doing a Beth Moore Bible Study, I was convicted that I never talk to unbelievers, so I asked God to seat me beside someone that I could lead to Christ. Well, there was this one woman who I spoke with for 5 hours whose face turned from bitterness to joy. She didn’t want me to leave when the plane landed. I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence the entire time, leading me to say a lot of hard things that I never would have said if she hadn’t kept asking me questions.

It was also my dad’s birthday in March, and I usually have him over for dinner and presents. I asked him if he didn’t mind me filming the Feast of Purim for his birthday party, since he loves biblical topics. He said yes, and I was glad. Because of sick kids, I had to postpone the feast. I froze the dough for the pastries, and when I filmed rolling out the pastry, it was so sticky. The pastries tasted great, but they were a pain in the patootee because of stickiness. Then I just made up a rendition of the book of Esther while the kids acted out the story with masks, and the audience booed and shook groggers. Before filming, I asked God to help me, and it turned out GREAT! I will be uploading the masks (as downloadables) later this month and the script of what I said to have each character come in and out of the scene. My husband acted the part of Haman and did a superb job. My parents asked him if he ever won awards for acting, and he said yes, in high school he won awards for acting. I guess you learn something new every day. Ha!

We did a couple of dissections: a worm for the Invertebrates Unit Study and a crayfish for the delicious Crustacean Unit Study. The Invertebrates Unit Study ended up being almost an hour because I had done so many activities.

The Spider Unit Study was GREAT! On the high school level, the kids drew a diagram of the anatomy of the spider and learned about the different kinds of webs. I told my kids to go outside to find some webs I could film. I said I would pay them 10 cents for each web. One of my sons hit the jackpot when he went into the shed. There were tangle webs, sheet webs, exoskeletons of spiders, and spider egg sacks. We shone our flashlights around the shed, and I LOVED the footage we got! I went to a pet store and filmed a tarantula. I asked God to move the tarantula, and it moved right up to the camera! I made up a super cool easy craft for a spider web and a spider. They looked so good, and I’ve never seen them done before.

The Insect Unit Study was also fabulous. God is so good to me. What God calls you to do, He sustains you to do. God called me to do this unit study site, and He gives me so much joy in doing it. I’m working full time 40 hours a week on my Unit Study Treasure Vault, which is why it can’t be free. But I keep getting good chills about especially the spiritual videos that I’m doing. Last month I recorded the Armor of God, and part of it was my children sharing the gospel with each other. My 7-year-old daughter wanted to share the gospel straight into the camera, and it turned out so beautiful I cried.

So if any of you prayed for me this past month, thank you for your prayers. I finished all the new unit studies for the month, along with everything else God required me to do. I pray every day for my unit study members, that God would bless you above and beyond the small fee you give straight to my family each month. I love you guys!

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What Have We Been Doing This Week?

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

what-have-we-been-doing-this-weekThis week we’ve been reading and discussing A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 during Bible class with my kids. It has been so wonderful to see this familiar Psalm in a new light. The discussions we’ve had about being fully surrendered to our great Shepherd have been beautiful. The sheep analogy in Scripture is highly enlightening, and there are many reasons why Jesus uses the example of us being sheep.

In my own personal devotions, I’m doing a Beth Moore Bible study on David, Seeking a Heart Like His. It was well-timed that I happened to be reading that other book to my kids, which has shed light on my women’s Bible study that I do each Wednesday at church. Of course, I missed two times because I was gone to Texas for a week, intensely studying the topic of prayer for an upcoming book. So I’m also reading a book about prayer that my best friend gave me while I was in Texas. I read a couple of chapters while at my sons’ basketball practice last night. It spurred a great conversation with my husband later that evening, about the prayerlessness of Christians and how much God wants to change our lives through prayer, if only we would take the time to do so.

The children missed a couple of days of math while I was gone. My husband’s explanation was that they went to Grandma’s house, but I don’t see why they couldn’t have done their math at Grandma’s house. I guess we’ll be doing math into June…

The kids missed their biology lessons that I normally film for the Unit Study Treasure Vault. So we’ve had to double up and do two lessons a day for the last few days. It’s a Genetics Unit Study, chapter 8 in Apologia Biology. The kids have been doing punnet squares all week. We had hilarious fun making a large punnet square with potato head people. I filmed everything, of course. I’m going to take pictures of feet, noses, and ears in our family and make photo pedigrees of our family, showing, for example, that my long stringy toes are dominant over my husband’s short stubby toes. My dad’s toes were long like mine, and all of my sisters have long toes. It’s funny which genes end up being dominant or recessive.

I’m getting ready to film a demonstration on how to put together a history notebook. I will be using my children’s Renaissance binders as an example, and I will be putting it into the Treasure Vault. I’m waiting until after I’m finished with the Genetics Unit Study before starting Macbeth for history/literature. Thankfully my goal was to get through as many Shakespeare plays as I could, making sure my kids thoroughly understood each one, so I’m not behind by skipping a month. (January has been crazy!) We’ve studied Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet so far, and I’m hoping to cover Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream before the summer. We’ve also studied the Renaissance in general, the Reformation, and great artists and explorers. I still want the kids to make some ships out of materials around the house. I might end up doing that over the summer…

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Linked to Home Grown Learners: Collage Friday

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Unit Studies for Homeschool

Friday, December 7th, 2012

Where can you find unit studies for homeschoolers? Some of you were asking for a tour of my huge Unit Study Treasure Vault. It’s loaded with almost 1,000 rich pages of fun material for unit studies, all instantly available when you join as a member. Over 100 unit studies are there, with supporting articles and embedded videos. Take a look:

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Characteristics of Effective Teachers

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Close your eyes for a moment and try to remember the most effective teachers you ever had. What made those teachers so great? Conversely, do you remember any teachers who made you more confused, who after listening to them, you actually understood less? It’s important to understand this if you are a homeschool parent, because you are the most important teacher for your children, often their only teacher while they live at home.

For me, my poetry professor in college was my favorite teacher of all time. To be honest, he sometimes would make loud sudden movements that would scare me half out of my wits. But he loved his subject. He savored those poems like a dripping, juicy steak. He made me want to read more, and his insights were fresh and personal, because he himself interacted with the material he was teaching. He was excited about it, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

I had a grammar teacher in college who was extremely confusing. I already understood and loved grammar, and I got 100% on all the exams. But everyone else in the class failed, because her explanations were convoluted, unclear, and tedious. I think she must have been unprepared. Maybe she didn’t understand grammar. Her monotone voice was difficult to listen to, and she seemed angry. After being in her class, I began to dislike grammar.

Before I became a certified teacher, I listed what I loved about good teachers, and what I disliked about ineffective teachers. I decided that I would avoid the bad parts and become the best teacher I could, for the sake of bringing joy to my students. You can do the same thing as a homeschool mom. Why not bring joy to your children instead of exasperation? Every homeschool mom can be a great teacher.

Ineffective Teachers

  • didn’t care about what they were teaching
  • didn’t look at the subject ahead of time to see the most effective way to present something
  • impatient with students
  • talked down to students in an angry tone
  • vague, ambiguous, unclear
  • did not interact personally with the material

Effective Teachers

  • genuinely excited about the topic they were teaching
  • talked to my level instead of talking down to me
  • brought the subject to life, made me want to know more
  • attention to detail
  • creative
  • mentally stimulating
  • could spend hours with them, talking about one subject
  • time went by fast; wanted to stay longer to hear more
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Evans Homeschool Schedule: Fall 2012

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

homeschool-scheduleBefore I type out our homeschool schedule and courses for this school year, I would like to say that if your children are not in high school, there is no reason to do more than one unit study at a time. Do math first thing in the morning; then an in-depth unit study should include (over the course of the year) history, science, literature, reading, writing, and art. Unit studies are the best way to learn, where you splash into one topic and surround yourself with it. All high school and college courses are in-depth unit studies. There is no other way to learn something in a thorough fashion. If you are interested in gardening, and you voraciously read everything you can get your hands on about gardening, you are doing a personal unit study on gardening.

Textbooks are thin rocks skimming upon the surface of a pond, never going deeply enough to give true knowledge that can be remembered for the rest of your life. Textbooks are churning out illiterate children in our public school system (a failing system), and the only reason private schools are successful with textbooks is because the creative teachers make the material into unit studies. I’ve seen it with my own eyes when I was a teacher in the schools, and I’m telling you the truth.

My 10-year-old and 12-year-old have been ready for high school science for years because they have done all the sciences in depth already through unit studies. (My Unit Study Treasure Vault includes our unit studies we’ve done over the years to get to such a high level so young.) My 10-year-old and 12-year-old both read on a college level. I believe their deep knowledge in all subject areas is due to the great unit studies we’ve done.

I don’t feel comfortable sending young teenagers to college to be influenced by ungodly professors at such a formative time in their lives. For this reason I did not start high school biology when my older two kids were 8 and 10, even though they were ready. After praying about it and not wanting to hold them back any longer, I’ve decided to teach high school biology this year, using Apologia Biology.

This year we are doing a Renaissance Unit Study. It’s really a literature unit study, since Shakespeare is the main topic we will be covering. We’ve already watched our first Shakespeare play, and the kids enjoyed it. We will be doing lots of art this year, too.

Bryan (12 years old)

  • Algebra
  • Biology
  • Shakespeare/Renaissance
  • Karate/Swimming

Stephen (10 years old)

  • Pre-Algebra
  • Biology
  • Shakespeare/Renaissance
  • Flag football/Basketball/Swimming

Nathaniel (9 years old)

  • 6th grade math
  • Science kits and unit studies, delight-directed
  • Shakespeare/Renaissance
  • Flag football/Basketball/Swimming

Rachel (7 years old)

  • 3rd grade math
  • Science kits and unit studies, delight-directed
  • Shakespeare/Renaissance
  • Gymnastics/Swimming

SCHEDULE:

  • 7am-8am: Math
  • 8am-9am: Bible/Breakfast/Reading
  • 9am-10am: ~break~
  • 10am-11am: Biology
  • 11am-noon: ~break~
  • Noon-1pm: Shakespeare/Renaissance/Lunch
  • 1pm-2pm: ~silent reading~

My older two sons are reading G.A. Henty historical fiction books during “naptime,” when it is quiet at my house. They are reading through the Renaissance time period. (Last year they read the Henty books set during the medieval time period.) My sons just read a fun book about microscopes during their silent reading time as well, since the first chapter in biology includes becoming familiar with microscopes. I will film what we do and put it into my Unit Study Treasure Vault.

My younger two children read to me right after breakfast. I sometimes throw in a craft for the kids to do around 9am. If any of the kids woke up at 8am instead of 7am, they do their math after breakfast. I sometimes work one-on-one with a child for writing. Otherwise they relax and play. My 3rd son played with snap circuits during part of his free time this week. My daughter had a tea party with her dolls. My oldest son likes to draw during his free time, and my second son loves reading Calvin and Hobbes comic books during his free time, giggling to himself. This is my day in a nutshell.

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Unit Study Treasure Vault Almost Here!

Friday, September 7th, 2012

I’m on the edge of my seat, about to launch the biggest project I’ve ever done, which has grown way beyond what I imagined. It’s the fruition of 20 years’ worth of work, since I’ve been an educator for two decades. It’s a membership site where all my unit studies are in categories, with supporting materials beneath them, usually in the form of video demonstrations. It includes over 100 unit studies for homeschool. There are almost 1,000 supporting videos and articles, showing you how to homeschool your children with unit studies.

I’ve had people e-mailing me, asking for the book list for each of my unit study time periods. It took me many hours to track down all the books that I used, but these lists are now in my Unit Study Treasure Vault, followed by a list of activities in the order I did them while homeschooling my own children.

The science section has subject headings, and all the articles, videos, and field trips I did for each subject are under each heading. And I’ve added more high quality videos from the best of what the internet has to offer. I will be filming three exclusive demonstration videos found nowhere else on earth but in my Treasure Vault each month, plus I will continuously be adding to each category.

There’s a geography section, a literature section, an art section, a field trip section, and I will be adding more sections in the upcoming months. But each section is substantial and large already. That’s the crazy thing about it. And it will only be growing.

The Bible section is one of my favorite sections. Years ago I wrote Charlotte Mason style summaries for each book of the Bible, turning them in to my pastor for a class that took two years. My own father was a pastor and a missionary for 30 years (as well as a seminary professor), and he and my mother are helping me to edit the summaries and upload them to the Bible section of the Treasure Vault. Under each book of the Bible, I will be creating wonderful activities. This one section will eventually have hundreds of original hands-on learning activities. Even though I’m creating all these materials for homeschool moms, Sunday school teachers would also benefit from it. It might become so huge that it will need a whole separate Bible Treasure Vault. Who knows? The whole thing gives me so much joy, I can hardly contain it.

In fact, the whole idea for this Treasure Vault was birthed in joy. My husband had taken the kids swimming one evening, and I sat there in silence in the house, asking God what He wanted me to do with my business. I opened my heart to God and waited. Suddenly the idea for the Unit Study Treasure Vault came to me, and the individual ideas came like a waterfall, hundreds of ideas, and I had so much joy in the Spirit. I am exactly in the center of the will of God right now. In God’s presence is fullness of joy.

My husband is a computer programmer who happens to be my webmaster, so he has been writing computer code all summer long. I’m not kidding. He’s hardly been sleeping at all the last few weeks in preparation for this launch. My husband told me last night, “This is the biggest thing you’ve ever done, and you’re blogging about a hammock. We’re days from launching. I’m surprised you haven’t been getting e-mails saying, ‘What’s going on?’”

“Oh, I’m getting e-mails, and I’m answering each of them one by one. Those women are excited about the Vault and can’t wait.”

We have a couple of small glitches which are being worked out. We might launch tonight. Or Monday. The time is near…

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The Unit Study Treasure Vault is now open!!

 

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Spokane Washington Homeschool Conference

Monday, May 7th, 2012

I’m looking forward to speaking at the CFHE Convention (Christian Family Home Educators) here in Spokane, Washington on May 11th and 12th. I will be doing two workshops:

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!

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