2010 Conference Speakers
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Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Jay Wile
Dr. Jay L. Wile holds a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry and a B.S. in
chemistry, both from the University of Rochester. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching and has presented lectures on the topics of Nuclear Chemistry, Christian Apologetics, Homeschooling, and Creation vs.Evolution. He is best known for his award-winning “Exploring Creation With...” series of science textbooks. His teaching credentials include:The University of Rochester, Indiana University, Ball State University, and the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities
Diana Waring
Extremely happily married since 1979, Bill and Diana Waring homeschooled their three children nearly twenty years. The Waring kids (now all grown) were the proving grounds for all the concepts and encouragements Bill and Diana teach—real-life examples of the wonders of home schooling!
Diana and Bill have worked in speaking and writing for the Christian home school community for 18 years. Through their business/ministry Diana Waring Presents (formerly, Diana Waring-History Alive!), they have met and talked with home schoolers in 45 states, half of Canada, all of New Zealand, and three other continents. The curriculum for world history study Diana wrote, beginning in 1994, has been growing and expanding. She is in the midst of a five-year effort to update and expand the research and presentation of the material. She is well known for her rapid-fire history recordings and presentations, and also for her workshops and books of home school encouragement, like Beyond Survival and Reaping the Harvest. Diana developed the application of these fascinating concepts while she was reading and being mentored concerning how students learn and how teachers can facilitate learning. The Waring's mission: "To serve families by encouraging, equipping, and educating in an entertaining way."
They currently serve on the Board of Directors for Washington Association of Teaching Christian Homes.
Special Guests:
Eric Burges
Eric Burges is the husband of Joyce Burges and father of five children ages 34 to 15. Eric Burges and his wife, Joyce, have homeschooled for nearly 23 years. Their four older children are graduated and only their youngest daughter is still being home educated. Eric is an artist, speaker, song writer, and singer, as well as a licensed minister. For three years, Eric Burges served as the president of CHEF of Louisiana.
Eric and his wife are the founders of the National Black Home Educators. The vision for this organization is to strengthen families across the country. “Families, where there is a husband and wife team are becoming dinosaurs,” says Eric. “There are voices invading our society and our communities hoping to silence the voice of the traditional family. We exist and are still alive and well and making a difference. It is my goal and passion to remind and refresh this generation and the next one with another option – the family one.”
Joyce Burges
Joyce Burges is a gifted singer, homeschool mother, counselor, and lecturer. Though her four oldest children have graduated, she is still home educating her fifteen year old daughter. As a mother helping other mothers, Joyce also home schools former public and private school children who need one to one attention.
She and her husband Eric founded the National Black Home Educators, an organization that is not exclusive, but includes all parents as they are empowered to educate their children for excellence. Their heart is to see home educating parents and non-home educating parents alike recognize the incredible role they can play in their child’s educational journey.
Joyce recently released a new CD entitled, “Forever Hymn.” It is a jazzy rendition of the traditional hymns. She is touring locally and nationally, inspiring others with her message - empowering parents to educate their children for excellence. Her desire is to stimulate her true passion - loving, supporting, and caring for children.
Friday Evening
Rod & Jennifer CarlsonRod and Jennifer have been married for 35 years and have three adult sons. For the past seven years they have been traveling full-time presenting the ministry of Living Logos. The primary thrust of Living Logos is to challenge believers in Jesus Christ to embrace the discipline of memorizing God’s Word. They engage their listeners to
consider this challenge by showing them how it is done. A Living Logos event includes the dramatic recitation of a complete book of scripture, their testimony, and a challenge to ‘get going!’ In other words, they practice what they preach. Rod has been memorizing scripture for over ten years, Jennifer for six. He is currently memorizing his sixth book (Revelation); Jennifer is choosing her fourth. After ten years of memorization it is their opinion that memorizing scripture is the most significant thing they have ever done in their walk with Christ. It has been powerfully fruitful in their lives, as well as the lives of the many who have responded to their challenge to make God’s Word a much higher personal priority.
Through the ministry of Living Logos, Rod and Jennifer have seen close to four hundred people make decisions for Christ and almost ten thousand respond to begin memorizing scripture. In addition to their travels across the U.S., in recent years the ministry has taken them across western Canada and opened doors in Peru, Fiji, Ukraine, Hungary, England and Scotland.
Terry Small
Terry Small, B.Ed., M.A., is a master teacher and learning skills specialist.
He has presented on the brain for over 34 years to organizations around the world.. His knowledge, warmth, humour and dynamic presentation style have made him a much sought-after speaker at workshops and conferences. Terry has been on television, the 
radio and in the press. He recently appeared on BCTV, Global, CKNW and Student Success. He has presented his ideas to over 200,000 people.
His clients include IBM, Ford, Bayer, Bosch, CRA, and many others.
Terry believes, "Anyone can learn how to learn easier, better, faster, and that learning to learn is the most important skill a person can acquire."
Terry's wealth of teaching experience and extensive involvement in applied neuroscience and make him an outstanding resource of the business and educational communities. He resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he is a frequent lecturer at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia.
Terry Small's Philosophy is simple: "Success is a skill anyone can learn."
www.terrysmall.com
Workshop Speakers:
Tambra BirkebakTambra Birkebak is on her 20th year of homeschooling four children (now 1 high school senior and 3 college graduates). An Occupational Therapist by profession, she embraced the freedom of homeschooling to prioritized hands-on
learning, student exploration, and character development, ........and as a mother of 4, the art of keeping it all low cost. She saw a strong family connection, a rich educational environment, and a good dose of flexibility as key to facilitating a love of learning and the pursuit of personal passions. She has wore many hats over the years, including leadership and teaching in several Co-Ops, roles in HSA and WHO, Advisor for a high school Youth & Government Homeschool Delegation, and individual high school tutoring. Barbara Blakey
Barbara Tifft Blakey is a free-lance writer and author of Total Language Plus, a literature inspired language arts program. Bertie’s War, her debut novel was released in April, 2009. She and her husband Terry have been married for over 38 years and have four children, three of whom were home-schooled through high school. Barbara is a nationally-known speaker presenting workshops and seminars on a variety of topics for public and private schools, Christian women’s groups, home-schooling conventions and support groups for over 17 years. She makes her home in Olympia, Washington where she conducts writing workshops and teaches literature-inspired classes to home school groups.Candice Broman Childs
Candice used to be one of “them” (public school teacher) until she repented upon the birth of her first child and became a stay-at-home mom. She homeschooled her children over the next 2 decades while co-founding Family Academy/Academy NW. As a professional educator totally committed to homeschooling since the early 1980’s, she has assisted numerous parents with the Able to Teach course and helped hundreds of students through high school. Daniel Ellis
Daniel Ellis co-developed the Artistic Pursuits curriculum for grades Preschool – 12 along with his wife and author, Brenda Ellis. He and his wife homeschooled their three children. He is a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, with a BFA in painting and printmaking. Dan taught art, photography, and art history at the high school level, and art to elementary students for ten years. Now traveling throughout the US from March to July, Dan speaks to homeschoolers at conventions about topics related to art education. ^ Back to TopPatrick Nurre
Author of the enlightening book, Genesis – Rock Solid, Patrick Nurre has been a rock hound since childhood and has an extensive rock, mineral and fossil collection, having collected from all over the United States. In 2005, he started Northwest Treasures, which is devoted to designing geology kits for schools. He conducts numerous field trips each year in Washington State to such places as the Olympic Peninsula, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, the Channeled Scablands, Mt. Baker and Whidbey Island. In addition, he also gives field trips to the volcano loop of Oregon and California, Mt. Hood volcanic area (Oregon), the eastern badlands of Montana and Yellowstone National Park He is available to speak at homeschool conventions, schools, and churches. For a list of his topics, go to his website at www.northwestrockandfossil.com Patrick currently co-pastors a church in the Seattle, Washington area for the Great Commission Churches association.Vicki Nurre
Vicki Nurre has MM in flute performance and a BM in music composition, and brings an extensive knowledge of music to her seminars. She is a published composer and arranger, and currently works as an accompanist for the award winning Columbia Choirs (Redmond) and in the past for the internationally acclaimed Indianapolis Children's Choir. Her work in accompanying led to her writing a handbook for accompanists and conductors, Accompanying and the Choir. In addition, she has taught flute and piano for over 40 years. Her experience includes working in chamber music, with instrumental groups of all sizes and performing classical, jazz and rock. In addition, she has performed on numerous recordings, and she coordinates and leads the music at her church. Vicki is married to Patrick and they have three children and one grandchild. Although their children are grown, and the homeschooling is over, Pat and Vicki maintain close ties to the homeschool community, especially through their work with WATCH.
Jay and Heidi St. John
Jay and Heidi have been married since 1989, and have spent nearly 20 years in full-time ministry, serving in churches across the Pacific Northwest as a pastor and worship leader. They have six children and are expecting their seventh blessing this Thanksgiving. 
With a growing family and a recent homeschool graduate, the St. Johns are still very much on the homeschool journey. They call it "diapers to diploma"!Jay and Heidi are the founders and executive directors of First Class Homeschool Ministries, a parachurch ministry with a vision to plant homeschool co-ops in churches from coast to coast.
Jay brings a level of expertise and a humility that invites others to a time of trueworship. Heidi is a phenomenal speaker, engaging and funny, witty and honest. Her first book, "The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Romance: Nurturing Your Marriage Through the Homeschool Years" was published this spring. They bring refreshment and encouragement wherever they go. We are so delighted to have them back at WATCH as speakers, worship leaders and hosts of the WATCH Teen Program.
Melody Waring
Melody Waring was homeschooled k-12. In 2007, she graduated with a Government.jpg)
major from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and promptly moved to Belize, Central America, as a volunteer coordinator. This adventure led to Oakland, California, for a 6 month internship with TransFair, USA, to learn about nonprofits and fundraising. Forr the last year, Melody has been working with refugees at East African Community Services in Seattle.
