You recently had the opportunity to purchase the Gram Slam Grammar Game on sale from Lancaster Learning, so I thought you might like to learn more about this growing company! I recently interviewed Camille Lancaster of Lancaster Learning.

Give us a general overview of your company and the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.
Lancaster Learning Co. started in 2007 after several failed attempts to find simple, affordable games to reinforce the concepts of vocabulary development, grammar usage, math application, and phonics with my own children. As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I was already a seasoned developer of speech and language materials for a company who publishes products for therapy professionals. My game, ConverStation, was a Toy of the Year finalist in 2005 from Creative Child Magazine and has often been cited as a best-seller in the field of language products. I itially thought my new game ideas would be printed as hard copies and sold through online stores and teacher resource companies. However, the cost to print game boards, decks of cards, get custom made boxes, not to mention the cost of adding in dice and game pieces, would have made these games too costly for the average parent to purchase. 

The company decided to publish these games as e-Games to reach the market they were intended for.  I knew that most of my friends had computers and color-printers. I also knew many of them had previously purchased e-Books in the under $10 range on a variety of topics.  I thought, 'Why wouldn’t they buy these e-Games if they were easy to download, easy to print, and very affordable?' It was quite an adventure getting the games set-up as PDF files and making sure all the necessary information was properly embedded in the documents.  There were many trial and error moments, but the finished products are easy to print, easy to play, very affordable, and help make learning fun!

Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company.
At Lancaster Learning Co., I use her own 5 children–ages 3-12–as the test group. We can print out the prototype of the games, play them at the kitchen table, and make notes on how they can be improved. Our hope is to make these games as simple as possible for the families who purchase them. It is so frustrating to buy a new game, have the kids sitting and ready to play, and then have to spend an hour reading the instructions. I hope that’s not the case with our e-Games. 

How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?
Our e-Games are specifically geared toward the homeschooling family because they are very affordable, very easy to use, and cover a variety of topics that apply to most children.  Most everyone who homeschools these days has access to a computer and printer –even if it’s at the library.  That makes our games accessible to a huge market.  We also develop games based on needs we see in our own children, or needs other people share with me.  For example, the curriculum we used 3 years ago, was packed full of great vocabulary words. The writers had purposefully given an expanded list of vocabulary words for each unit, but unfortunately, gave very little information on how to teach these new words.  I thought, if I wasn’t already a Language Specialist, would I really understand the importance of vocabulary building or even know how to teach it.  Besides making up flashcards for each unit–what could a parent use to teach these new words? This is when Victory Vocab was finalized. I had developed the prototype years earlier while working with junior high age students with language delays who were also poor readers.  The products on the market that were age-appropriate for them often required much higher reading levels than these students possessed.  

I came up with a vocabulary game that worked for them. As I began to apply this same concept to my own children, the new game was born. Students in other educational settings have all types of games and learning projects to reinforce concepts such as math, grammar, vocabulary, and phonics. It isn’t feasible for homeschooling families to buy all these resources, but it is certainly possible for them to purchase our e-Games to make learning fun and reinforce the same concepts at home. To better benefit the customers at TOS, I highly recommend that if anyone has a specific area they need help in, to contact us and let us see what we can come up with. We appreciate any feedback we get from our customers. Thank you for making this last year a success!

Which of your products are you most excited about?
I really love Math Market because it sparked such an interest from Jay.  It just launched at the beginning of 2009–although it has been floating around our house for quite some time.  Jay Lancaster, co-owner of Lancaster Learning Co. and my husband, is an engineer and has tutored upper-level math on many occasions.  He just loves math and anything analytical. With his help, Math Market was developed to help children apply the concepts they are learning. Everyone will at some time or another purchase items at a store, so why not use this as the basis for a game?  It brings the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to life. 

The other game I really like is Q-Grandparents edition. This little game doesn’t get much attention–but from a “family” perspective--it probably has the most impact of any game we have. Growing up, my grandparents were a vital part of my family.  As I entered my teen years, my dearest grandfather passed away. Fortunately, because of all the time we spent together, I knew just about everything there was to know about him. Many children don’t live near their grandparents and don’t get to spend this one-on-one time with them. A few years ago, my own family set out to trace our family tree and put it into a memory book. We were able to trace our ancestors back to around 1500! It was amazing. We also typed up a questionnaire for our living grandparents to fill out and we incorporated their answers into our memory book along with their pictures. I began to think of a way to make these questions into a game format.  Parents who download Q-Grandparents can easily print out the cards, laminate them, slip them onto a key ring, and pop them in their purse or bag. 

When the kids do get to spend time with their grandparents, they just take out the cards and begin asking questions. You might be surprised to find out your grandmother hasn’t always had wrinkles and gray hair. She was once a vibrant young girl who had hopes and dreams for her life just like everyone else. I am so grateful for the time I’ve had with my grandparents and would wish for all families to have this connection to the generations before them, too. 

What new items can we expect to see from your company in the next year?
We have three new games coming out very soon!  They were inspired by a fellow Speech Therapist who asked me to come up with some ways to teach blends to preschoolers and beginning readers.  When she first mentioned this, my older children were already fluent readers and my younger children were still toddlers.  When my 6 year old began reading last year, I was reminded how difficult it is for children to learn the rules of the English alphabet.  These new games are exciting ways to teach beginning readers the relationship between letters and their sounds–specifically the sounds in blends–-such as “skw” as in the word squirrel.  Just this week, I heard my daughter in the back seat trying to sound out a word she saw as we passed the car wash.  She was saying K-short A-ERRR.  Learning how the rules change when the letter R is paired with another letter, especially a vowel, can be challenging.  I hope these games really help!