We are excited to introduce you to Trigger Memory Systems!  We carry 10 products by Trigger Memory Systems in the Schoolhouse Store, including Times Tales and their Clean N' Flip chore systems. Below is an interview with owners Marillee Flanagan, Jennie von Eggers, and Dena Wood.

Give us a general overview of the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.

Marillee:  We found that both parents and children are tired of multiplication drills. So many times it is just vain repetition with very little success and a lot of frustration. Times Tales is a unique way of learning the upper times tables. Frequently, we hear from our customers how much fun their children had working through Times Tales and how they beg their parents to do more. Our Story Flipchart is made up of ten simple, one to two sentence stories that are easy to remember. When you begin the program, it is not even necessary to tell the child they are learning their upper times tables. Just have fun with the stories. Within an hour most children will have memorized their upper facts without even knowing it! The program also includes a Roll-em Cube Game, crossword puzzle, flashcards, assorted tests, and our Memory Story Guide. All these aid in "anchoring" the upper times tables in the student's memory. We have found this step-by-step process through which the student moves from stories to the actual multiplication facts is quick, highly effective and a great way to make multiplication FUN!

We now offer three Clean N' Flips in our series. The one that started it all is our Bedroom Cleaning for Kids. This Flip Chart offers a fun, step-by-step system to clean a messy bedroom. The pictures are easy to follow and it is a great tool for all ages. There is even an optional job list located in the back that allows the parent space to add extra jobs if needed. Our second Clean N' Flip is Zone Cleaning for Kids. This Flip Chart provides the child with a step-by-step system to clean the major areas of the home: kitchen, bathroom and living room. Again, the pictures are easy to follow and it is ideal for all ages. What is unique about this Flip Chart is that we designed it so the child can check off boxes as the jobs are completed. It can be used over and over again with the dry erase marker that we include with the product. It is also totally customizable for your individual family needs and offers several spots where the parent can add jobs to make it the perfect fit for your home.
 
We are excited to introduce our latest addition to the Clean N' Flip series- Laundry for Kids. This Flip Chart provides children with a step-by-step system on how to do the laundry. Again, it has easy-to-follow pictures and is great for all ages. All three of our Clean N' Flips help children visually and systematically work through various cleaning processes. They make it fun and easy for both parents and kids.

Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company.

Jennie:  When I was in high school, I would make up funny stories or acronyms to help memorize for tests. At the time, I had no idea I was using a memory tool called "mnemonics", I just knew that it worked. Later, when I was employed as a waitress, I again used mnemonics to help memorize orders without writing anything down. This proved to be quite profitable as customers were so impressed by my little "trick" they would often tip me generously. So, later in life when my two homeschooled boys were struggling to remember their upper times tables, it was a no-brainer to incorporate mnemonics in this area too. 

The boys and I made up a few silly stories for each math fact. By the next day, they had those pesky upper times tables down pat! I was amazed at how successful and easy it was. A few months later, while visiting my sister in Oregon, I told her about this little mnemonic trick I had used for my boys. She suggested that it might be something we could try to sell. Within two weeks, three of us homeschool moms (myself, my sister and a friend) formed a company called Trigger Memory Systems and started selling our first few copies of Times Tales on the Internet. Much to my surprise, I returned home from my visit to Oregon as a new co-owner of a company.

How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?

Jennie:  Most of our products geared toward visual and hands-on learning which work well with the homeschool lifestyle. We also strive to make sure anything we sell makes learning fun! We have heard from parents tell that when a Trigger Memory Systems package arrives it looks so fun they can hardly wait to get started. Another goal of ours is to keep all our products affordable and non-consumable.

Dena:  We feel that learning life skills and being an integral part of the "work" of family is critically important for children of all ages. Chores allow children to gain important skills, grow in self-confidence and develop a strong work ethic. Unfortunately, training in this area can often be pushed aside because Mom is short on time and it's easier to just take care of chores herself so that she can get to the schoolwork and other "important" duties. We understand that! Our Clean N' Flips series is aimed at making the training process as quick and easy for Mom as possible.

We also try and make the Flips as fun and enjoyable for the children as we can because a good attitude is such an important part of chore training. We know that a clean house, happy kids and a relaxed mommy can make a world of difference in the atmosphere of the home. We're hoping our Clean N' Flips help with all three.

Marillee:  Both Times Tales and the Clean N' Flips save time and reduce stress and frustration. Every homeschool can use that!

What new items can we expect to see from your company in the next year?

Dena:  We're working on a totally different type of product that we are all pretty excited about. It's a surprise, but involves an area all three of us are passionate about, will include both the parent and child, and should be a great deal of fun!

Which of your products are you most excited about? 

All:  We are really excited about our Times Tales program. A few months ago, we decided to offer a free trial download of Times Tales on our website.  This has been a huge success. It offers those customers that are curious how it works to test drive Times Tales and see it in action. 

What age groups are your products most appropriate for?

Dena:  The stories in Times Tales are geared toward your average third grade student learning their upper multiplication facts. However, the mnemonic device works for all ages. In fact, we've received several emails from moms who tell us they now remember their facts! By adapting the Memory Story Guide for older learners and moving quickly through the flipchart, the program works well as a memory tool for any age. I used Times Tales with a High School boy and a Junior High girl, both excellent students that just couldn't recall their facts. I spent less than 30 minutes with each and they were both able to recall the stories (and their facts) with no problem. Times Tales has also received a very enthusiastic response from parents of children of all ages who struggle with dyslexia.

Jennie:  Since our Clean N' Flips provide visual steps on how to complete chores, they work for any age. Even moms have emailed us telling how they use our Clean N' Flip System! At the same time, pre-readers can follow along simply by looking at the pictures. It truly is a "works for all ages" product.

What makes Times Tales unique from other math curriculums?

Dena:  I would not consider Times Tales a "curriculum". It is a memory tool, only. In fact, that's one of the reasons we don't include the lower facts in our program. We want to be sure children understand the math and feel they should be able to mentally calculate the lower facts quickly. Times Tales does not teach the concept of multiplication. It is simply a memorization tool that will save you hours and hours of time over the old flashcard method of memorization. We tested Times Tales on my then six year old daughter. She could quickly tell you what 7 x 8 or 9 x 9 was but would say, "I don't know" if you asked the answer to 1 x 1. For that reason, Times Tales is most definitely a supplement to your regular math program. The fun thing is that it doesn't matter when you use it. For example, when my daughter reached third grade we learned the concept of multiplication and the lower facts. Then I said, "You already know the rest because they're all Times Tales" and she did!

Will one clean and flip work for a family or should each child have their own?  Are they reusable?

Dena:  Either way will work. If your children are willing, the bedroom flips can easily be shared. However, at $7.95, it’s nice for each child to have their own. Personally, I would purchase just one Laundry flip and keep it in the laundry room. Zone Cleaning can be shared by the entire family and adapted to work best for your particular situation. An instruction insert offers suggestions for usage.

Can children with learning disabilities use your products?

Times Tales has received extensive praise from parents of learning disabled children. Recently, we experienced an overwhelming response from the Dyslexia community when Susan Barton, of Bright Solutions for Dyslexia, Inc., recommended Times Tales to her newsletter subscribers. Through the years, we've received many heartfelt testimonies about how Times Tales worked for a learning disabled child when others failed. Times Tales is simple and works for all types of learners.

Thank you Dena, Jennie, and Marillee!  

As always, if you have used any of these products, be sure to stop by and share how they worked for you in your homeschool! 

Now that we are entering into a brand new school year, do find yourself wishing you had something to keep your younger kids busy while you teach your older ones?  I would like to introduce to you-Activity Bags, LLC!  Below is a picture of owners Paula and Sherri, followed by an interview with Paula.

Give us a general overview of your company and the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.

“Activity Bags is owned and operated by co-authors Paula Reetz (that’s me) and Sherri MacLean.  We are both very busy homeschooling moms.  We began our company with our first book Preschool Activities in a Bag Book 1, which contains detailed instructions for assembling 34 preschool activities.  Each of these activities is assembled by Mom (or another caregiver) and placed into a 1 gallon zipper-type bag.  They are self-correcting and easy for the preschoolers to do all by themselves once they have been shown how.  We have expanded a bit and now offer Preschool Activities in a Bag Book 2 and Science Experiments in a Bag. 

Science Experiments in a Bag is the same idea as the preschool activities.  Included in each 1 gallon storage bag are all the non-perishable supplies for each science experiment, instructions to conduct the experiment, and an experiment log to record observations and conclusions.  As homeschool moms, we are aware that a lot of homeschoolers shy away from doing science experiments because it is a hassle to gather all the supplies for each experiment.  After a little bit of work assembling the science experiment bags, all Mom has to do to conduct an experiment is grab a bag and maybe a few common household perishable items and they are ready to conduct the experiment.  It’s all ready in the bag.  The big difference between the preschool activities and the science experiments is that the science experiments are not just for preschoolers, in fact, they were written with school age children in mind.   We offer all these books as e-books and also the preschool books as “real” books.  The Schoolhouse Store offers both Preschool Activities in a Bag books and Science Experiments in a Bag.”

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!

This week we are excited to introduce you to ARTistic Pursuits! We carry nine of their excellent art books ranging in age from kindergarten through high school. Following is an interview with Brenda Ellis, President of ARTistic Pursuits.


Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company.
I tell my children, all in their teens and early twenties, that it's important to follow one's interests, because you can't imagine what God will do with them. I've always loved pictures, created children's art projects, and had an interest in art history. I could never have dreamed as a college art student in my early twenties that I'd someday school my children at home (it was unheard of then) or that I'd have the opportunity to create an art curriculum on a home computer (non-existent in the late '70's).  As a young mother and homeschooler, I saw the opportunity to teach real art classes to other children, as well as my own, and did so in our Homeschool Coop and at Denver Public Libraries in after-school and week-end programs. One year I was asked by numerous people to find a curriculum for them that was similar to what I was doing in those classes. They wanted more and they wanted to do it at home. As I searched for one, to my surprise, I did not see any that fit my goals. The copy-the-adult model and step-by-step methods were predominant, and I didn't see anyone teaching children to be creative or work from their own interests, as children naturally want to do. My interest in art was suddenly expanded to studies of children's artistic development and methods of teaching the subject.  I was able to explore in depth my own interests related to art, and also present those ideas in the simple, direct ways that I wanted other subjects to be packaged for me as a homeschool mom. When work so directly follows one's interests, its very rewarding.

How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?
These books were written for homeschoolers by homeschoolers. Homeschoolers are serious about learning so there is content in these books that give children the information they want in order to succeed in art. Children are introduced to an idea through a variety of applications, and then make choices for their own art. The work produced is personal, meaningful to each child, and a unique creation of their own, using real art materials. Homeschoolers understand the need for creativity in their daily lives. Having left the beaten path of the Public School system, they face many choices. They want their children to be creative thinkers as well. Art is a natural training ground for the subject. The ARTistic Pursuits books are written in a way that is mindful of the homeschooling parents' limited time also. These books allow parents to give their children a great art education while requiring no preparation other than to purchase the art supplies listed in the front of each book.  Parents simply learn the content right along with the children as they read each ten-minute lesson. Children create art independently.

Which of your products are you most excited about? 
I love the self-confidence that ARTistic Pursuits, Grades K-3, Book One, An Introduction to the Visual Arts generates in children. The book has three sections featuring What Artists Do, What Artists See, and Ancient Art. It's a perfect introduction to the subject of art, because when a young child learns that artists compose, imagine, look, or communicate, and then creates a work of art doing the same things, who can argue when he/she says, "I'm an artist!" The second section gives a first introduction to the elements of art, which is the basis of an art education, and is revisited in much more detail in the upper grade levels. Finally, the ancient art history section is an opportunity to expand students' ideas of what art is. We explain that art is not just a picture on a wall, but cultures used it inside pyramids, in castles, on floors, on pots, in streets, in church windows, and more. Art is everywhere. Children with this broadened view of what art is notice more art in their own environments and have more ideas for creating their own art.

Give us a general overview of your company and the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.
We produce and distribute ARTistic Pursuits, an art curriculum series for homeschoolers in grades K-12. My husband, Dan, and I had several goals when creating the curriculum. Our first was to make a high school course that would prepare a homeschool student to enter college level courses with the foundation they need and to have a great college entrance portfolio. Secondly, we wanted to offer a comprehensive study, one that incorporated the creative aspect of making art, taught students how to look at art by the masters while introducing them to art history, and of course one that taught the necessary technical skills needed. We wanted students to become more aware of nature and to be able to make art from their own visual experiences and interests. We basically started backwards, thinking about the skills that should be in place as one enters college and continued to construct a framework to help young children get there. We began showing the high school books at homeschool conferences in 1999 and demand for our books at the lower levels was so high, that I continued to write for the next six years to complete the series.  We are very excited about the 2nd editions of each of the books that came out in 2008. The art works are beautiful, full color, and we added more art history in the 4-12th grade levels so that students get a better overview of the flow of American Art, European Art, and Art Around the World.

This week, meet Grace Bound Books! Below is an interview with Tara Bertic, founder of Grace Bound Books.

Give us a general overview of your company and the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.
Grace Bound Books was essentially born when my youngest son Jeremiah was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, when he was four-years-old. I frantically searched for resources and curriculum to teach my special needs child at home and, out of discouragement of finding very little, decided that I would simply write my own. I began writing curriculum for Jerry based on his interests, individual goals, and milestones I hoped he'd achieve through the curriculum. That's when our first title, "Teaching Jeremiah," a comprehensive curriculum for preschoolers with special needs, was written.

Though the majority of our titles are geared towards teaching children with special needs, many of our customers of other preschoolers and kindergartners have commented that they are beneficial for children with no developmental delays as well.

 We do carry titles for homemakers, including "Organizing 101" and "Discerning Dollars," a book about budgeting (another necessity when you're a parent of a special needs child).
"Rejoicing in Rejection" is a comprehensive Bible study for individuals or groups that are interested in learning how to overcome the rejection of loved ones. Grace Bound Books also carries other titles geared towards early elementary students with no learning challenges, and are in unit study format. 

Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company.
We called our company Grace Bound Books because we believe that teaching a special needs child requires the parents, siblings, friends, and other people associated with them, to be blanketed in God's merciful grace. Grace can endure months of struggling to learn just one letter in the alphabet.  Grace can forgive public tantrums, or even private moments of tears "just because." Grace can give us the ability to forgive repeat offenses time and again. Most importantly, grace can give us the ability to teach our special needs children more effectively and efficiently than any public facility ever could, because we love them more completely than any other teacher, aide, or principal could. As an author, it has been my prayer over each completed title, that the grace to teach the materials within accompanies each and every sale.

 How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?
I believe the benefit Grace Bound Books can offer homeschoolers is that we can give hope to new parents of special needs children that they CAN homeschool their learning-challenged children. When Jeremiah was first diagnosed and we began our quest for how best to educate him, doctors, professionals, and even parents of other special needs children, all had the same advice: "exceptional education learning programs at a public school or a specialized education facility." Being a small company, I am sensitive to the e-mails I receive from frustrated, exhausted, and lonely parents who are just trying to educate their own children and struggling as a result of his or her learning challenges. I am not a professional, but more than willing to share with others what has worked or failed for us and, most importantly, to pray for each of the homeschooling families of children with special needs that contact me.

The other benefit to the unit studies Grace Bound offers is that they are very "doable." Each one is comprehensive in its list of supplies needed (mostly household items) and, whenever possible, we have provided the printables, worksheets, templates, etc. In this way, completing the unit study is really possible, and without having to do much of the legwork yourself. 

As you are still settling in to this new year, I thought it would be helpful to hear from Phyllis Sather, creator of the Purposeful Planning materials! I pray that you are being blessed in this new year and that you are planning for your future with your family and children. Her products can help you do just that!We are a relatively new business. In fact, we really never meant to become a business, it just sort of happened! Our main product line is the Purposeful Planning materials. These are based on the planning weekends our family has been doing for 13 years – in fact, we just finished our 13^th planning weekend on January 19th!

Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company. 
I would have to say that our products and business are the result of my rather poorly done attempts at submission to my husband Dan. This excerpt from “Purposeful Planning” shows you my initial response when Dan suggested we go away for a weekend of planning:

Give us a general overview of your company and the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.

In the beginning . . .

“Do I have to?” (Said in a very unbecoming and whiney voice.) That was my response when my husband suggested that he and I go away for a weekend eleven years ago and set some goals for us as a family. I didn’t want to leave my “babies” for an entire weekend. After all, Emily was only 8, Rebekah 6, and Eric 4. Eric was in the midst of 3 1/2 years of chemotherapy for leukemia. Who would I trust with them? But looming bigger in my mind was the thought of having to “set goals.” Just the thought of that sounded appalling to me. Setting goals meant you had to meet them, didn’t it? I was in “survival” mode, barely making it through each day. The thought of all that failure was just too much for me at that time of my life."

My second poor response was in 2007. During our planning weekend we were discussing ways to make what we were doing available to more people.  

Now that two of our children are adults and the third is quickly approaching adulthood, Dan thought I had a bit more free time and it seemed to be the time to gather our materials together and share them. So, he suggested that I write a book.

Well, I did enjoy writing little bits of this and that, but a book…I wasn’t too sure about that, so I just put it on the back burner and did nothing about it.

In December, I was reviewing our notes from our 2007 planning weekend in preparation for our 2008 planning and was reminded that Dan had asked me to write a book about our times together. Since it was already December and we were deep into Christmas preparations, I have to confess that I simply made a very feeble effort to pull a few things together so it would look like I had at least started to follow through on what Dan had asked me to do.

During our 2008 planning time, with Dan’s encouragement, I finally caught a vision for the book which became “Purposeful Planning.” It came together quickly after that and was being sold by July 2008.

Since then, purchasers have encouraged me to write a supplementary handbook with easily printable forms that would require even less effort for them to prepare for their own planning weekends. They also asked for Purposeful Planning to be available in MP3 format, since so many were used to multi-tasking and they thought their husbands would be much more open to using it if they could listen during their commutes. Late in 2008, both of these items became available.

How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?
Our title verse is, “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” Proverbs 29:18.  In 1996, when we began our planning weekends, our marriage was in dire straits. We had survived three years of Dan being in college, then a four year residency, had three babies in five years, and then our youngest got leukemia. The long hours, short funds, lots of babies, and illness had really taken its toll on our family. That first planning weekend gave us hope. Hope that with the Lord we could survive, but even more than that; we could actually thrive as a family.

As we spent time together yearly, sought the Lord prayerfully, and made plans for each area of our life, we began to see things coming together in a way we never thought possible. We were reaching our goals and accomplishing more than we ever hoped to accomplish.

Which of your products are you most excited about?
Having just finished our 13^th annual planning weekend, I would have to say I’m even more excited about “Purposeful Planning.” Now our children are 21, 20, and 17, and because they have always been involved with our annual planning, they were as excited as we were to have a few days apart from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to look to the Lord for His plans for us as individuals and as a family.

What new items can we expect to see from your company in the next year? 
We have discussed either revising “Purposeful Planning” or writing an addendum or part two. From the input we’ve had from families who are using it, we’ve learned a few things we think would be helpful. We are hoping to get permission to share them with our readers. We are also considering making it available in a couple of other formats to further meet the needs of our readers.

Purposeful Planning SPECIAL Offer:

Purposeful Planning SPECIAL Military Policy:
Purposeful Planning also has the policy of giving these materials free to all military families. Early on, several of them wrote to say how helpful it was to them when a spouse returned from being gone for a year or more. They were able to use our format to reconnect to each other and get moving forward as a family again. It’s our little way to say thank you to the men and women who are serving us by protecting our freedoms. Please contact Phyllis@Phyllis-Sather.com if you qualify for this.

Just a reminder that as soon as we hit 1,000 subscribers to the blog, we will give out a $100 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store to one lucky blog subscriber! If you aren't subscribed yet, please subscribe to our blog via the link on the right!

This week, I would like to introduce you to Cheryl Moeller, a fun woman whose products we carry in the Schoolhouse Store! She is a fellow homeschooler who, like many of us, works from home! You can find all Cheryl Moeller Productions products here.

Give us a general overview of your company and the products you sell through the Schoolhouse Store.
We feature homeschool curriculum, cookbooks, and juvenile fiction. You will find that we try to include curriculum in everything we do, even in our fiction and cookbooks. I also write in the fields of marriage and parenting.

Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company.
I am a stand-up comic and syndicated humor columnist for moms. I like to find the humor in the "everydayness" of family life when I write or speak. 

My husband, Bob, and I have six kids; three are girls. I have written two of my books with two of my daughters. The first one is Lexi’s Homeschool Diary by Cheryl and MacKenzie Moeller. I wrote this juvenile fiction chapter book, featuring homeschool characters, with my nine year old. Baby Saves Christmas by Cheryl and Melissa Moeller is a juvenile fiction picture book with homeschool characters, also. Melissa is 24 years old. It was a lot of fun to work with them!

How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?
One of the ways that my books benefit the homeschooling community is that I have homeschool characters in my fiction. Having homeschool characters is something new for the homeschool community. As a homeschool mom, I have always had a hard time finding contemporary fiction where the main characters were homeschooled. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from parents. They have appreciated being able to purchase my books so their sons and daughters can relate to the characters. Also, my fiction books have comprehension questions and vocabulary words; it’s one way to extend the learning.

Which of your products are you most excited about?
The product I am most excited about is Homeschool Your Preschooler on $1 a Day.  It’s 100 practical ideas that are free or nearly free.  It can be used as your curriculum or as a supplement to a curriculum, you are already using. With Homeschool Your Preschooler on $1 a Day, I wanted to share my ideas with young homeschool moms. This is how I homeschooled my six children. This book can also be used to teach your homeschool high school students babysitting ideas and training for their own homeschool someday.

What new items can we expect to see from your company in the next year?
I am very excited about my new cookbook, Dueling Crockpots. It’s not just a cookbook, it’s a whole new attitude and way of planning meals. Have you ever thought that you can’t use the crockpot ever again, because everything turns into a soup or a stew? Well, I am going to have you thinking differently about crockpots. My new cookbook is going to help you easily answer the proverbial question, “What’s for Dinner?” In Dueling Crockpots, you use two crockpots to easily cook a healthy, homemade dinner. It works especially well for the homeschool mom and family. It will be published next month. Dueling Crockpots features beautiful photography, recipes tasted-tested by our family of eight, and curriculum at the end. Watch for this time saver in the Old Schoolhouse Store!

Another new book this spring by Cheryl Moeller Productions is a marriage gift book. Keep Courting includes 100 creative and inexpensive ways to keep love and courtship alive and fresh, years after the marriage ceremony.