It's been a while since I've posted a little something about who we are and what small role we play in the vast homeschooling community. Since this week is our (HSB) turn to host the first EVER Homeschool Carnival, thanks to Henry Cate of WhyHomeschool, I thought maybe I'd give a rundown on who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. First though, I'd like to state the "why" behind it all: it's FUN. Plain and simple, we tend to do what we find fun...what we find enjoyable. Homeschooling, home business, publishing, authoring, speaking, blog hosting, mingling with both vendors and homeschoolers - all of this spells F.U.N. to the Suarez Clan. And the cool thing is that our kids are involved in every bit of it, in some capacity or another. (especially the "homeschool" part. HA)
Who are we? Paul and Gena Suarez, married 17 years this June 17th. Fell in love at college (Sierra College, Rocklin, Calif) when we met at "College Life", an Intervarsity sponsored group for Christian college-goers. Paul was a leader on campus, teaching one of the bible studies. I (Gena) was an eager (maybe too eager?) student of Paul's. Once my eyes fell on that man (he had gorgeous hair) and his love for the Lord, it was all over for him - he was SO mine - whether he wanted to be or not (and the truth was, he was NOT interested, but I convinced him he was wrong). The rest is history. heh heh
How many kids? We have four totally homeschooled kiddos, Paul, 15, Luke, 14, Levi, 11 and Julia Rachel, 9. They love the Lord and are just your average, normal, unsocialized and weird homeschool kids.
Why the need for a magazine? Your guess is as good as mine on this one. Publishing seemed like kind of a fun, interesting idea. And a bit of a challenge. It actually started out as an eBay business selling used homeschool curriculum. We wern't publishing it, just selling it (came from schools). Those customers (many, repeat) became the unknowing, unsuspecting guinea pigs for our little newsletter (12 pages) that was thrust upon them -unsolicited. 1,000 of these little copies flooded mailboxes across the country. Those eBay customers sorta liked it, and it just grew from there.
And then a book? Well, yes! Why not? I mean, it seemed like it should be next in the line-up of "fun" things to try. Besides, even though Broadman & Holman lists us as the authors, the *real* stars of this book are the 20+ authors who contributed WILDLY cool chapters, like Dr. Ruth Beechick, Clay and Sally Clarkson, Christine Miller, Doug Wilson, Katherine Dang, James Rose, Dr. Raymond Moore, Dorothy Moore (her husband gave us some of her writings after her death), Jen Ig, Dr. Heather Allen, Maggie Hogan, Diana Waring, Christine Field, etc., etc. And the coolest part? It's totally a charity project. None of us are making a dime off the royalties (and TOS is refusing retail profits as well). Guess where all the money is going? NATHHAN. Coolies, huh?
Blogging Communities: As you will note in the newest issue of TOS Mag (Winter, at the printers now), a new blog community has just opened up. www.HomesteadBlogger.com. Lots of homeschoolers are currently homesteading - or are homesteaders at heart. This new community is similar to HSB, only it is for us farmer Jane types. You know, the goat-milkin' mamas who raise honey bees, churn butter, make cheese, pour candles, skin pigs...you get the idea (and no, I can't do any of those things - YET). So HSB2 (HomesteadBlogger) was birthed and built over the last couple months.
And an e-Book! YES, You can Homeschool! We thought it might be a total PARTY to get an e-book going on. Again, we asked the best of the best to contribute, and it was a huge success. Secrets of Successful Homeschooling has been selling like hotcakes (about 75 sold in its first month). Blog owners are earning money off it as we speak.
Going International??? Ok, that's the newest thing. Some curly-headed monster got it in her crazy head that heading off to Europe to hang out with "Home Ed'rs" might be fun. And I still think it will be! We have about 15 or so meetings lined up throughout the UK and Germany. The best part is that these homeschool "mums" are actually excited about meeting us - just as excited as we are to meet them! And yes, we know it's illegal in Germany to homeschool - we're not trying to start any riots or anything. Most of who we are seeing are military homeschoolers on Germany bases (Ramstein being one - I went to high school there in '85!!). We are going to try and hang out for a while with our friends there, the Lange's, if they let us. We had a BBQ with them in California last summer, but they're back in Germany now. I'm hoping Sheila will make me a huge bratwurst, or ten. Go say hi to her sweet family!
So, that's basically it. We are an average (somewhat boring) homeschooling family who loves our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, each other, and YOU, our homeschooling, homesteading, home blogging friends! You guys bring a lot to our daily life, and I mean that. Some of you are absolutely nuts, as in insane - as in, something's not quite *right*. I wouldn't dare name names, but click on the last few words to accidentally "see" some.
Having a homeschool business within the homeschooling community is very special to us. It's allowed us to meet so many fascinating people - people who are dear friends of ours now. For instance, Kris Price, who helped us find a place and settle into Tennessee after we decided to sell the house in Calif and head east. She and her hubby, Jim, have been such a blessing to our family.
So, that's the Suarez Clan in a nutshell. We love nuts so we surround ourselves with them. Welcome to our little nut farm - we hope you'll stay a while.
Your friend,
-gena
TOS Current Issue
Jan. 8, 2006
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