Kathleen Desmarais

Thanks to all who have emailed me giving support to continue writing Modern Times (level two). Yes, I will continue! But I won’t be publishing a print edition (only the eBook) until I am sure Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is back. And there is good news on that front—the Kingfisher line has been bought by MacMillan. This just happened. Last week the Kingfisher page was on the Houghton Mifflin site, now it’s moved to MacMillan. AND they have KFH history listed as “on backorder” not “out of print.” While this doesn’t mean they are going to print more, it certainly provides a ray of hope. I have emailed MacMillan and even this guy. His name is Angus (I love that name) Killick and he is the new associate publisher of Kingfisher effective 5 days ago. He will be in charge of all U.S. publishing of Kingfisher titles. I emailed his facebook (only email address I could find) but if I get a better email address for him, I will post it. I encourage others to email MacMillan and request they consider republishing KFH. Let them know how much it means to you. When I get a good email for Angus Killick, you can email him too. Maybe we can pressure them into it!

But for now I will get on with the eBook edition of MT2. I can even feel the wind coming back into my sails. I am working on one of the last lesson that deals with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This has been an interesting and challenging lesson to write. It is not only history (going back to ancient times and the Diaspora, and more recently back to WW II when Britain turned the issue of Palestine control over to the U.N. and they partitioned Palestine into two states: one Jewish, one Arab), but it is also a current event that makes the news every week. We don’t have the advantage of time to effectively analyze this event. I am considering having students debate the issue from one side. Creating a great opportunity to introduce debating techniques. Or analyzing the event as a current event. Or maybe just make a point-counterpoint argument where I’ll provide the points and the student provides the counterpoints.

The family is doing just fine. We have had GREAT 70° weather. (That is a stab to all my friends and family who have been freezing up north, including my brother who works at his desk with a heating pad on his back!) So we have been outside a lot, practicing unschooling and “living in the moment” as I call it when we don’t get our school work done. I am taking Charlie (7) to The Magic Kingdom on his birthday this weekend because you can now get in free on your birthday and we have to take advantage of all these opportunities. Sarah got her photo shoot pictures back. They are beautiful but it is a little shocking to see bikini pictures of your 15 year old! She is also busy entering drassage horse riding shows. Chris got a new computer for Christmas has been attached to it since. Charlie recently rehabbed a bunny back to health. Gracie is, well, Gracie. All I can say is that it’s a good thing for her that she is so cute.