Kathleen Desmarais

We start school tomorrow in my house. This is my favorite time of the school year! the beginning. I get all excited gathering materials (especially art materials–I love new paints, markers, pencils, crisp white paper). The anticipation of the school year really gets me gitty. I have all the school books neatly stacked with the spines still stiff and new schedules posted on the fridge. I think about all we are going to learn, all the neat field trips we will take, my darlings sitting around the table filling their minds with great things. (Hey, a Mom can dream.) Ahhh! I take a moment to enjoy it…….

Because I know in about 4 days it will be all out the window–pencils broken, marker set down to three, can’t find the scissors, can’t find my math book, I really hate this writing course, this schedule is not working for me, do I really have to read this? And we will settle down into something more realistic. But it’s all good. It rarely goes the way I plan it but my kids always end up learning and have a great time.

This year we will be taking a trip up the east coast to visit Williamsburg, Washington DC, Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Lancaster CO., and NYC. I have been planning this trip for two years to coincide with our study of early American history. I remember taking this trip myself when I was a kid and really enjoying it. What a great opportunity we homeschoolers have to experience history this way. It’s not just about text books, but really seeing where it all happened. I am especially looking forward to the reenactments at Williamsburg.

We just finished our last science co-op class today! That has been great fun. Our group dwindled a bit from about 12 families down to 6 core families. The smaller group has been much better. (I highly recommend it.) Today we ended with making the Plant Parts Salad and had a pizza and pool party to celebrate.

With Pandia Press, I am still hard at work formatting Chemistry (1) and writing Modern Times (2). With MT2 I have recently spent weeks trying to write a series of lessons about socialism, communism, fascism, and Animal Farm. OMG - try doing an internet search for socialism or communism. It’s really difficult to find straightforward, unbiased, history information. You end up getting sites like Marxist teens, communists unite, score with the socialists.(OK, I made all of those up, but it was something like that.) Wow! I didn’t realize how many groups out there actually think Karl Marx and Lenin had a good idea that could work here in America. I guess they have never heard of Stalin or China. So now you know how I feel about it, I’m a Capitalist girl. But I try very hard not to let that show in the course. I actually think communism is a good idea on very small scale. I mean, I would love to live with a group of families, sharing resources, community garden, watching my kids for me, sharing chores, everybody equal, sharing property rights, nobody getting ahead . . . wait, how would that work? Maybe it’s not a good idea AT ALL.

I’ll let you all know how our first few weeks of school, our trip, and the communists turn out.

Kathleen

After hearing so much positive feedback from the many groups around the country (and in Canada and New Zealand) who are using R.E.A.L. Science with a co-op group, I decided to give it a shot myself. My son, Charlie (7), wanted to learn with some friends, so I put out an email to one of the homeschool groups we belong to, thinking I would get a few kids to come over once a week for science. Wow! Nearly everyone was interested! Our group now consists of 15 kids who meet every Monday. Our first class day was a rainy one, so all the kids, their Moms, and their siblings piled into my very small living room. It turned out to be great fun and I was so impressed by how well the kids listened and absorbed the information. At first I was “teaching” all of the classes at my house, but recently we started rotating houses and some of the Moms have taught a class. What a great experience this has been. We will be finishing up Life (1) in August and plan to start Earth and Space next.

I found that the class took some planning at first but now runs quite smoothly. I collected a supply fee for each child. I pull from the supply envelope to purchase for each class. Parents also purchased an Extra Student Pages pack for each child at cost (well, there is some advantage to co-oping with the publisher) and some purchased the whole book or already had the book. We mostly meet outside and will continue to as long as the weather is nice (in Florida that means below 90 degrees and the air isn’t as thick as peanut butter).

The pictures below are of some of the kids doing a plot study. We broke into groups with each group having four stakes, string, a mallet, and a parent supervisor. These two groups went right down to the waters-edge (no fear of alligators here) and found things like water plants and little fish for their plot studies.

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted. But while it’s been quiet here, it’s been crazy everywhere else for Pandia Press. So much to tell…

As you know, I have been on a quest to get more science books written. Well in my zeal, I secured not one, but two science writers! I can’t say enough about these two great ladies. They not only have the background, time, and strong desire to write the courses, they have firsthand experience with homeschooling and the talent to capture your children’s attention and make science fun. The courses that are being produced are exceeding all of my high expectations. These will be far from fluff courses. Serious, core science topics are taught and presented in a way that even the most science-phobic Mom will look like she knows it all! In the works are chemistry, physics, and biology. (Go ahead, dance around the room, I’ll wait.) Awesome isn’t it? That’s all the info I can give right now. No release dates yet but I promise that as soon as I know, you will know. It’s always been a feast or famine situation with REAL Science, and now it appears dinner is served!

In between writer contract negotiations, I have managed to release the first three Pandia Press eBooks. History Odyssey Ancients 1, Ancients 2, and REAL Science Life are now available as eBooks directly from Pandia Press. The history eBooks have been very popular, the science a little slower but it was just added. I am curious to hear customer feedback about how they use their eBooks and which courses are conducive to this format. Next to be released will be Ancients 3 and Earth and Space.

And in between writers and eBooks, I have stolen a minute or two to work on Modern Times 2. I love this time period! The amount of information for good writing assignments is overwhelming. My challenge has been to limit the course to being only a year long and it not taking the rest of your child’s life to complete! I have decided to add a year-long assignment to the course–writing a research paper. This will be a big assignment but there are plenty of instructions, reminders, and help along the way. I want 8th graders to be able to have these writing skills under their belts in preparation for thesis papers in high school and college. I think this course will provide that in a way that is nonthreatening and hopefully enjoyable. I am working my way through Around the World in Eighty Days. This classic by Jules Verne will provide a great overview of Modern Times and world geography. Students will follow along with Phileas Fogg and Passeportout as they circumnavigate the globe by train, boat, and even elephant! What a fun way to learn about different cultures and geography.

I’ll spare you all the personal drama and home-life updates. But they have been happening too. I love my crazy life! It is an honor to be able to provide home school materials to the most fabulous families on the planet and to be able to stay at home with my own fabulous family. “I would stand in line for this!” –Kathleen

I am in the process of evaluating the marketability of e-books and if Pandia Press publications should be offered as e-books through electronic downloads. These would be offered along side print copies with customers having a choice–hard copy or e-book. Electronic downloads offer several advantages for customers and for publishers.

For customers:

1. No waiting. Instantly receive your book and use it right away.
2. E-books are interactive with live links, bookmarks, and text anchors.
3. Worksheets and maps can be easily printed from your desktop. If your child makes a mistake, no problem just print another one.
4. E-books are generally less expensive and come with no shipping costs.

For publishers:

1. E-books are easily edited. Error corrections don’t have to wait for the next print run.
2. Paper and money saved with less printing (hey, that’s one for the environment too).
3. Higher profit margins due to less cost of production.
4. Affiliate programs.
5. No trips to the post office (always a good thing).
6. No “lost” packages.

There are a few disadvantages:

1. No hard copy to hold and pages to flip through (unless you print it).
2. Customer will have to print worksheets and maps.
3. Reading off a computer screen can be tiresome.
4. E-books are easily pirated and shared illegally with others.

I am also considering offering a seperate Homeschool Tracker file along with each e-book. Homeschool Tracker is popular homeschool scheduling software.

Let your opinion be heard! Please help me with this decision. Do you want to see e-books of History Odyssey and R.E.A.L. Science? Please participate in the poll found in the sidebar.

Every day I receive emails from customers wondering when the next R.E.A.L. Science book is going to be released. (Actually if I had a dollar for each time I hear this question, I could retire now. O.K., maybe not a dollar, but five would probably do it, I would like to retire well.) The truth is that I don’t have an answer to that question right now. Nobody wishes for another book more than me. But I have not been able to lower my standards or risk my company just to get another book out there. I have spoken to literally hundreds of writers in the last 3 years. I have come close, awfully close, to publishing another book. But something always seems to happen to the writer–serious illness, time conflicts, lack of family support, financial situations, contract disputes, substandard material, etc. You see, it turns out that writers have lives too. Who knew? I have had writers just seem to drop off the face of the earth. (Secretly I think the project drove them insane, but I don’t have the insurance to cover their mental health.) I have had writers who would be great for the program but were unwilling to sign a contract (which is suicide for a publisher). Writing a R.E.A.L. Science book is a REAL commitment. Bad pun, but seriously, it is an enormous undertaking. And I am VERY PICKY. I am not willing to settle for mediocre or biased writing. Home schoolers have enough obstacles to overcome, they need really good curriculum written by a writer that understands and has enough wit to keep their children interested. Don’t you think?

So why am I telling you this? Well, maybe so you will stop asking! Just kidding. I want you to know that I understand–I want it too and I will continue to search high and low for the perfect people and I will not stop until I have found those people even if it is the last thing I do as a publisher. This is my burden and a torch I gladly carry (okay, enough Chariots of Fire). We (the homeschooling community) need good, unbiased, no agenda, REAL science more than any other program. It is the thing we are most lacking. And I know why–GOOD WRITERS ARE HARD TO COME BY. But they are out there–hey, maybe it’s you! Call me!

The good news is that I have had recent contact with a few writers who look very, very promising. I am confident that there will be another book soon. Which one and when? Well, I need to keep some secrets! Stay tuned!