Kathleen Desmarais

Happy 2008! Now is a great time to try some changes to your daily routine in order that you can have more time for your home business, home school, and family. I’ll admit that I am not the most organized person in the world. But having juggled home school with home business for several years now, I have developed a few tricks to help things run more smoothly. The most important lesson I have learned is to let the little things go. I am reminded of the book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … and It’s All Small Stuff. Just the title itself holds a lot of wisdom for me. Many of the “techniques” I use to help save time and organize have to do with letting go of some housework and grooming and many are controversial, I realize. But I believe we do so many things on autopilot, doing them just because our mother did them, and her mothers before her. At some point, a long time ago, someone said “this is how we should do it” and people have been doing it that way ever since and hardly questioning why or if it is necessary. So read the following tips with an open mind and try a few out. If you do, you may find yourself with a lot of extra hours each day that can be devoted to your children or your business.

• Have a theme for each day of the week. For example- Monday laundry day, Tuesday errand day, Wednesday cleaning day, etc. Having a focus for each day forces you to plan and helps to streamline your week.
• Start online banking. In 2007, this was the single best time saver I adopted. Bill paying use to take me half a day every week and a whole day at the beginning of every month. Now I literally complete paying bills in minutes, usual about 15. That’s 4 hours saved each week!
• Skip pajamas. Put your kids to bed in the clothes they will wear in the morning. If they just took a bath and put on clean comfortable clothes, what is wrong with this? I don’t buy PJs. I think the money is better spent on other pieces of clothing. I usually send my kids to bed in at least the shirt and underclothes for the next day (pants can be slipped on in the AM). When my kids wake-up, they are dressed for the day!
• Don’t fold laundry. Let’s face it, folding the clothes is what takes the longest. Cutting out folding will save you untold hours each week. This was a big time saver ah-ha idea after the birth of our 4th baby and the laundry mountain was up to my chin. This is what I do–each member of the family has his/her own small laundry basket. After washing and drying the clothes, I sort the clean clothes into these baskets. (I just place them in there, no folding.) Then each person takes the basket into his/her room. The kids can either pull clean clothes out of their baskets each day or fold their clothes and put them away themselves. Personally, I like my clothes folded so I fold mine and the baby’s. But it doesn’t matter to me if the rest decide not to fold (I am not embarrassed by wrinkled clothes.) (Disclaimer–this is actually not my original idea. I heard about it or read it somewhere a long time ago. I can’t remember where but I will give credit to the source if I discover it.)
• Teach your older children to do their own laundry.When my kids reach 13, I no longer wash or dry their clothes (or fold, see above). Each 13+ child is given a dirty clothes hamper and a lesson in how to wash clothes. They must wait until they have a full load before running the washing machine (or ask to share a load with me). I recommend that they do laundry once a week, but it is up to them. And yes, there have been times when they have had nothing to wear, but that is part of learning responsibility.
• Don’t insist on baths every night. Now I know some extended family members that would faint at this suggestion. I even know people who will wake their kid up (like after a long drive home) and make him take a bath. All I have to say is–why? Don’t get me wrong, hygiene is very important to me, and I don’t like my kids to stink. But if they have not been sweating or playing in the dirt, then they are probably not dirty enough to warrant an all over scrub with soap. I do make them wash their feet, face, hands, and teeth before bed every night. Cutting out the whole bath time routine every single night saves us loads of time (and makes for a much less stressful evening). During the winter months, I make them bathe about three time a week. They bathe more in the summer. (Now, if I could only figure out how to stop my 14 y.o. daughter from taking 2 showers a day!)
• Eat breakfast for dinner. Breakfast is generally quicker to fix and can be a time saver on nights when you can use an extra hour and too. (And the kids think it’s great fun to eat pancakes for dinner.)
• Stop eating fast food. Wait a minute, fast food is suppose to be, well…fast. Doesn’t that save time? I don’t think so and here’s why– fast food can give you that icky, food comma feeling. I don’t know about you, but when I feel bad I am not very productive. Also fast food (and all eating out) is EXPENSIVE. If you eat out enough, you will have to work harder or longer to make extra money for all of the “fast” food you are eating, and that is not saving time. Every once in a long while we will eat fast food. In a pinch, it’s okay. But by limiting it to only a few times a year, my kids think it is a special treat.
• Kid-clean your house. IOW, let your kids clean the house. You will have to let go of high expectations, but this does save time and teaches responsibility. I have my kids do all parts of house cleaning depending on their ages including vacuuming, dusting, mopping, sweeping, yard work, and bathrooms. And my three oldest kids clean the kitchen (all of it) every night after dinner.
• Don’t make your kids do all the practice exercises. One of the great things about home schooling is that you can eliminate busy work. If your child gets the concept, move on!
• Try block scheduling with home school. See my post about block scheduling–it is a great time saver.
• Allow only one extra activity per child. You can spend your whole day toting kids from one activity to another. My kids are allowed only one outside activity each year, and whenever possible I combine activities. For example, both of my boys are taking the same karate class this year.
• Teach your kids how to fix meals. Generally, I only “cook” dinner. My kids (5 and over) know how to fix a bowl of cereal and a sandwich (and clean up too).
• Stop shopping! Shopping drains your time and finances. Plan to shop only once a week. Make a list and stick to it. If at all possible, don’t bring your kids or only bring one. Shopping will go much quicker and you will buy much less.
• Turn off the TV! The biggest time waster.
• Have two “quick cleans” everyday. Set the timer for 5 mins. or play a song. During this time have your kids run around and pick up everything in sight. My kids actually think this is a game.
• Grow your hair long so you can put it up in the morning. I love short hair, but it really shows bed head in the morning. Longer hair looks presentable with a quick pony tail or bun.
• Shave your legs only 1x a week (or not at all if you can stand it) during the winter. Really, under your pants, who’s going to know?
• Shower with your baby. My husband showers with our baby (13 months) in the evenings saving me time every night. Both of them need bathing everyday (for different reasons). So it made sense to combine their bathing time. My husband starts his shower alone and then knocks when he is ready for the baby. I undress her and hand her over along with a squirt of soap. He bathes her and lets her play for a while with a few toys on the shower floor. He knocks when he is finished and I come with a towel. Done.
• Cook once, serve twice. For example, cook twice the needed spaghetti sauce for pizza the next day.
• Pull out the crockpot in the morning. A huge time saver for the evenings.
• Let your kids work out their own disagreements. A good idea on so many levels. I intervene only if things get violent.
• Limit your email time and web surfing to 15 minutes a day each. Really, set a timer if you need to. The computer is a time sucker and not all emails have to be answered immediately.

Update on Kathleen’s journey writing History Odyssey, Modern Times (level 2). A comprehensive world history course intended for grades 7 and up from Pandia Press.

I am behind in writing MT2 (when are writers ever on time?) But I still think I can get it done in time for release this coming summer (albeit late summer). Creating the outline (the sequence) of this course has been challenging. There are so many connections between events and between countries that it is a task to try to separate them all into coherent and manageable parts. I have received many positive comments about the way the other level 2 courses were separated by regions, rather than jumping from one region to another. I am trying to do that with this course, but it has been exceedingly more difficult. Here is the basic outline I am working with now (subject to many changes):

I. An Introduction to Modern Times and the Age of Exploration - a general introduction through geography using Around the World in Eighty Days

II. British Dominance and Colonization - Covers the British Empire from mid 19th century to mid 20th century and its dominance in Africa(along with other European countries), India, Australia, Ireland, southeast Asia, and Canada (Wow, they were everywhere!). Books planned include The Jungle Book and Things Fall Apart.

III. China and Japan - events prior to WWI

IV. The Declining Ottoman Empire and Unification of Europe Prior to WWI (this title is too long) - covers the Ottomans, The Crimean and Balkan wars, the birth of Italy, and unification of Germany

V. North America Prior to WWI - covers the Plain Wars and the American Civil War. Literature- Tom Sawyer and The Red Badge of Courage (or Rifles For Watie)

VI. World War I - I am still searching for good literature for WWI for this age group. (All Quiet on the Western Front will be used in level 3.) Any suggestions are appreciated.

VII. Between the Wars and the Rise of Communism - Covers the Russian Revolution, fascism, Chinese civil war and war with Japan, Spanish Civil War, and the Great Depression. Literature - Animal Farm and No Promises in the Wind

VIII. World War II - Literature - Diary of Anne Frank

IX. Aftermath of WW II - Covers communist China, Italy and the Balkans, The Cold War, and wars in Asia

X. The Middle East- Covers Israel, terrorism, Middle East wars, and the War on Terror

XI. Civil Rights, the Environment, and the Economy - Literature - To Kill a Mocking Bird

Well, that’s the outline as it stands right now. I am sure it will change. I plan to include poetry by Kipling, Tennyson, and others. I appreciate comments or suggestions regarding the outline and the literature. There are a couple of books I am concerned about, I will discuss them in another post.

What is this blog about? Who is it for?

Great questions! This blog is intended for the following audiences:

1. Home schoolers - Kathleen (a 9-year homeschool veteran who is still learning the ropes) will share daily experiences with home schooling her four children. Favorite products will be shared, organization and scheduling tips, tips on handling different ages and abilities, dealing with a dyslexic child, home schooling with a baby in the house, raising responsible adults, and much more.
2. Home-based business owners - Information on how to balance family and work when they occupy the same space (your home) and general “how to” small business information.
3. Families who combine home business and home school - This group will get the most out of this site. Many posts will deal with this unique combination. Kathleen will share her own adventures running a home business while home schooling, and this site will contain many tips and tricks to make it all easier.
4. Pandia Press customers - Loads of information will be available here regarding the day by day events in Kathleen’s little publishing world. Learn product updates, product failures, revisions, frustrations, and successes. Basically, visitors will find an insider’s look into the life of a publisher and the process of bringing a product to market. Also, visitors will have opportunities to contribute, assist Kathleen in hard decisions, and help shape products and the future of Pandia Press. What could be better than that?

And if you meet all four of these criteria, then just go ahead and bookmark this site now because it’s all relevant!

Below is a list of home-based businesses that would be convenient for those who homeschool or otherwise have family priorities. There are a lot of home business idea lists available. This one is unique because the criteria for making this list focused on being able to put family first. The businesses on this list do not require set hours, a store front, customers dropping by, or setting appointments. These business ideas allow you to set your own schedule. In fact, with most of these, you could be working in your PJs at 2 AM and no one would be the wiser. There are a lot of home-based business scams out there (especially on the internet). I read one statistic that indicated less than 5% of the home-based business offers found online are legitimate. So, beware! Never pay for training from a company that is also promising you customers after the training. If you need training, get it from a separate school, one that is not related to business start-up. I recommend that if you are considering a home-based business that you start your own, building your business from the ground up, slowly developing a name for yourself and building clientèle. I think this is a much safer and sustainable route. Many of the ideas on this list are more “passive income” ideas rather than businesses. I decided not to separate these because these are all ideas for making money. Many people diversify by starting multiple businesses and passive income pursuits. This is a good idea as long as you don’t stretch yourself too thin. (I have been guilty of this. One time my husband and I had seven different adventures going at once.) Diversifying is smart for a couple of reasons. You could start two or three business/passive income pursuits and see which one takes off, then drop the others. Also diversifying allows you to better weather hard times and market changes. (With the current real estate slump, we have been thankful we have other income streams to fall back on.) Without further ado, The List (in no particular order):

• Publisher (of course)
• Writer, includes:
  • fiction
  • nonfiction
  • educational
  • song writer
  • journalist
  • speech writer
  • screenplay writer
  • T.V. writer
  • grant writer

• Online Retailer - Either selling your own product (crafts, food items, crafted jewelry, furniture, etc.) or buy products wholesale and bundle them in a unique way (gift baskets, educational items, baby items, gifts, etc.). Also, selling through an account (affiliations) with established online retailers (like Amazon).
• Medical Transcription/Billing/Coding - (beware of online scams)
• Graphic Artist
• Web Design
• Freelance Editor/Proofreader/Indexer
• Inventor
• Real Estate Investor - either for resale, flipping, or passive use of the property. Examples of passive uses:
  • Rental properties (commercial and residential)
  • Storage (mini storage, boat storage)
  • Automatic ice machine
  • Automatic car wash
  • Laundromat
  • Lease space for billboards
  • Lease space for cell tower or fire tower
  • Lease for cattle grazing
• Silent Partner/Investor in a Business (either put up money, property, or expertise/ideas)
• Wholesale Plant/Tree Nursery
• Gardener - sell garden produce to farmer’s markets
• Breeder (dog, reptiles, birds, horse stud services)
• Artist (sell online, art studios, commissioned work)
• Book Illustrator
• Blogger - professional blogging is a business! Revenues can be earned from your own blog (through advertising) or companies hire good bloggers to promote their businesses through blogs
• Day Trader (iron stomach required!)
• Freelance Nature Photographer (because you don’t need an appointment with nature)
• Small Engine/Appliance Repair
• Watch and Clock Repair
• Computer repair/IT services
• Web Site Service/Online Service - either selling a service or the service is free and sell advertising on the site, or both
  • Bartering service (site that connects people in your community that want to trade materials and/or services)
  • “For Sale” site (customers buy ads to sell or space to advertise items or services for sale)
  • Dating/connections site (people matching)
  • Legal adviser/consultant
  • Tutoring or online course instructor
  • Electric download of a product you created (PDFs) or software
  • Travel agent (commissioned-based sales of cruises, airlines, hotel, etc.)
  • Online coach/adviser
    • life coach
    • spiritual coach
    • financial adviser
    • health and nutrition coach
• Secret Shopper (let me know if you land this one)
• Seamstress/Fashion Designer
• Upholstery
• Professional Scrapbooker (for others)
• Freelance Architect/Engineer/ Home design
• Book/Print Translator
• Pollster/Statistician
• Professional eBayer (purchase at garage sales and resale on eBay)
• Knife/Scissor/Saw Blade/Lawnmower Sharpener (yes, this is a skill and it requires training and equipment. Most chefs and tailors have their instruments professionally sharpened.)
• Typing/Key Boarding/Data Entry (many, many online scams for this one)
• Private Investigator (online-based)
• Agent/Publicist
• Food/Restaurant Critic (my dream!)
• Textbook Contributor/Author/Technical editor
• Accounting/Tax preparation

Know of any others? Please comment if you do.

The following is my day on Monday, December 17th, 2007. I kept a pad with me all day, recording everything. People often ask me how I do it–home school, home business, 4 kids. Well this is how. This particular day happened to be more home school than home business but it was still a pretty typical day. (Unlike many businesses, the holidays are a slow time for education publishers. I plan to post another typical day during my busy time, like in April or August.) I tried to report everything here–the good, the bad, and the ugly. I hope it will help people see that although we are far from perfect, it isn’t so difficult to combine family with business (and home school too).

7:30 AM - I’m the first one up, Grace (1) is up two minutes later. I try to sneak Christmas presents in from the car but Sarah (13) wakes up and I have to ask her to shut her eyes. Charlie (6), who fell asleep on the couch last night, wakes up next. I start picking up from the night before (we went to bed without picking up- I hate that). Baby follows me around, undoing what I do. I remind Sarah that she did not sweep the kitchen floor last night and now she has extra to do this AM (last night was not a good one). Charlie asks his usual morning question “Can I turn on the T.V. ?” “No.” (He asks this every morning even though he is never allowed to watch TV in the AM.) I warm up my computer and start coffee. (I think I may be needing lots, so I make a whole pot.)

8 AM - I write a list of weekly goals as I do every Monday. My list for this week:

Personal/Home -

• Finish wrapping Christmas presents
• Pay bills
• Visit flooring store
• Plan Christmas dinner and guest list

Business -

• Complete Dreamweaver tutorial
• Get bids on printing Ancients (2)
• Complete set-up of blogs
• Touch base with writers
• Send Christmas cards to associates

I change the baby. Pete wakes up and does a load of laundry (what a guy). The kids are all awake now. I start my morning pronouncement, “Do your morning routines!” Morning routines consists of various grooming tasks and household chores for the kids–get dressed, teeth, hair, feed animals, take out the trash, unload dishwasher, etc. I start fixing breakfast while finally drinking my coffee. The TV is on and I start to yell at the kids but then I realize it is Pete who has turned it on to check the weather (we were suppose to have had our first freeze of the season last night). I hate it when I yell and I vow that will be my only yelling for the day. Gracie scatters clean clothes around the house from the laundry basket Pete started and left on the kitchen floor. As I clean it up, Pete is asking my opinion about problems with our new renter in our commercial building. I feed Gracie Cheerios and bananas as I sing to her the Cheerios song my sister-in-law made up (it’s now Grace’s favorite). Reprinted here with permission:

Cheerios and nanas, Cheerios and nanas,Cheerios and nanas, that’s how I start my day. Then I play and play and play and play. That’s all I have to say.”

Charlie starts asking his other usual question, “Can I build a fort?” “No, not now. Maybe after your school work is done.” Charlie and Pete begin arguing about breakfast, as usual. Charlie doesn’t want to eat anything and Pete is insisting upon it. Charlie ends up drinking a glass of Green Goodness (a health drink made from pureed fruit and blue/green algae). I’m happy with that. Chris (12) finishes off leftovers from 2 nights ago while Pete, Sarah, Grace, and I eat eggs, toast, and uncured bacon.

Yikes it’s 8:45, 15 mins. till our scheduled school time. Pete leaves to go work on our new house next door. I remind Charlie to feed the cat and Sarah starts sweeping the floor. I clean up from breakfast and change and dress the baby.

9 AM - While the kids wrap up their chores, I answer emails. Charlie starts on his math (he is learning subtraction). I stop emailing to help him. Chris starts on history. He borrows my computer to look up Henry VIII info. Sarah starts math, pre-algebra. I leave for a quick bathroom break. When I return Chris and Charlie are arguing.(Apparently Charlie got too close to Chris and breathed on him.) Disaster diverted (and the boys separated) we get back to school work. (I find that I have to stay close to the kids during school work or they will disappear, or start arguing.) Sarah finishes math and helps Charlie finish his math while I get up to finish cleaning the kitchen. Gracie dumps Charlie’s flashcards across the kitchen floor. I just leave them there for now. Both Chris and Sarah are working on Henry VIII Family Reunion worksheets now. Chris writes one sentence for each person; Sarah writes so much that she needs extra paper (typical). I tell Chris he needs to write at least 3 sentences for each Tudor family member. Charlie turns on Cirque du Soleil music in the living room and starts dancing around with Gracie.

10 AM - I pick up the flashcards and change the baby. Charlie, Chris, and I practice karate katas for our class tomorrow with baby underfoot. Charlie and I pretend to spar.

10:15 - I wash up and dress for the day. Charlie is finally hungry and eats cereal mixed with plain yogurt and fresh fruit.

10:30 Baby is playing nicely with her toy baskets so Charlie and I sit down for his reading lesson. He goes through his sight word flashcards and we play “Say It, Slap It.” (This is a game I made up for my very kinesthetic son. I lay out the flash cards and say a word and he slaps the card that matches, often quite hard, he loves it.) He copies a sentence and reads a short book and we call him “done with school for the day.”

(By the way, the whole time I am doing school work with the kids, my work phone is ringing. But I do not answer it. If I did I would lose all control of the school day. I let the machine do the work)

I pull some dog food out of Gracie’s mouth (she just loves the stuff).

11 AM - Chris and Sarah read their Tudor Family Reunion sheets to me. They are hilarious! I will try to post them. Chris starts his math (fractions). Charlie gets to start working on his fort in the living room. I answer a few more emails with Gracie on my lap. (Typing is very slow one-handed.)

11:30 - Everyone looks settle for a few minutes so I pull out Modern Times (2) and try to write a lesson (Grace is “helping” Charlie with his fort). I am quickly interrupted by Pete who comes in to ask me to make a decision about the roof for our new house. What color tin do I want? Apparently there are a zillion choices. We try to get online to see the choices but the web site is so confusing we can’t find the color chart we need. Pete calls the company instead. I help Chris with his language arts program. I read the lesson regarding pronouns and antecedents to him. He seems to get the point, so I don’t make him do all the practice exercises. I do make him underline pronouns in a poem. I choose the plain tin for the roof, no color after all.

12 PM - Since Pete is in, we start lunch. Easy one today–leftover rigatoni.

12:30 - The kids are playing in Charlie’s fort so I sit down to finish the MT2 lesson (about the Plain Wars) and send emails to a few printers to get bids on Ancients 2.

1 PM - The weather has warmed-up, so even though we still have science to do, we all go outside. The three older kids play a make-believe game involving poison dart frogs and dinosaurs while Grace and I take a walk. We check out the garden to see if the frost zapped it. The mustard greens look good and we still have a few squash flowers blooming. We pick a few old corn cobs and go to visit and feed the cows and lambs in the pasture. Gracie pets the boarded horse.

1 :30 - Pete gathers up the older three to help him “wrap the new house for Christmas.” Really, they help him put on house wrap which goes on before the siding. I go and grab the camera to take a picture for our home building blog. I guess science will have to wait until later.

2 PM - I nurse Gracie to sleep.

2:15 - With the baby asleep and kids still helping Pete, I have a quiet house! I spend five minutes straightening my desk (I can’t focus in clutter). I enjoy my 2nd cup of coffee and write another lesson for MT2. This one is a writing assignment for Tom Sawyer.

3 PM - Charlie comes in and I let him watch a PBS show while he eats cheese and crackers. The rest come in for snacks. I start mixing the pizza dough for dinner (Mondays are pizza and a movie night at our house). I return a phone call from this morning ( a charter school that wants to see sample materials). I finish the T.S. assignment. (I actually wrote two writing assignments for T.S., one on characterization and one a symbolism. Which one will I use? Maybe both.)

3:40 I call my Mom to ask her to check her local stores for a present that I can’t find here. I start where I left off with a CD tutorial of Dreamweaver (I am tired of depending on others to do web site work). The baby wakes up so I don’t get far. The neighbors call (home from school) to see if the kids can play. I say yes, outside. I get Gracie a snack of cheddar cheese and apple pieces. While she eats I drink a very large glass of water and Grace watches me do yoga (she thinks this is very funny).

4 PM - While the kids are still outside, I wrap presents (lots of fun with a 1 y.o.). I spend the first 10 mins. looking for the scotch tape. I end up using packing tape. I finish the presents (yeah! something is complete!) and baby needs changing.

4:30 - I get out Gracie’s stacking cups and the dolly that looks like Albert Einstein meets Don King (her favorite toys) and while she plays I fold laundry. First I have to dismantle Charlie’s fort a little to clear the couch. He has it all held together with massive amounts of scotch tape (that’s where the tape went). (By the way, I won’t clean up the fort for him, he will do that.)

Pete is finished working on the house for the day and he takes Gracie for their daily walk. I form the pizza dough and set it to rise then cut up the veggies. I call a couple of the kids to the house to point out their failure to complete a couple of their morning chores. A less than immediate response and I yell for the 2nd time today, drats!

5ish - Pete and the kids have started a huge bonfire with the yard trash. Very nice on a cold day, so I go to join them for a few minutes.

5:30 - I call all of the kids in for picking-up time. I set the timer for 10 mins. and they run around like busy ants cleaning everything in sight (including Charlie’s fort).

5:45 - The boys put the toppings on the pizzas. They make them look like works of art! Pizzas go in the oven and I start yet another load of laundry. Kids set the table, feed animals, and other chores before dinner. (You may be getting the idea that I have a lot of laundry to do today. I usually only do one load a day, but I do not do laundry on the weekends. That is why Mondays are dubbed “Laundry Day.”)

6:15 - Dinner - Mom’s homemade wholewheat pizza is delicious and nutritious!

6:45 - Kids clean the kitchen while I finish straightening up the house (only because my in laws are coming in the AM).

7 PM - Movie time. We watch Bourne Identity

8:45 - Kids get ready for bed. I help Charlie with teeth and washing-up.

9 PM - Charlie goes to bed. Gracie takes a shower with Pete and I get her ready for bed, even though it may be a couple of hours before she goes down.

10 PM - Grace and Chris go to bed. Sarah watches the Food Network for 30 mins before going to bed while I start blogging (including this post). I will likely get to shower and bed by midnight and read for an hour before calling it a night.

This ended up being a pretty productive day, even though we never did get to science. As I read over the day, it seems a little hectic and busy. It did not feel that way. I am happy that the kids learned many new things, used their imaginations, played outside for a long time, (and nobody got hurt). I am happy that Pete made progress with the new house and I was able to write two lessons, get a few tasks started from my goal list, and only drank 2 cups of coffee. I would say the hardest part about my days are the constant interruptions and restarts. But all in all, I find days like this rewarding. Although mundane, I love being surrounded by my family all day and I wouldn’t change that, not even if it meant more productivity with my business.

Welcome to my blog! Here I will be commenting on the daily (or weekly as the case may be) ins and outs of being a Mom and home schooling four kids and operating a home-based business. My business is Pandia Press, a publishing that company that, at the moment, focuses on history and science courses. I have decided to combine these two aspects of my life and not separate them into two blogs like I did with our house building project (see blogroll for the link) because they are so intertwined and smooshed together, in a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich kind of way, that to separate them would be impossible and foolish (and messy). So if it drives you insane listening to me go on about my kids when all you really want to know is when is the next HO3 course coming out, I sympathize. But this blog is my outlet, probably my therapy as I have no time or money to pay for the real thing. And you will hopefully get something out of reading about my crazy life. Speaking of that, I would like to set some ground rules with those who will post comments. (And I truly hope you will post comments and that I am not just here by myself, taking out into space, because then I would just be a crazy person who talks to herself.) So here they are:

1. Please don’t correct my grammar (unless you are my mother). I know, I know, I’m a publisher of educational materials for goodness sake! Grammar mistakes are unforgivable. Yet I still make them, and this is not a term paper, it’s a diary. (And I like ending my sentences with prepositions!) But I think it is rude to correct people’s grammar (unless it is your child’s) and it should be against the law or at the very least, socially unacceptable. And if you do correct my grammar, I will think of nothing else all day because I am perfectionist at heart, although I am working on that.
2. Don’t quote me off this blog. This is a no-holds-bar blog in which I will be sharing my sometimes very opinionated thoughts on child rearing, politics, business, home education, religion, etc. . I will say things here that you will disagree with. (Heck, I may even say things that two weeks later I disagree with. In which case I will gently correct myself.) I am risking that you will no longer use Pandia Press materials because of something I say on this blog (”She said this about that, I won’t touch her stuff again!”) But those of you who are familiar with my philosophy of education know that my personal thoughts and agendas never (never, ever) show up in the products I publish. I think most of you know the difference and will not hold what I say against me. (If you cannot stop yourself from quoting me, then at least preface it with this paragraph so people understand you are breaking the rules.)
3. (That’s it for now. I am sure I will add another one later.)

Thanks for tuning in and please comment if you have something to say.