We are preparing to leave for the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention. We hope to depart first thing tomorrow morning. I did not leave enough of a cushion of time to make today a smooth day. I feel frazzled as I am trying to get all of the packing and last minute details taken care of. Do you ever feel like the end of your school year is like that? For us, spring time means beautiful weather and lots of yard work. We are eager to get outside. The kids are distracted by the birds who seem to be calling them to come outside and play. It is difficult to concentrate on their school work. It is hard for me to get tough with them because I want to be outside too. When I look at the calendar I realize that we only have a couple of months left of the school year to finish up. If the kids get behind now, it will be all the more difficult to catch up. This is why I try to schedule lots of “cushion” days at the end of the school year. I know we will get off track a bit each spring. By ending our school year a couple of weeks early when I make the schedule out at the beginning of the year, I give us some breathing room to make adjustments at the end of the year. How about you? Do you feel frazzled by the end of the year trying to get it all done or do you allow enough space at the end to play catch up in case you get behind? I am thankful I have allowed enough space at the end of our school year but I am sure wishing I had done the same with this trip. The good news is we can learn from our mistakes and do it better next time. I hope I have learned my lesson and do a better job planning ahead for the next convention we attend. Hopefully when we see some of you at the convention this weekend I will be much less frazzled than I am today. Please stop in and say hello. We will be at booths 826 & 828. We hope to see you there!
Archive for the Category »Pennywise Learning «
We’ll we’re getting the crew ready for the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention coming April 8-10 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, OH. This is the first time that we will be attending this conference as a vendor. Brennan & Mary Jo Dean have done a great job planning this event.
They have a great line up of speakers including a special Friday Night show with a hilarious Christian comedian – TIM HAWKINS! (He was homeschooled, and was also a Homeschool Dad).
We are expecting over 3,000 Homeschool families to be in attendance and are really looking forward to meeting our Midwest customers. Please be sure to visit us at booth 828 if you’re attending.
For more information on the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention, click here!
We are also planning on visiting the Answers In Genesis Creation Museum while we’re in the area. We went a couple of years ago and our family loved it. The Creation Museum is awesome!!!
We hope to see you there!!!
For me, the word pennywise always brings up a mental image of Benjamin Franklin and a printing press. It just seems to have a nostalgic ring to it. That’s why, when the opportunity came for us relocate to a historical landmark only five miles from our home, we jumped on it.
We started PennywiseLearning.com in 2002. Like a lot of home birthed businesses, it started in one part of the lower level and eventually had taken over most of the house. Which by the way is a great problem to have. By spring of 2008, we really had no choice but to look at our options.
Imagine a home with eight children and two adults. Fill the entire lower level with offices, shipping areas and many thousands of dollars worth of inventory. Then add in three or four employees, UPS, Fed EX, sales people, and a tractor trailer or two waiting to be unloaded.
Do you begin to get the idea of what it must have been like visiting the Pratt house? I remember people coming to visit and saying, “you really live like this?”, and we were like, “yeah. We wouldn’t have it any other way”.
But after one very hectic morning, Kristen and I had go out to run some errands and I remember saying, “I think it’s time”. To that she replied, “funny you should mention it, I saw this building I have always loved in town that is for sale. Do you want to take a look?” So we did and within a day we made a ridiculously low offer knowing that if they said yes, it would only be the Lord. Of course, they accepted it on the spot.
The building was built in 1876. Built on the Erie Railroad it served as a dry goods store and the original post office in town. It even housed the town hall for a bit in the late 1800’s. It still has the original safe along with all of the receipts and paperwork from the 1800’s to the 1950’s.
This 7,000 square foot building is a treasure to us. There is enough room for inventory, offices, and even a warehouse outlet store. There’s even a loading dock where the horse drawn carts used to load and unload. To top it off we have the hitching post sill out in front of the huge front porch.
We love the fact that we have the opportunity to recycle and reuse this building as much as we love the history of it. Located less than five miles from our home, we could not have asked for a better location for PennywiseLearning.com
We spent the first two months gutting, cleaning, and remodeling the inside. After a lot of work, we moved in October of 2008. Of course there’s a long way to go finishing it off but we’re off to a great start. Best of all, now when I think of the word pennywise, I think of Ben Franklin, the printing press and of course, the Pennywise building.
This is an actual photo of the building in the early 1890’s given to us by the Town of Collins Historical Society. Notice the horse in the front and Rte. 39 is a dirt road.
Our building was featured as one of WNY’s Historical buildings. This is a sketch that appeared in the book.
As home educators, we know the benefit of having quality curricula to make our jobs easier. In working with many of the publishers of these curriculums we realize how hard they work to develop new and enriched content and how important each sale is in helping them continue that process.
The Internet and computers have made sharing intellectual property (books, essays, videos, art, photos, etc.) much easier. The tendency among tightly budgeted homeschoolers is to seek as much free material as possible. Free is good but the trick is to do so without crossing the copyright line.
If you’re wondering if its okay to just make copies of a textbook or study guide, be sure to check out HomeschoolCopyright.com to make sure it’s okay.
Our family, friends, church family, and Pennywise Learning staff lost someone very special to us on Thursday. Albert was the father-in-law of a very dear friend and employee of Pennywise Learning. He was a family friend of ours since my husband and I were children. He was a kind and loving man who donated many hours, along side his son, replacing windows, doors, and a host of other projects as we have worked on refurbishing the antique building we bought and moved Pennywise Learning into. He even offered to donate his time (and his son’s!) to build a much needed addition onto our house this summer. He loved children. Each Sunday he could be found before church in the fellowship room sitting with the little ones eating Timbit donuts and drinking his coffee while they chattered away to him. There is so much I could say about this loving, Godly man. We will miss him.
Goodbyes are very hard. Goodbyes through death are even harder, especially when they come so suddenly that you feel like you hit a brick wall while going 55 mph. Yet, God knew what was coming. A few weeks ago we spent a day talking about “The Blessed Hope” in church. We now realize the Lord was preparing us for this loss. We grieve deeply for Albert. Life will never be the same without him. Yet, we do not grieve as those with no hope. We know Albert is with the King of Kings, whom he loved so much. He is in the presence of the One he served. We know one day we will see Albert again. We will hear his unmistakable laugh once more. While we cry and mourn for the time we will live without Albert to brighten our daily life, we look forward to that day when we will be reunited with him and the other loved ones who have gone before him. This is our “Blessed Hope.”
Through the years I have been asked many times how I do it all. As a homeschooling mom of a large family and a business owner, it can be a challenge. One of the keys to success is getting an early start on planning for the next school year. Next school year we will have 5 children who fall under the compulsory education laws. This means we are required to submit paperwork to our local school district for these children. Two of the five are in high school and one of the younger ones is very advanced. In addition to those 5 we will have a child who has special needs start Kindergarten plus a preschooler. Planning is going to be crucial for next year, which is why I start the process in February.
What better time than February to gather information and study up on the options? It is cold and snowy outside. I am homebound quite a bit. There are no gardens needing tended, picnics to attend, or a busy season looming. For our family, it is the perfect time to plan. I start by evaluating the current school year. What is working? What is not working? Are our goals being achieved? Next I think about what the next year will hold. What things will change in our family? Are we planning a lot of traveling? How old will the youngest child be? There are many things that can impact a school year. With all of this in mind, the next step is to prepare each student’s plan.
I like to start with my high school students. HSLDA (www.hslda.org) has some really good information on what courses to take for the type of diploma your student wants to achieve. My high school students are working towards a college prep. diploma. I did up a high school plan chart in a spreadsheet. I list out the courses they plan to take for all four years of high school, including the curriculum or materials they will use for the course. Plans do change as we go along but at least it gives us an overview of what the high school years will look like. It helps us make sure each student achieves the goals we have laid out with them. February is the time we tweak that plan.
My middle grade students tend to be the easiest to plan for but we still make adjustments along the way. Next year we plan to use Learning Language Arts Through Literature for the first time. (It came as a surprise to me that my husband had already added it to our website. We have talked about it for a long time. I informed him of the other wonderful materials Common Sense Press has to offer so look for them soon!) I usually have discussions with my students about what they liked and didn’t like about their school work this year. I take all of it into consideration when making decisions for the next year.
Next year we have a challenge we have never faced before, a gifted child. My son will be starting 1st grade. He already knows how to add and subtract multi-digit numbers, simple multiplication, counts to 100 etc. He has been reading for a while now. He is learning to write his letters this year. If anything, he is on par in handwriting. Everything else he excels in. It is a real challenge to find the right mix of materials that will challenge him. I would love to hear from my readers who have gifted children. Any advice? What has worked well for your child in the younger grades?
On the other end of the spectrum we have a child who has special needs starting Kindergarten next year. I am looking at using Kumon books to start with. We hope to have those added to our website soon. I like them because they are simple and each book focuses on one skill at a time. We have used them with our gifted student but I think they will work equally as well with our other son who will need to take a much slower pace.
As my plan comes together for next year, I will begin ordering in all of the materials and curriculum we need. The piles will grow as I work to enter in the year into the lesson planning software we use, Homeschool Tracker. It is a lot of work and sometimes takes weeks to accomplish. In the end, it is worth it to have the whole year’s lessons entered in. Each Monday morning my students can simply print off their work for the week and off they go. A lot of planning makes for a smoother, more successful school year.
How do you plan for your homeschool? Do you have any time saving tips? Remember to send me your insights and suggestions for a gifted student.
That’s my two cents for today.
Blessings, Kristen
Later that night after DH was settled into his hotel room, he gave me a call and we discussed the idea of purchasing NewCenturyHomeschool.com. We decided that we would love to have a website that focused on Homeschoolers but we would start from scratch. I suggested Pennywise…something as a name and DH said what about Learning, and that was the moment PennywiseLearning.com was born. Lesson #5: Never underestimate the value of a good name.
I immediately went to work on our new endeavor. The first company I contacted was Alpha Omega, the publisher of Horizons, LIFEPAC, Switched-On, and Weaver Curriculum as well as Bridgestone Media. That call went well and now we had a supplier. We filed for our resellers tax ID and our DBA (doing business as) with the county and we were now officially in business. That was in the summer and fall of ‘02.
DH had some limited experience putting together websites but we really needed more help. Meet Tom Foy. DH and I went to a little private school in Western New York. Our graduating class of ‘87 was made up of three people. DH, myself, and Tom. Tom had his own printing business and he and DH had worked on some projects together so we knew what he was capable of. Tom was the first person DH turned to for advice. Tom has truly been a key to our success. DH asks him if he can do something and usually within a few hours, Tom has a solution. Lesson #6: It’s true, your network is crucial to your success.
We had NO money at that point to invest. Tom helped us set up our domain name and signed us up for a $9/month hosting account. He sent us a disc with a free trial version of a web authoring software called Actual Drawing. We set up our shopping cart with Paypal.com. As Tom and DH set-up the basic layout of the site, I spent hour after hour entering in products and detailed descriptions. Most business ideas die right here between the “Great Idea” and the “Start Up” because its a lot of mind numbing work. I don’t know how many pages I would work on for hours only to have my computer crash and lose it all. Lesson # 7: There are no get rich quick schemes. Starting a business takes a lot of hard work. Lesson # 8: Frequently save your files. (lol! I’m still working on that lesson. You’d think I would be an avid file saver, but just the other day it happened to me again.)
For three months, day and late into the night, I entered products. Finally, the site was ready to go live. We launched the site on January 1st, 2003. Our first sale was a western DVD. Here is our first logo in 2003.
In 2004, we added the SAVE tag and our tag line, “The Best Homeschooling…Made Affordable!!!”
In 2005, we changed the color of the SAVE tag to red and started using Jagger font.
In 2006, we cleaned it up a bit and made the dot red.
Here is our logo today. You can see how it evolved to what it is.
Let me introduce you to an old friend of ours. This is Penny. Penny became a mascot of ours early on when we started adding Creation Science materials. She can be seen throughout the PWL archives.
I really love this pic. It just makes me feel good. I think I’m going to have to convince DH and Tom to bring her back again. Anyways… (to be continued)
When people ask what we do for a living, they are often intrigued and inspired to think that an average family like ours could build a business like PennywiseLearning.com. Many of us dream of the freedom of owning our own businesses, especially when we hear the rags to riches stories and think, “If only…”.
Our story is a God story. He is woven into every detail and has proven Himself to us time and time again. The scriptures that we are reminded of when we think of the last few years in growing our business is:
“Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand” Proverbs 19:21
“The blessing of the Lord–it makes truly rich, and He adds no sorrow with it, neither does toiling increase it. Proverbs 10:22
Pennywise Learning (PWL) was birthed in 2002 but the story starts long before that. We had begun Homeschooling years before when my husband (DH) resigned as the Principal of the private school my oldest daughter (DD) was attending. Just like most new Homeschoolers we entered the arena with fear and trembling.
DH’s new boss had a desktop PC that had been returned from an installation for some reason. At that time a good PC would have cost us over $1,500 and we never would have been able to afford it in our own. DH’s boss knew that DH would work just as hard at home if he had PC so his boss gave it to him. The PC even had a modem which seems funny to mention now but owning an Internet capable PC truly enabled us to start a journey we wouldn’t have started without it. Lesson #1: The Lord provides.
At the same time AOL launched unlimited dial-up Internet access for $19.95 a month. That was a lot for us to swing at that time but we received a free trial disc so we figured we’d give it a try. It was that night that our online personalities vansneeze (DH) and eladah (me) came to life. We were given the PC and dialed into AOL for the first time on our second day of Homeschooling.
That night we stumbled across a chat room on AOL called “Homefront Hall”. Homefront Hall was filled with other Homeschool moms just like me. We supported each other, we argued about traditional schooling verses unschooling, we prayed for each other to make it through another day, and we made some of the best friends we’ve known. To this day, some of the connections I made almost 13 years ago in that chat room are my best friends. Lesson#2: The Internet can be used to support Homeschooling mothers who otherwise would not have the support.
Now Homeschooling my DD, bless her heart! was not an easy task. In comparison to Dr. Dobson’s description of a strong willed child, she was an over achiever. lol! She battled me through every page of her work. Finally, one day she pushed to the point of no return and I expelled her!
I called DH at work and told him she was his! I didn’t care what he did but I was done trying to Homeschool this child. “Dear Sir, Your Daughter Is No Longer Welcomed At My School!!! Yes, That’s Right, Consider Her Expelled!!! (…don’t judge me, you know you’ve thought of doing it. lol)
DH is a sweet and caring man but he has this theory when it comes to the kids and Homeschooling. “They’re gonna regret making this my problem”…and so it was with DD. The first thing he did was went looking for a curriculum that would do as much of the work for him as possible and that she could do on her own. He came across Switched-On Schoolhouse, a PC based curriculum that automates much of the teaching, scoring, and record keeping. Every day the computer would tell her what she needed to do and the PC could care less what attitude or fit she was pitching. He set her up on a fast track and off they went. Lesson #3: Out-of-the-box Homeschool solutions are wonderful!
Now I should note, she is an exceptional young women. Both DH and I appreciate spunk and spirit. We wouldn’t want her any other way. I think it’s important to mention the struggle because it was the struggle that led us down a path we would not have taken otherwise. Lesson#4: Sometimes the greatest blessings come from the greatest struggles.
Here is where the story begins to unfold. I purchased our Switched-On Schoolhouse from an online vendor called NewCenturyHomeschool.com. The had great prices and a very easy to understand website. One day when I went to the website and they had a “For Sale by Owner” sign on the homepage. When you clicked on the sign, they told the story of how their business had grown to the point that they couldn’t manage it and they felt it was time to get out while the getting was good. They posted their sales numbers and I have to say it was really impressive.
I got really excited about the possibility of owning a Homeschool related business. I called DH, who was out of town on business, traveling through New York City in a taxi cab. Considering he’s been in two NYC cab accidents, the cab ride was more dangerous than anything I was about to propose to him. We agreed to give it some thought and talk about it later once he got into his hotel room.
That night… (to be continued)
The ending of a calendar year is always a time for reflection. My husband and I look back on the year and discuss all that went on. We also wonder what the new year will bring. As a homeschooling mom, it is also a good time to evaluate where we are in the school year. We have finished up our first quarter. The kids are on a break. It is time to shore up the weak spots, tweak our schedule a bit, and hit the new year running again.
A part of this process is evaluating the curriculum we are using. Some years we try new things and this is a good time to decide if it is working as well as we hoped. While I usually like to give new curriculum a full year before making a change, if it is an absolute disaster for a particular child, now is the time to make the switch. It is also a good time to order supplemental material to help a struggling child or to challenge a more advanced student.
So what are some New Year changes being made in the Pratt household? We are working on setting up a school room downstairs. It would be great if we could get it done before January 4th. We have expanded our family quickly (4 little guys ages 5 and under) and with so many little ones running around, it is loud and distracting for our school aged kids. Randy has decided to take over the grading of tests in order to free me up to do more with Pennywise Learning. We need to set up a schedule and system for that. I think our curriculum is all good this year. No adjustments needed there.
What kinds of changes are you making in your homeschool to insure a successful year?
Thanks Randy and Tom for getting this up and going. What would Pennywise Learning do without the 2 of you? They are the backbone of our website, creative geniuses!
I am married to Randy and we have 9 terrific kids. The oldest is 19 and the youngest is a baby. We have 3 girls and 6 boys. I tell the girls they are like diamonds. There are fewer of them so they are all the more precious. We were blessed with 8 by birth and one through international adoption. Our adopted son is also special needs. We have homeschooled since our oldest was in 1st grade. We began our business, Pennywise Learning, in 2002. We are actively involved in our church with leadership responsibilities. I even have a hobby, scrapbooking. I call my style speed scrapbooking since I don’t have time for the intricate creations seen in many scrapbooks. As you can see, we have a pretty full plate. Part of the purpose of this blog is to encourage families that they can homeschool, even with busy and complicated lives. I hope you are blessed and encouraged along the way. Homeschooling is a wonderful lifestyle. Our family has been blessed beyond measure because of our decision to go this route. May your family be as blessed as ours in your homeschooling journey. I hope to hear your stories as an encouragement as well.
Kristen
