Having Trouble Finishing Up Those Homeschool Projects?

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Today is the last day in my series of showing you pictures I pulled together for the open house of the new Notgrass History headquarters. Today I’m showing you photos with various themes before finishing up with a little story that I hope will encourage you if you have any unfinished homeschool projects lying around, making you feel guilty.

Ray and I have loved visiting so many places in our country. Those travels had many purposes, including getting to and from homeschool conventions, traveling with friends and family, exploring history sites and wonders of God’s creation, and making videos to share with homeschool families. Many of those places made their way into future curriculum projects. We enjoyed:

Chaco Canyon in New Mexico

The Hotel Where the Charles and Caroline Ingalls Family Lived in Burr Oak, Iowa

Grand Canyon in Arizona

Peacefield, the last home of John and Abigail Adams, in Quincy, Massachusetts

Ingalls Homestead, a private museum adjacent to the Ingalls actual homestead outside of DeSmet, South Dakota

Pikes Peak, which inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write “America the Beautiful”

A speaking tour in North Carolina included a trip to where the Wright Brothers made their first flight.

In 2019 we had the opportunity to portray President and Mrs. James K. Polk at the Tennessee State Capitol during the annual homeschool rally day.

We have visited several stores and businesses around the country that have faithfully carried our curriculum:

The Pilgrim’s Journey in North Carolina

Heppner’s Legacy in Minnesota

Rainbow Resource Center in Illinois

People have been very kind to us in our travels. This cake welcomed us when Ray spoke at a tutorial in Tennessee.

Homeschoolers in Texas served us these cookies when we spoke to them.

And these folks in Texas welcomed us with a hand-drawn version of the logo we were using at the time.

Of course, much of the time we have been in our home office, continuing to write homeschool curriculum. In 2014 we had a sort of “ribbon cutting” in what was then the new warehouse . . .

. . . when the first shipment of the second edition of Exploring World History arrived.

A great deal of proofreading has gone on in the last 23 years. Here we proofread Our Star-Spangled Story.

And here I go through its printer proofs.

And here we proofread From Adam to Us in the living room, . . .

. . . in the room we call the parlor, . . .

. . . and at a hotel.

We celebrated when the proofs arrived.

We celebrated again when the books arrived at the warehouse.

The warehouse that would never be too small got too small pretty fast.

We rented warehouse space in Nashville and then in Cookeville. Then we rented space in tractor trailers. We kept trying to make our little warehouse and shipping center work.

Sometimes we would have a UPS truck in the driveway while a tractor trailer truck was arriving at the other side of the warehouse at the same time.

Finally in 2021, we were all ready to take the big plunge and build a new place with a warehouse and office combined. This time we decided to build 18,000 square feet, instead of 1,800.

Soon we quit calling it the new warehouse and began calling it headquarters.

We didn’t forget the frugal creativity we learned from my mother, though. When the first estimate for a logo for the office came in at almost $2,000, Mary Evelyn found a homeschooling family business on Etsy that would laser cut one for less than $200. We were so glad that they sent the wood they cut it out of. That took hanging it from impossible to doable. I won’t say it was easy hanging it after church one Sunday night, but we couldn’t beat the price!

And now, for that story to encourage you about finishing homeschool projects. Through the years we have enjoyed company parties at our house . . .

. . . and company retreats at various spots in beautiful Tennessee.

At one of those retreats, John, Bethany, and Mary Evelyn, then in their late 20s and early 30s, completed their last homeschool project. While we were homeschooling, we had made a hand-drawn map of the United States. They had colored in each state as we visited it. I had packed the map away, and they had never colored in the last two states that we visited before they were married—Louisiana and Florida. We had added both of those states while traveling to a homeschool convention not long after we started the company.

I brought the map to the retreat, and our children, who all had children of their own by then, colored in those last two of the lower 48 states. We had told them that we would take them to those 48, and they were on their own for Alaska and Hawaii. To our great joy, they sent us to Alaska a few years ago. They still need to visit Alaska and Hawaii, while Ray and I only lack Hawaii. We had hoped to go in 2020 for our 45th anniversary, but you remember what happened to folks’ plans in 2020. We’re still hoping . . .

Now there’s something to remember the next time you feel guilty about some unfinished homeschool project!

For I am confident of this very thing,
that He who began a good work among
you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6

I hope you can join me for the Live Chat at 1:00 p.m. Central time on Wednesday, July 27. Here’s the link to sign up.

 

 

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