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I grew up in southern California. While still in high school
I began teaching in the same Christian preschool where I had gone as a
child. At this preschool I taught four-year-olds (pre-k) for four years
and was an assistant teacher in the kindergarten class for a year. While
co-teaching kindergarten I got engaged. Realizing that my preschool
teacher salary would not be enough to be out in the “real world” (I had
been living at home), I took an office job. This doubled my paycheck but
I really missed the kids. I continued to teach Sunday school for the next
several years off and on as my husband and I moved from California to
Colorado to Texas.
While in Colorado, after nine years of marriage, God blessed
us with a daughter. From the time I knew I was pregnant my husband and I
discussed my going back to work – we both agreed that I would be at home
with our daughter. This is not something that every mother may be led to
do. I was. Knowing I had a closet full of teaching books and supplies I
looked in to offering home day care. I didn’t want to be a babysitter,
and being a first time mother I really wanted to specialize in what I
knew best – preschoolers. So I planned to run a day care center from my
home that offered a casual program, yet prepared kids for the “real”
school experience. While in the licensing process several people assured
me that offering an educational program instead of just babysitting
services was going to be a big hit. After getting my license I discovered
there were 47 other providers in my zip code alone (not in my city – just
in my zip code). I have never seen as many stay at home moms as I
encountered in Colorado Springs. Everyone who saw my program said it was
great and that I should have no problem filling up even with so many
other providers in my area. But God had different plans as I did not get
one full time student. Within a month or so we realized that my husband
could not make alone what we had made in combined income, so he started
checking out of state for jobs. We figured that elsewhere he alone could
make what we needed. God provided a job in Texas and we moved there in
the summer of 1998.
Our daughter had her first birthday just before we moved to
Texas. As she approached the two-year mark we moved from a big city to a
much smaller town. This was wonderful in most respects, but my daughter
lost her regular playmates. I had always intended to homeschool my
children during the elementary years. But I started to realize she needed
more than “free play” in her life now and I needed something productive
to occupy my “spare” time. I thought I’d start her on a homeschool
program as a toddler then when we reached “real school” age it wouldn’t
be a big deal. Using my closet full of teacher reference books I started
to create a homeschool curriculum for a two-year-old. As a starting
point, I found the Two-Year-Old Skills List on a website called
Homeschooling Preschoolers (shut down as of December 1999). Not wanting “desk
work” for preschoolers, I set out to create a lesson plan that allowed
for play with a purpose. Something we could do together and my daughter
could learn in the process. Several friends saw the curriculum and
suggested I put it up for sale. Hmmmm, this hadn’t even occurred to me. I
contacted Michele Lewis, the lady who ran the Homeschooling Preschooler
website, and explained that I had created a curriculum using her Skills
List. I asked if she’d be interested in putting it up for sale from her
site. She checked it over and put it up.
After a few months of selling the two-year-old version I had
an overwhelming amount of requests for older versions (ages three and
four). So I created the four-year-old (pre-k) version and it went up for
sale in the fall of 1999. A three-year-old version followed for the Fall
2000 school year. In the midst of the double curriculum creation I
also delivered our second daughter in February 2000.
Our second child was diagnosed with some heart deformities
within 24 hours. This was devastating news, but again the Lord was
looking out for us. The pediatrician in the hospital heard a murmur and
asked to run more tests. The pediatric cardiologist, I believe sent to us
by God, discovered some small holes between the lower chambers of her
heart were causing the murmur. He assured us that this was not uncommon
and usually did not present a danger to her health. However, they also
discovered a larger hole in the top of her heart, a leaky valve allowing
blood to go the wrong way, and an artery on the wrong side of the heart
which was sending oxygenated blood back in to the heart. He said this
last condition was much more rare but that it was usually not detected
until the child was several months old and came in to the hospital with congestive
heart failure. Our infant was set for open-heart surgery in March 2000.
The doctors moved the artery and closed up the large hole at the top. Our
little angel came through the surgery and spent a little over a week in
PICU, 2 days in a regular room and then home. Within a few months the
leaky valve had healed to almost perfect and the smaller holes between
the lower chambers were apparently also smaller. She was soon off all
medication. Her cardiologist told us that a lot of kids outgrow the smaller
holes and some don’t. But they are no longer a risk to her health. We
have been truly blessed and are thrilled to have both of our girls with
us. A year after her surgery they told me that the VSD’s (holes in the
lower chamber) had gone from too many to count to three. As of January
2007 she still had a murmur, but we kept praying and were thankful for
what we had.
March 2002 brought a new surprise – baby #3 was on the way.
Fall 2002 we started kindergarten with a five-year-old, a two-year-old
and in November added a newborn. Knowing we would need some time
off for the baby we started school a month early and took an extended
winter break from mid November through New Year 2003. The flexibility of
homeschooling is wonderful.
At her 18-month check up the pediatrician heard a murmur in
our youngest’s heart. Because of what we had already been through with
the middle daughter, she sent us to the cardiologist to have it checked
out. It was then we were told that all babies have a hole between the
upper chambers of their heart which normally closes at birth. This one
didn’t. They wanted to wait until she was at least 3 to do the closing
procedure so we waited. January 2006 our youngest went in for a catheter
procedure. Using the artery that passes the hip and goes up to the heart
as a tube, they inserted 2 little disks that looked like mesh Frisbees.
The disks were inserted into the heart and through the hole, the first
disk expanded to cover the hole and then the second disk expanded to seal
the hole pressed between the disks. The procedure was done on a
Thursday afternoon in the cath lab in about 2 hours (much different than
spending 6 hours in a waiting room for open-heart surgery). Friday
by noon we were on our way home with a 3-year-old asking to stop and eat
and play at McDonald’s. We did just that. At her 6-month follow up
appointment everything was fine.
As of Fall 2007 Hands on Homeschooling is being used in 16
different countries with more than 2,000 copies sold.
In a sort of large nutshell, that is a little about me and
how Hands on Homeschooling began. It has been a great blessing to me and
I hope that you will take the time to send me an email if you have any
questions or comments on any of the curriculums.
Thank you,
Terri Wilson
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