We are DuWayne & Miriam Heppner & our 16 blessings. Our children have been solely home-educated. We have been support group leaders for over 12 years and have been educating, encouraging, advising and providing resources for families via workshops, seminars, mail order business and store front. We are grateful for the grace of God at work in our lives, and desire to pass this hope on to others.

The majority of the resources you see in our catalog are resources we have used and found to be excellent. When we come across something better, we drop the good for the better. We use a lot of age and subject integrated materials, which not only saves time and money, but also provides for optimum learning. The majority of the resources we use are non-consumable which greatly reduces the cost and assists in breaking out of the mass-education busywork method of workbooks. We shy away from lock-step programs, (where you are locked into a grade level), to allow for the fast progression rate which can naturally occur in a home education setting.

The core math and phonics curriculum we use are built on the foundation of laws, rules, or "tricks." Just as natural & spiritual laws are in effect, even so with math and phonics. We have found this an effective way to teach and learn, and believe this to be a Biblical psychology of learning.

We follow the principle set forth in Isaiah 28:10 for teaching younger children; that of introducing a concept and building concept on concept with continuous review. Saxon Math is well known for its success using this principle. We look for other materials that utilize this principle and implement it as much as possible elsewhere.

Our general overall philosophy of homeschooling is to "educate at home" rather than "school at home." Since we parents were educated in the mass-education system, it is sometimes hard to break out of that mind frame. Instead of "Here's life" and "Over there is school," we try to employ the idea in our home that all of life is an arena for learning.

We all can identify with spending some 12+ years in school and remembering virtually nothing of all those facts and figures that were pumped into our brains. I certainly don't want to waste 12+ years of each of my children's lives.

But what is the key? A release of adrenaline flow triggered by a high emotional response such as excitement, fear, anger or sadness causes a chemical reaction that has the effect of gluing that memory to our brain. We try to take advantage of this reaction in a positive way as we educate at home by making use of those "Teachable" moments, (responding to questions with answers and/or information on how to get those answers), and by using the "Unit Study" approach otherwise known as "Discovery-type learning" (a term coined by KONOS), "Delight directed studies" (a term coined by Gregg Harris) or "Interdisciplinary Studies". This simply means that a topic of interest is studied, integrating as many subjects and ages as is appropriate.

Now this is not a promotion for the humanistically based "unschooling" approach where the child only studies what he or she wants. Rather, a parent can direct those delights with a core. The core we have chosen is the time line. As we travel through time, we learn about what was transpiring in music, art & literature, politics, science & technology, religion & philosophy and daily life. We receive a complete picture of each time frame by reading biographies, historical fiction and doing hands-on experiments and projects. The exciting part is being able to see what part religion played in each culture, making history truly relevant for our lives today.

The reward of our children's characters being guided in a Godly direction has been encouraging. We start out our days with personal devotions and Bible memory. This priority has been set, so if all else fails we have the most important accomplished. We know that God has blessed this commitment as the children's test scores have been generally encouraging.

Another reward we have seen is their application of life skills. Too many children come out of school with a "good education" but know nothing about the practical aspect of running a home. We believe the home to be the center of our society; not just another institution.

Also, we have seen our children's "Peer-dependency" being based more on our family values than on friend's values; a benefit of them spending more time with family than with friends.

First, ask God for direction (a vision) concerning His plan for your family. Write down some long-term goals concerning the direction that He leads you. Then set priorities, (short-term goals). Break these down by year, month, week, and day, (making God's plan a practical one that can be followed day by day). This gives the encouragement of purpose in the trying day-to-day struggles and helps to keep focused on what is truly important.

We encourage you to start planting the seeds of responsibility from an early age. It does take longer initially to train a young child in on a household chore than to just do it yourself, but remember Galatians 6:9 "Do not be weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not". People ask me (Miriam) how I do it all. I don't do it all! Our children maintain the house with daily household chores. We are reaping the fruit today from the seeds that were sown yesterday.

We encourage parents to read "What The Bible Says About Child Training," or at the very least the booklet titled "Under Loving Command." We believe the only way the teaching process can be truly effective is when it is built on a solid foundation of training. In a successful teaching situation, the student respects the teacher's words.

We encourage parents and high schoolers to view the video "Why Homeschool Through High School?", by Joshua Harris. This is an excellent production. "Homeschooling the Highschooler" by Family Academy Publications is a very helpful & practical tool. We encourage you to get an "Apprenticeship Plus" notebook with tapes by Inge Pohl Cannon. Challenge your high schooler to ask God for wisdom and direction in his or her life and write down some long term and short term goals. Put them in charge of their lesson plans, (with your guidance, of course). A teacher doesn't need to know more than the student does. An excellent teacher does not spoon-feed students; rather he or she encourages students to be life-long learners, providing tools for the student and letting them go.

We are grateful to God for His graciousness in dealing with our family. He is the one who deserves the credit for anything positive that may happen in our home. We are so very grateful for the opportunity to be able to nurture and educate our family in a way consistent with Deuteronomy 6:6-9.