It was February 1991 . . .
We were at the Hoosier Dome Convention Center in Indianapolis as guests of the Indiana Association of Home Educators. All day long Inge had been speaking to "standing room only" crowds of parents, unraveling "educationese" and challenging them to meet their children's needs around a core of Scriptural content. Dr. Ron distributed outlines and answered questions: "Where are Inge's books?" "Don't you have any tapes?" "How can I learn more about these methods?" "When are you coming back?" By the end of the day, a company was born.
Over the next year we named it Education PLUS, with PLUS being an acronym for "Patterning Learning Upon Scripture." Our goal was to provide training tapes and books that would help Christian parents teach their children around the core of Biblical principles, whether they were home educating their children or supervising an educational program they had delegated to others. Within a three-year span, several products were developed: Growing in Wisdom and Stature (How to Make the Most of Each Stage in Your Child's Development), Finally Organized! (A Simple Accountability Plan to Help You Succeed--in organizing your home to survive family life, let alone home schooling!), Apprenticeship PLUS (later revised and expanded in the Mentoring Your Teen: Charting the Course to Successful Adulthood seminar), Etiquette PLUS: Polishing Life's Useful Skills (a character-building, etiquette curriculum from the cradle through age 24), and Patterning Learning Upon Scripture (a "how-to" syllabus with charts, diagrams, bibliography, and resource material for 15 audiotaped training sessions).
It was June 1992 . . .
We were returning to our home in the Washington, DC, area from Columbus, Ohio--this time guests at the Christian Home Educators of Ohio annual convention. Dr. Ron stole a glance away from the road and looked at Inge. "You know, 'how-to' tapes and books, teaching people to develop their own interdisciplinarycurriculum around the Scriptures, are not going to be sufficient. We're going to have to write curriculum." Knowing that an exit from the car was not possible while traveling the speed limit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Inge replied, "You're right, but when will we find time to accomplish it?" Several hours of discussion many times over and lots of prayer confirmed God's direction. A dream was born.
It was December 1994 . . .
We had been praying about developing a full-fledged ministry to home educators and specifically asking God if we should terminate Inge's employment at the National Center for Home Education and relocate to a lower-cost-of-living area to make that possible. Our landlord called. "We want to sell the townhouse. Would you like to buy it?" God confirmed His direction that it was time to end the lease, and by the end of February 1995, the Cannons and Education PLUS had taken up residence in South Carolina. Mingled with travel to 16 home education conferences, a full-time writing venture was born.
It was Summer 2008 . . .
We have faithfully participated in the growth of the modern home education movement in the United States for more than two decades. We have seen magnificent growth as the movement has matured: legislative victories, multiplied curriculum options, state and national associations, media presence, huge conventions--all leading to a heightened awareness of the viability of home schooling and the wisdom of parent-directed tutorial education in American culture. But it is often the case that as a movement experiences great success, the vision of the pioneers and their courage in breaking away from conventional paradigms to offer their children the best of discipleship is dulled and even forgotten. It is our desire to bring back those "classic" workshops, along with significant training in educational planning and transcript production, so that the home educators of the twenty-first century can present themselves as workmen that rightly divide the word of truth in every area of their lives. (See II Timothy 2:15 and 3:16-17.)
One final word . . .
We take to heart very seriously the Apostle Paul's admonition to the Corinthians: "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" We are truly debtors--first and foremost to the grace of God, Who has chosen to redeem us by the blood of His dear Son and Who has promised to complete the good work He has begun in our lives until the day that the Lord Jesus returns for us. We are debtors as well to the family of God--those believers who have loved and prayed for us and invested themselves in our lives and those who have blessed us by the testimony of their ministries and/or their writings. We are grateful for our heritage and humbled by our limited understanding of the breadth and depth of God's love throughout our experiences.
Whatever good is here belongs to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we give thanks to God the Father by Him. The Holy Spirit is truly a patient teacher. Whatever errors are here--and we know you'll find some--belong to us. We long for the day when we shall be like Him, for we shall then see Him fully as He is. In the meantime, we pray you'll have the adventure of your lives with your children as you explore the unsearchable riches of Christ--the living Word--through the inexhaustible written Word of God.