I am grateful to Amelia and Luther Morecock—Meme and Uncle Luther—for adopting me, teaching me to read before I went to school, and requiring me to be diligent. The credit for any academic or professional success I have enjoyed begins with them. My introduction to phonics materials came from a York, Maine, first-grade teacher in whose class every child learned to read. She showed me her systematic phonics program and told me how to order it, with the result that I taught my children how to read and started down the path to home education. I am immensely thankful that, when I took my “misfit” children to the Henrico Mental Clinic in Henrico, Virginia, I met a perceptive and encouraging psychologist, Jeffrey C. Fracher. Dr. Fracher told me to teach my children at home, an idea that had never occurred to me. I’m grateful to my children, Bob, Deborah, and Susan, for learning with me and for continuing to study and learn as adults. Working with Susan on this book has been a challenging, rewarding task. When she was a child, I nudged her beyond her intellectual comfort zone, and she is now continually doing the same for me. Finally, my husband of forty years, Jay, has been in the midst of all of this since our college years. He has encouraged and supported me at every turn.
I am immensely grateful to my husband, Peter, for educating, caring for, and parenting our three sons. His willingness to take on half the burden of home education has made it possible for me to put the necessary hours into writing this book. Douglas Wilson and Gene Edward Veith have helped me understand the theory and practice of classical education; Beth Ferguson has provided invaluable guidance in the area of mathematics; Peggy Ahern kindly shared her expertise in college application and allowed us to quote her at length. Anne Miller and the Home Educators Association of Virginia made it possible for us to present these ideas to a wide spectrum of home schoolers. The home schoolers who told us what does and doesn’t work at home include Diane Montgomery, Beth Galvez, and Traci Winyard; thanks to you and to all those we’ve talked to at conferences, at workshops, and by e-mail. The Williamsburg Public Library reference librarians cheerfully looked up long lists of citations for us, even in the middle of an ice storm. Thanks also to my agent, Richard Henshaw, for his expert advice and stellar work on our behalf; to Starling Lawrence for giving us confidence in our own words and ideas; to Patricia Chui for seeing us through a thousand pages of manuscript and a nine-day power outage right before the final deadline; and to Carol Flechner for the suggestions that helped us clarify and present our ideas. Finally, I’d like to thank my parents, Jay and Jessie Wise, for investing all the time and care it took to train my mind. I love you both, and I’m more grateful than I can say.