Webresource: Hands and Hearts

This is a homeschooling family who owns and operates a business called Hands and Hearts http://www.handsandhearts.com/ they have a range of homeschooling materials, I have heard that their history kits are amazing. They are Christian family and many of their products have Biblical associations but I have heard of many families who are not Christian who have successfully utilized their materials. They have had a rough go lately with their youngest son, you can read more below, but then they sent an email saying that their 4-yr old had been bitten by a rabid squirrel and was going to have to endure the round of shots to combat those as well as antibiotics. I just felt that if ever there was a time to support a fellow homeschooling family here was one that needs support both spiritually and physically! And you might find you really like their products as well! Check below for their sale information!--Tabbi
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Hello from the Estes at Hands and Hearts!

We hope you are all having a wonderful summer and making lots of memories with your children. We are certainly having a memorable summer, but not for the reasons we had hoped. Many of you know that our little 10 month old son, Noah, has been very seriously ill for some time now. He has been in the hospital 6 times in the past three months and has had surgery twice in the last few couple of weeks. One of those surgeries was for a g-tube. This is a feeding tube that was surgically implanted in his tummy. That tube is connected 24 hours a day to a feeding pump (very similar looking to an electronic I.V. pump). Noah is being continuously fed a special formula through this tube.

While we are truly at peace about Noah, our lives have been disrupted enormously by all of this. I (Kate) am spending a lot of time in hospitals and doctor’s offices. Noah has doctor appointments more days than not, and about half of them are out of town. He is about to start adding three therapy appointments per week to his busy schedule.

Our focus right now is eliminating everything that we can so that we can spend as much time as possible with our other children and with each other. As a result, I have not spent much time on our business. Our wonderful employees keep things running very smoothly and I am happy to say that orders are flying out of our doors very quickly – so please don’t worry that we “won’t have time” to process your order. Jeff’s focus is handling the financial and bookkeeping parts of the business, and he is doing well with that. My job here is product development, research, and writing, and there is really no one else here who can do my job.

In our last newsletter, we announced several upcoming changes to our website and product line. We prayed about that announcement and still feel that it reflects the direction we want our business to take. We no longer feel, however, that our proposed time frame is possible. We have spent a lot of time talking and thinking and praying, and here is our updated plan. PLEASE understand that while we have prayed and thought this through, we are refraining from any final firm dates because we never know when Noah will end up back in the hospital.

1. The Ancient World Discovery Kit will be launched in time for the new school year. This kit will feature several projects each from the Egypt, Ancient Far East, and Greece/Rome kits. It is NOT meant to replace those kits. It is meant for families who will be covering all of those time periods in one year and who cannot afford or do not wish to buy each of those kits individually. This kit will give those families the ability to do a little bit from each of those kits for the price of one kit. We hope to have this kit on the market in early July and will announce a firm date as soon as we have one.

2. The updated manuals and new website are on hold at this point. We should know a lot more about Noah’s diagnosis and prognosis within the next two or three months, and once we have that information we will be able to make better decisions about the manuals and website. IMPORTANT: Anyone who has bought or will buy any kit after January 1, 2007 will be able to request an updated manual free of charge once those manuals are completed, and will receive membership to the appropriate members-only portion of the new website when it is completed.

We know that many of you have been waiting with baited breath for the new kit, manuals, and website. As a thank-you to all of you for your patience, we will be offering FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on ALL orders for the rest of June. (If you are ordering from outside the 48 continental states, we will take the actual shipping charges and deduct what you would have been charged. You will only need to pay the difference.) This is not a subscribers-only sale, and no coupon code is required. Your shipping will be taken off automatically when you place your order. Please feel free to share the news of this sale with anyone who might benefit from it. If any of you would like to be paid to recommend Hands and Hearts through your website, blog, or newsletter, please be sure to visit our website for details on how to do so! We have honestly been unable to put any time into promoting our business right now and have had to cancel all of our planned convention appearances. Your support means a great deal to us right now as we deal with medical bills and the other expenses related to Noah’s care.

If you are interested in learning more about Noah’s jouney, please visit our family’s blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull

Thank you!

Love,
The Estes (Jeff, Kate, Hannah, William, Matthew, Timothy, David, Sarah, and Noah) and the rest of the staff at Hands ad Hearts