Experience History Through Music shout out and TWO giveaways!

Have you ever noticed that I speak highly of most of the products I review?  Someone asked me about it recently, so here's the scoop...

I am pretty picky about the things I review.  Surprise!  I choose only things that I feel we will enjoy and use. There have been a few times that things have not been the perfect fit for our family, but never have the products been bad.  I do my research, and so far it has paid off almost every single time.

This one, well, this one is no exception.

As a matter of fact, the Experience History Through Music three book and CD set has blown me out of the water.  Really.  I was not really sure what to expect from it, as I mentioned in our giveaway post, but I knew that music and history combined would work for our family.  It has!  I cannot wait to share my full review with you next week.

What I did not realize is how this book launch would bless me personally!

Let me tell you a little bit about Diana Waring.  I knew "of her" from her books Beyond Survival and Reaping the Harvest and so I was pretty sure I would like anything she was a part of.

Here's what her bio says...
Author of Beyond Survival, Reaping the Harvest and Diana Waring's History Revealed world history curriculum, Diana discovered years ago that "the key to education is relationship." Beginning in the early '80s, Diana homeschooled her children through high-school—the real life opportunities to learn how kids learn.  Mentored by educators whose focus was honoring Him who created all learners, and with an international background (born in Germany, university degree in French, lifelong student of world history), Diana cares about how people learn as well as what they learn.  Audiences on four continents have enthusiastically received her energetic speaking style.

Here's what her bio doesn't say...

She is spunky, fun, and living a life full of adventure.  Like meeting two of the Von Trapp sisters at homeschool conferences and hanging out with THE Almanzo Wilder at those same conferences.  As a part of her book launch team we have had the privilege of hearing many of the back stories of these beautiful books and their accompanying CDs.  This one I have to share as it touched my heart, made me cry and reminded me of how God weaves his way int o our lives daily!

Sometime in the mid 1990s, the partnership that had originally produced "America," "Westward Ho!" and "Musical Memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder," decided that it was time to let a "real" publisher take over. So, we signed contracts with a company that was quite large in the homeschooling movement at the time. We were excited to have others doing the day-to-day details, as I had moved from the Portland area to South Dakota, and this was going to make things so much easier for us all.

However, when this business went bankrupt in the late 1990s, something happened that was past my comprehension. I still don't know why, but when they declared bankruptcy they simply threw everything in the dumpster—including our masters. When I heard this, it utterly devastated me. These wonderful projects were gone, and to reproduce this again seemed too hard without the audio masters. Between having to start over from scratch with all of the images and graphic design and having no audio masters, I thought the entire project was gone forever.

People would ask us about them from time to time, as they had read about them, or heard of them, or had owned the original cassette tapes, but we always told them sadly, "I don't think they will ever come back into print."

Then, several years ago, Gena Suarez of The Old Schoolhouse contacted me to see if we might have any remaining stock of this product. She had heard of a family who had gone through a fire and lost everything, and her company was trying to help them rebuild their lives. I guess that the mom specifically talked about these American folk music in history books/audios, and this prompted Gena's call to me.

To read the rest of the story go to Diana's websire- you won't want to miss it.

BUT, this is what you REALLY won't want to miss.  Just after sharing the story with us, Diana decided to post it on her site.  Shortly thereafter this is a message she received-

from Joanna. . .
"That lady with the house fire was ME! We so miss our "Yankee Doodle Tells A Tale" cassette! I'm so excited about the launch! My first round of kids loved these and now we are homeschooling our second round since we adopted two little ones out of foster care and I know they are going to love these songs, too."

Here's what Diana said to her launch team-

"Can you believe it??? For all of these years, I have wished that I could give the three books/CDs to this woman, but I never knew her name and I didn't have the products!!"

Well, now she does have the products and you can have the chance to win them through a special giveaway valued at over $700.00!

We also hope you will join us on Tuesday, July 1st for her facebook launch party!

You can also win a copy of the Encouragement for Homeschool Moms Collection, a collection of 8 articles and 4 MPs downloads that will bless your socks off!  Just leave me a comment telling me what you like BEST about homeschooling!  A winner will be randomly selected next Friday!

Wow, did you get all that?  I hope you can feel the excitement and I look forward to giving you a full review on Friday the 4th of July!  I am even trying to sneak in a video of my girls playing a few of the songs from the books - shhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell! ;)

Blessings,