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Perchance you are wondering how Knowledge Quest, Inc. had its beginning. This history and geography company is perhaps not so very different from the many companies out there that provide curricula to the homeschooling community. At least, not so different in the way it began. It all started six years ago in a little town outside of Portland, Oregon in the shadow of Mt. Hood surrounded by groves of colorful maples trees…
At that time, I was homeschooling my two young school-aged children (then 2nd grade and kindergarten), chasing after an energetic toddler and expecting another one in a matter of months. Needless to say, life was busy. The last thing I was looking to do was start a new business. But God had other plans indeed.
The year prior, I had stumbled upon the Well-Trained Mind book by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer which a friend of mine had recommended that I read. Other books had been influential in our homeschool methods and practices, but none more so than this book in how we taught history. It made wonderful sense to begin the study of history at... well... the beginning, and to progress through it chronologically. We followed the authors' advice of putting together history notebooks. Our children have enjoyed reading through these "books" that they have made over the years and looking at the pictures they have drawn and the maps that they have labeled and colored.
As the primary teacher in our home, I was never satisfied with the selection of blank maps that I could find for the children to label, color and insert into their notebooks. I searched online, shopped at the local teacher supply store and browsed countless catalogs. Blank, or blackline, maps are nearly always drawn by current political boundary lines. How could one find a map that encompassed the area conquered by Alexander the Great, for example? I found myself scouring historical atlases for the best map and having the children trace them for their notebooks. The problem, of course, is that tracing paper is so thin; the pages were easily torn out of the notebooks by mistake. The solution... I needed to create my own historical blackline maps for our own family's homeschool use.
It did not take long before I had friends asking if I would draw these maps for them also. One day I received a phone call from Susan Wise Bauer asking to see some of my maps for possible inclusion into her then-brand-new Story of the World series. She mentioned that in exchange, she would put a link from her website to my website. My what? My website? Not only did I not have such a thing, I didn't even know how to get one. Remember now, this was the year 2001 and the blogosphere was barely born. Sure enough, I did contribute some of my maps to the books and we did get a website up and running, though this was accomplished through much trial and error.
Taking a small financial risk, I had 500 Ancient map sets printed at the local print shop and listed them for sale on the new, but rather unattractive, website. I could hardly believe it when I started getting orders within the week. Encouraged by this success, I set out to create a set of maps for the Middle Ages time period. Sales continued slowly but steadily. Our product line grew and then it was time to decide if we should get our name and products out there and recognized in the homeschooling marketplace, or just be content to sell a few of these map sets a week.
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine was beginning their journey this very same year and we became one of their first advertisers back when it was a rather thin publication. We knew nothing about designing advertisements, but the kind folks at TOS held our hands every step of the way. Within a few months we had our first print advertisement in a blossoming publication and we felt very fortunate indeed to be forming such a good alliance with a rather new but solid magazine. Over the years, we have experimented with various sized ads, given away free samples to their new subscribers, and enjoyed being part of the team as we watched their magazine grow and grow and grow. Now recognized as a significant voice in the homeschool community, it is my pleasure to be part of the editorial staff at The Old Schoolhouse, as I now have a column of my own called The International Schoolhouse.
As I look back on our journey as a business, I am pleased to say that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has been more than just another publication wooing us for our advertising dollars. They have been a true partner in our business. We recently conducted our first ever online survey and found that nearly a third of our current customers found us through the pages or the website of The Old Schoolhouse. This has been a tremendous blessing to us and a fantastic testimonial to them.
Over the years, our business has continued to grow. We have had our share of bumps along the way, but the Lord has been faithful through it all. Last year, the operations of Knowledge Quest, Inc. were taken over by my husband, Todd, and now I focus my efforts on marketing and the creation of new products. These are the parts of the business that I love the most and I am currently freed up to spend more time with the kids, which is why we decided to homeschool in the first place. Todd has more time with the children also now that he works from home. The Lord has been very good to us indeed. And that is the story of how Knowledge Quest began.
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