Alphabet Alley has some terrific products that are not only educational, but they reinforce positive, Christian training. Following is a description of Alphabet Alley from the family who created this faith-based business.

    Welcome to the Alphabet Alley family! We are a family owned and operated business.

    The idea for Alphabet Alley began after the arrival of Marilyn’s first child, Mary Lee, in 2003. Marilyn embarked on a search for entertaining faith-based toys for her daughter, but was unable to find fundamental toys with a positive message that children actually wanted to play with. There were wonderful books and videos but no basic blocks, puzzles or games that combined toddler fun and a Christian message.Â

    A decision was made to create these toys for other young children and Alphabet Alley was born! Marilyn enlisted the help and hard-work of her mother Linda and her aunt Marilyn (also known as Mimi) to start the company in 2004. Their commitment to quality, faith and fun remains the focus for all of their toys today.  Â

    Alphabet Alley toys toys bring play and learning back to basics. Many of the toys are multi-use - combining numbers, letters, words, pictures and motor skills all in one product. The puzzles also come with “extras”, like the biblical references printed on the back of the puzzle. The graphics are simple and appealing – beautifully illustrating familiar words and stories.

    It is our sincere wish that Alphabet Alley toys will bring smiles and joy to the children in your life.

Marilyn, Linda & Mimi

    Media Angels^® was founded in 1994 by Felice Gerwitz, to publish quality Christian material.

    “Actually, I never planned to write an entire homeschool curriculum. I began by answering questions from other concerned parents pertaining to teaching science. It appeared that science was a least favorite subject and I shared several resources I had found, as well as my method of teaching using many hands-on activities. I kept notes on setting up a science-type lab, and soon found myself being asked to speak at a local homeschool event. Armed with my notes, I shared my information and found myself surrounded by parents eager for copies. Seated in the audience of this event was one of the area representatives of the Florida homeschool convention. He invited me to apply as a speaker the following year. Arriving home, I excitedly shared the news with my husband. I laughing quipped, ‘I guess I need to write a book since most of the speakers have one.’ I began the process (Teaching Science and Having Fun) and was elated to find I had been accepted as a speaker at the FPEA convention in Orlando, Florida. I also applied at several other conferences and was surprised to find I was the keynote speaker in Pensacola, Florida! (I actually thought it was a typo, it wasn’t) This was the Lord’s way of blessing my calling not only to homeschool, but to share my knowledge with others. I couldn’t have better planned my first years in the business if I tried. I have always said you can’t out give the Lord!”

    Felice claims a further blessing was meeting Jill Whitlock, a creation scientist-homeschool mom, and co-authoring the 4-book Creation Science Study Guides. Jill’s ability to grasp the difficult concepts of the creation vs. evolution debate, paired with Felice’s educational knowledge showed this winning team could produce curriculum that is currently in its third edition. Jill went home to her Lord in December 2007. She was a follower of Christ, an oil-well geologist, a dedicated mother to three boys, and a brilliant scientist. She was in the masters program at the Institute for Creation Research before her passing. Thankfully, her legacy lives on in her work.

    Media Angels^® curriculum has been blessed many times. The curriculum has received recognition in several popular books including Homeschooling 101 and Cathy Duffy’s 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. Felice writes for publications such as Homeschooling Today®, The FPEA Almanac, A Mother’s Heart Magazine, Visual Manna newsletter, and many online publications including crosswalk.com. She publishes her own monthly e-zine available at www.MediaAngels.com. An Insider’s Guide to Successful Science Fair Projects was chosen by God’s World Publishing as the “book of the month”. The Truth Seekers Mystery Series^TM has been selected as required summer reading by many Christian schools, over the years. Felice is the author of ten books and the co-author of seven. Media Angels^® has published over 20 books, most with a Biblical focus. She is also owner of www.Virtual-Field-Trips.com and www.ScholarSquare.com websites with an educational focus.

    “One of my favorite pastimes is baking and I enjoy experimenting with recipes. My parents owned a bakery, and then an Italian restaurant and I toyed with the idea of following in their footsteps. My classes at church are always full, not because of the wonderful lessons I plan for the teens, but for the delicious chocolate chip cookies I love to bring! Yet, the Lord has had me continue in the publishing business to the extent that I am currently considering over 8 different manuscripts from a variety of authors wishing to become published. My husband and I pray yearly about the direction the Lord wants Media Angels® to go and I will continue as long as the Lord continues to bless our efforts.  Felice and Jeff have been married since 1979. They have five children (2 homeschool graduates) and have homeschooled since 1986. Both Felice and Jeff are graduates of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Felice has a BA degree in Elementary Education, and Certification in Learning Disabilities and Early Childhood Education. Jeff has a BS degree in Physical Education, but has run a successful construction company for many years. This doesn’t give him much time to be active in the publishing business, but his support and advice is invaluable. The Gerwitzs’ are active church members.  One year Felice presented conferences from Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Early on in their business Felice and Jeff decided the conference trail across the states was not for them. In the long-run, Felice knows it has hurt sales, but family life is more important. Currently Felice’s seminars can be viewed from the comfort of your own home. She has DVD presentations of her more popular presentation. You can purchase these or watch them for a small fee at ScholarSquare.com “I have held many seminars on a variety of topics. I can’t give the same lecture twice and I use a slide presentation but rarely stay on topic!” Her seminars favorites include: Teaching Science, Science Labs on a Shoestring Budget, Science Fair Projects, Juggling Home Life and School as well as Writing and Publishing. Lately I have enjoyed audio interviews via the internet as well as seminars I present online.  “Learning to start a publishing business while running a household of children hasn’t been easy. I’m not the most organized person in the world, but I keep trying. The Lord gifted me with a daughter who is organized and she constantly kept me together. Lists are what keep me going (when I don’t misplace them). I like others to know I’m an ordinary homeschool mom. I’m normal, just ask my family. I have learned to keep time wasters to a minimum which is how I get things done. I enjoy working and keeping busy. When things become too hectic my family is quick to remind me. Recently, my daughter Anne celebrated a birthday. In the Gerwitz household that translates into a “birthday week”. We use this week to go on outings (her choice was the nearby Sanibel Island for a picnic and nature drive through the Ding Darling Nature Preserve) or read a favorite book of the birthday child. It is a fun and inexpensive way to make a child feel special and we had a wonderful time building memories.”Â

    Felice’s passion is teaching children of all ages, and she is happiest when working with young minds and instructing them in a manner that allows for a long term retention of information. Media Angels^®, Inc. has also hosted many hands-on science workshops and day camps for children ranging in age from Pre-K to 12th grade. At one time Media Angels® joined with the Young Science Institute to present science workshops for youth nation-wide. Some of the current children’s hands-on workshops are based on the award winning books and include Geology, Creation, Astronomy, and Anatomy. Another favorite is the Anthropology workshops; these deal with paleontology and archeology concepts as well.  “Our books reflect my experience not only as an educator, but as a homeschool mother. The Creation Science Study Guides we created are not a one-time product. They are geared for the parent with various age children for K-12. They can be used as a full study or for one subject, science. The accompanying activity books are taken directly from workshops we have created for students.” Felice has formulated her other books on her experiences as well. The “Insiders Guide to Successful Science Fair Projects” was created based on what she felt was the failure of understanding the rules (ISEF:  International Science-Engineering Fair) by some educators and parents. These rules are used on the local level as well. “When I learned of the number of children that are disqualified with winning projects I was upset.” She shares sometimes it was a simple mistake, such as failure to obtain the correct document signatures, or the incorrect placement of an abstract on a science board. “Parents normally shy away from science fairs and I wanted them to grasp the information in a short and to the point book. This isn’t another ‘how-to’ book. This book tells you ‘this is what you DO and when!’” Books as diverse as: Virtual-Field-Trips, The ABC coloring book, the Truth Seekers Mystery Series^TM, and Creation lapbook, round out the current Media Angels® catalog.   “While I’ve enjoyed most of my writing projects, the most fun I have had was writing the Truth Seekers Mystery Series^TM with my daughter, Christina.” Christina approached her mother at the age of 12 wanting to write a book (like mom). Her first book “A Kid’s Point of View” outsold Felice’s books at one conference. “She thought people were just feeling sorry for her and buying her book, but I told her that it was her presentation that sold books!” After her first success, printed on the family’s computer Christina set her sights on the larger picture and after a brainstorming session the first book in the novel series was created. “Having a homeschool mom that is an educator and an author is not always an asset! I asked her to answer about 10 questions ranging from ‘Why do you want to write a book’ to ‘What is it that you like in your favorite novels’ This assignment helped her to fine tune the type of book she wanted to write. Being a kid herself (she was 14 at the time) was a tremendous asset. She didn’t have to work on creating a ‘kids voice’ - she was the kid’s voice.” Out of all over our product these novels have received the most acclaim among our readers. “We receive many emails weekly sharing heart-warming stories about reluctant readers who couldn’t put the books down, children wanting to share their faith with others after reading these books, and parents so happy they are requesting additional copies for gifts.”       Media Angels^® books have shipped world-wide from all over the USA and Canada to Soule Korea, Australia, England, and Great Brittan. Yet, Felice doesn’t measure her success by the places her books can be found. Felice claims the slogan the Lord gave her for a t-shirt she created for a Creation Camp they were hosting really sums up her business… “You Can Change the World, One Person at a Time.”Â

The Trivium Pursuit Story - with a special message to homeschoolers interested in their own self-publishing business

It was shortly after our first child was born in 1975 that we latched onto the idea of homeschooling. After some investigation, we began with a formal homeschool curriculum in 1980. Five children later, in 1989, the Iowa homeschool association asked us to speak at their convention and to give seminars on teaching the subjects of classical education: Latin, Greek, and logic. We decided to rent a booth in their exhibit hall, so we wrote up a small catalog and sold a few Latin and logic books. Shortly after, Harvey published his Greek Alphabetarion and continued to test and revise Homeschool Greek, which we published in the early 90’s. About the same time we published Vocabulary Bridges from English to Latin and Greek and Handy English Encoder Decoder, which we have revised several times.

Each year during the spring and fall we would travel extensively, speaking at numerous support groups and homeschool conventions (in 44 states total), and during the winter months we would write books and curricula, including a periodical on classical education applied to homeschooling. In 2001 we published Teaching the Trivium, which was the compilation of twenty years of experience, seminar notes, articles, and correspondence. We followed this with Ancient History from Primary Sources in 2003 and A Greek Hupogrammon in 2005.

Sometime in the mid 90’s, I assigned Johannah (our oldest daughter) the task of making a little book about the Greek alphabet, using calligraphy and her own style of illustrations. She has now published several children’s picture books and her newest book A is for Amicus will be ready this year, Lord willing. In 2002 our two sons published their first book, The Fallacy Detective, followed in 2005 by The Thinking Toolbox and Hand That Rocks the Cradle in 2008.

Our business has been an extension of our homeschooling. What we learned we wrote about in order to help others to learn. We encouraged our children in the areas in which they excelled and helped them with the task of producing tangible items which they could later market. Our initial products were simple and rough, but as talents have matured and various skills have sharpened, so have our products (we hope).

One warning to young parents who would like to start a home business — don’t allow homeschooling to take a back seat. It is too easy for the mother to become so involved in the day-to-day details of the business that it saps the energies she needs to be a good wife and mother. The husband needs to drive and carry the business, and the rest of the family can be involved in the business as they are able. We have seen many home businesses so absorb the time and energies of the mother that the parents end up putting the kids into a classroom school.

We would encourage entrepreneurial-minded families to consider self-publishing the books or curricula they produce. With the development of the Internet over the past ten years, self-publishing has become not only possible, but altogether the publishing method of choice–and it is especially suited to homeschooling families. Dad, Mom, and kids can share the duties. Writing, illustrating, editing, manufacturing, storage, marketing, and order fulfillment can all be done right at home, as skills develop.

The marketing aspect of self-publishing has become particularly easier with the Internet. Ten years ago when we had a book written and printed and ready to sell, our marketing avenues were limited to advertisements in homeschooling magazines or to the lecture circuit. Those were hard years — traveling many thousands of miles and speaking at support groups and homeschool conventions. Today, your “marketing package” will still include speaking engagements and magazine advertising, but that will only be a small part. Blogging, gathering reviews, e-letters, a variety of advertising options, Amazon, and much more will make up the modern marketing plan of any self-publisher. We encourage you to join the 370 self-publishers in the Christian Self-Publishing Yahoo Group, where you can learn all the ins-and-outs of modern marketing.

Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

Trivium Pursuit

Prove All Things