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About Heart of Dakota Publishing

Shaw, Carrie, Cole, Mike, Greyson, Beau

Mike, Carrie, Cole (1995), Shaw (1999), Greyson (2002), and Beau (2006) live in Dell Rapids, SD. We have been a home schooling family since Cole started preschool in 1999 and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. If anyone would have told us that we would home school our children just a few years ago, we would never have believed them. Our life took a drastic turn for the better when Cole was getting ready to go to pre-school.

austin-family

Carrie had been teaching elementary at a public school for eleven years. We decided that it was time for her to come home full time and start teaching our "own" children. What a dawning! We realized that we could be in control of our children's education! As Carrie started getting ready to teach Cole, she decided to compile her reading program that she had been fine-tuning in her public school days and rewrite it for use at home. Eventually, we felt that God was calling us to share Carrie's program with other homeschoolers. So, we decided to self-publish what she had written . . . . Drawn Into the Heart of Reading was born in October of 2001!

austin-family

Two years later, when Shaw was ready to start pre-school, Carrie felt inspired to write a Bible-based preschool program for our own little ones. She published Little Hands to Heaven in 2003. After using Little Hands to Heaven, we wanted to continue using a strong Bible-based program with our own children, so in 2004, Little Hearts for His Glory was published.

Ken & Marlene Mellema's family:
Cindy (Mellema) & Dave Madden family
Carrie (Mellema) & Mike Austin family
Julie (Mellema) & Rich Grosz family
(You may recognize Ken & Marlene
& Julie from some of the book fairs)

To continue on the path of Christ-centered education with our young ones, Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory was released in 2006, and Bigger Hearts for His Glory in 2007, and Preparing Hearts for His Glory is coming out in 2008. Needless to say, Carrie loves the opportunity that God has given her to be her children's teacher. Life gets very busy around our household, but we've never regretted our decision and feel very blessed to have had our eyes "opened". We owe a great deal of thanks to Carrie's older sister, Cindy and her family for paving the way with their 7 children who have been taught at home.

We give thanks to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for giving us the vision to train up our children in the Lord. It is our constant prayer that He be glorified through our work.

We hope and pray that our products are a blessing to you and your family.

God bless,
The Austins