Pinguni

I was thirteen, almost fourten, growing up as a missionary kid overseas. In that country I saw the immense pressure of the local public school system - driving some students to suicide and eight-year-olds to stay up doing homework till midnight - and how some parents bravely took their kids out of school to homeschool them. These families wanted to give their children a chance at a childhood, a good foundation in the English language, and a way to develop their talents in their own unique way.

Except there was a problem.

They didn't have materials. They couldn't use textbooks from the public school. They wanted to use American resources, but most of them didn't know enough English to use those effectively - and many had to pay what I considered ridiculous prices (e.g. $600 per class, per year) for what they could get their hands on. There was a fair amount of culture shock with that as well.

I wanted to do something. I wanted to be able to give them a solution - not to reinvent the wheel by writing an entire curriculum myself, but to bring together and organize into courses and units the best free resources I could find online.

Pinguni was born.