Kathleen Melin writes about home schooling based on more than twelve continuous years of teaching her children at home. Kathleen's three children were home schooled during their early childhood years and from 1992 through 2004. Her middle child home schooled his entire K-12 education; her youngest and oldest children each home schooled three-fourths of their K-12 lives. Her children's education incorporated a spectrum of learning support systems including participation in two home school charters in Alaska; a Minnesota arts-based charter school; public education in Wisconsin and Alaska; and self-directed, bureaucracy-free, child-centered learning at home. In addition to her experience as a parent-educator, Kathleen was a University of Wisconsin instructor in English Composition from 2001 through 2006, a creative writing teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota in 1995, and an artist in residence at Summit School for the Arts 1997-1998. Each of these experiences sharpened her thinking about optimal learning. "By Heart," her intimate portrayal of a home schooling family, is backed by the research of her creative thesis for the Master of Fine Arts degree conferred May 1998 at the University of Minnesota. Her creative writing credits include nonfiction in Eric Utne's "Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac" (2005 and 2006) and "Blue Lupine" in A Woman's Place (1997). Her fiction has appeared in Feminist Parenting (Crossing Press 1995). She was senior writer for the "Twin Cities Family Fun Guide" (KidsLife Books 1981), and she wrote "The Health Careers Book" (1987), produced by the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation and Kuskokwim Community College, Bethel, Alaska. In addition, she has worked as a magazine editor, as an assistant editor for a weekly newspaper, as a freelance writer for national and regional publications, as a grant writer, in public relations, and as a community education and arts advocate. Kathleen Melin lives the good life on her ancestral farm in northwestern Wisconsin, where she operates a retreat for artists and is currently writing a young adult novel series.