Updated July 25, 2004
This guide had its beginnings on the Prodigy Computer Services Education Bulletin Board, Homeschool topic. At that time it was a purely text based list that was posted as separate notes on that BB.
Back around 1994 Kay Crowley passed the modest sized text based guide along to me when she moved on to other interests. It was a wide ranging guide somewhat like the current version. But much smaller.
Every summer I gave the guide a complete revision, checking almost every reference for accuracy. Having a day job I found the summer the best time to take on this large task. Due to various time constraints and job situations I never got the 1998 revision done and just made running corrections, updates, and corrections. 1999 saw a full review at least. Over the following years I made continuous additions to the Guide, fixed broken links as they came to light and made a small start on a top to bottom update. I have finally made a good start on a top to bottom review this year.
Back when the Internet started to become a real part of my online world, I had a vision of an online guide with active links to the many vendors I was indexing in the paper Guide. A scary task to contemplate. Maybe another day. Not too many places had web links anyway.
Well now most places have web links and my dream is very much a reality. It is now easy to get more information with just a mouse click. Neat.
The Guide moved from Prodigy to @Home in May 1999, and in early 2002 to Cox Cable when @Home closed. Cox has been a very good ISP since then.
A few years ago I added subcategories to improve navigation, but still the Guide seems somewhat unwieldy. At this point as I'm winding down my support of the Guide, that's all I'll be doing with it. OK, one minor change - I finally added a counter back onto the Guide. It's a small boost to one's ego and an encouragement to see that people are getting some use out of all of this work I've done.
Finally as I work my way through the 2004 review and revisit hundreds of homeschool vendors' web sites, I have been struck by how things have matured over even the last five years. What was new and growing and rather rough around the edges back in 1990 when we started has reached a mature and stronger state today. Many vendors have 15 and 20 years of experience and their businesses so that. Offerings are greater, variety is greater. I am impressed and pleased to see these developments giving a greater strength and stability to the whole of home schooling. Praise the Lord!