Who We Are

Cozy Grammar

Since 2001, Cozy Grammar has helped over 10,000 students in more than 27 countries to bring English to life. Cozy Grammar’s courses have not only won honors and awards from numerous educational and homeschooling organizations, but have also been recognized by key players in the film and video industry, including the Hollywood Film Advisory Board, The Dove Foundation, The Cindy Awards, and the Telly Awards.

More important than these awards, however, is the way that Cozy Grammar has become a beloved resource for two generations of students, teachers, and homeschooling families. We are proud to honor the legacy and vision of Marie Rackham with the ongoing inspiration and teaching of Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, one student and family at a time.

Marie Rackham

Marie Rackham, co-founder of Cozy Grammar with producer and director David Mielke, studied English and Geography at the University of British Columbia and worked as a public school teacher in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island in Canada for thirty-four years, teaching at all levels from kindergarten to grade twelve. She also studied music through the Toronto Conservatory and taught piano privately in her home studio for fourteen years. To this day many of her former students claim her as their favorite teacher of all time.

During her years of teaching, Marie developed her own curriculum for teaching grammar and punctuation. When she retired, her curriculum was published through the local Teacher's Resource Center and made available to all the schools in the district as a self-contained workbook. This workbook became the framework for the Cozy Grammar series of videos originally produced by Splashes From the River Multimedia Entertainment.

Read a tribute from Cozy Grammar's Producer and Director, David Mielke.

Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma is an internationally recognized author, poet, translator, and speaker. His books include The Kural, his new translation of this classical Tamil masterpiece on ethics, power, and love; The Safety of Edges, a collection of poems; Give, Eat, and Live: Poems of Avvaiyar, the first literary translation into English of this 12th century Tamil poet, woman, and saint; and Body and Earth: Notes from a Conversation, written with the artist C.F. John.

Thomas has more than two decades of experience teaching elementary students, middle schoolers, high schoolers, undergraduates, and homeschoolers, and was a part of the Vashon Island School District’s StudentLink program until 2018. He has received great acclaim and prestigious awards for his inspirational way of approaching language and has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, 4Culture, Artist Trust, the Community of Writers, the U.S. Fulbright Program, the American Literary Translators Association, Ohio State University, Oberlin Shansi, and Oberlin College.