I am getting fat. I was thin when I lived in LA and NY because people in those cities are thin. People in rural America are fat. Really fat. And I’m getting fat living with them. Read more
It’s important that you do not have your kids home with you all day if you hate your life. But it’s also important to recognize that you might hate your life whether or not your kids were home with you all day. For example: Read more
When you go to a homeschool blog I bet you expect to find pictures framing moments of a charmed life: Dogs and children and nature and fun. Read more
The most heart-wrenching stories come to me in my email, from teachers.
This is one that really got to me:
Hi Penelope. I homeschooled my kids, and now I work a couple of days a week as a school aide. Read more
In Silicon Valley, land of money and innovators, people throw around the word disrupt. Like, eBay disrupted how we sell second-hand goods by completely changing the market we can sell to and the tools we can use to make a deal. Facebook disrupted how we keep in touch with friends because it used to be one-to-one, but now it’s one-to-many. Read more
I am in Minnesota this week. We are supposedly here for the national Suzuki conference. My son had to audition. He had to learn a ton of music that I screamed at him to practice. And now, after all that, he is sick in bed with a fever. Read more
The reason I write so much about entrepreneurship for kids is that I do career coaching for adults, and most of them wish they could start their own business. Or freelance. Or be more creative in their work. And the problem for most of the people I coach is that they never learned these skills.
For a while I thought it was okay for my son to be in school because he was two grades ahead when he entered first grade and really, he just wanted to be in school because he loves other kids. I ignored so much so I wouldn’t have to face the terrifying thought of homeschooling. But I see now that when a kid is smart and rich –that’s the time it’s most important to take them out of school. Here’s why: Read more
My younger son wants to go to school. I won’t let him.
It’s clear to me that he has no ability to understand why school is crushingly terrible. I mean, most adults can’t even see it. Read more
CNN takes a breather from world events this week to cover the upper middle class education topic of school sabbaticals. The article contains interviews with multiple parents who took their kids out of school for a short time. To Tahiti. To Iceland. To downtown Chicago. It can be wherever. But whatever it is, this is not homeschooling. This is something else.