Someone just called child services on me because I am not properly educating my kids. So here’s a pictures of my kids playing video games. At the time I took the picture because it was so nice to spend the evening with the boys sitting in the living room together. Looking so grown up. Now I’m using the picture to let everyone know I’m not backing down from the education I’m committed to giving my kids. And let me tell you: they are awesome at video games. Read more
When my kids were young and I was new to homeschooling, self-directed learning was so easy for them. They played video games, had fist fights, and set things on fire. Read more
I love writing on this blog, but if I’m being honest with myself, I’m not sure I’d write here if I didn’t need to support my family. It’s true that I started writing about education because I wanted to figure out what to do with education for my own family. But it’s also true that writing a blog is a lot of work. Read more
When we started homeschooling I realized that the real issue with self-directed learning is kids choose video games. Especially boys. And that scares parents. Read more
As I wrote this title, I realize it’s not just parent routine that’s important for homeschool success, it’s parent self-care. Read more
Ever since we started homeschooling, I am always trying to keep my eye on the ball. I’ve had spreadsheets that showed me what my older son needed to accomplish each year so that he could take all the tests that he needs to take. I’ve had spreadsheets that showed me which cello competitions my younger son needed to go to each year so that he could get all the performance experience he needed to get. Read more
This is a guest post from Elizabeth, who comments here as YesMyKidsAreSocialized. She is the mother to three girls.
We lost our education network in the move. While we were still in Southern California, we had everything we needed for homeschooling the kids — from mentors and teachers all the way to support from local businesses, which offered opportunities during the day for homeschoolers, when other kids are in school. The charter school even gave us approximately $3,000 per kid (that’s $9,000 a year!) to help with paying for all our classes, lessons, books, art supplies, field trips, and more. Read more
I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. As a manager I get completely annoyed when I pay someone to do something and they don’t check online first to see if someone else has done it. You have to be doing something pretty special for there to be no examples that are similar to what you’re doing. So steal it. Start with whatever someone else has, and then customize it for yourself. Read more
One of the biggest arguments for a public school system is that it ensures a homogeneous educational environment for our voters. But there is no test for voting, so even totally stupid people, who flunked third grade over and over again, can still vote. Which means our political system is primarily set up so non-elected groups (the Electoral College and our higher courts) can override the stupidity that emerges from voters. Read more
The NYT app is my favorite thing on my phone. It provides a great summary of the five most important stories of the day. I always know who in the Trump administration lied that day, and one of the five items is always devoted to interesting quantitative research. Read more