You can tell if you’re writing something that’s interesting to other people because they will either comment on your post or they will share your post. I have found that commenting means You make a good argument, but I don’t agree. And sharing on Facebook means This is what I believe as well. But either way, anyone acknowledging your writing—reading what you write closely enough to have a response—is so incredibly gratifying. Read more
Someone who writes with misspellings is someone who is not detail-oriented. But who cares? Only half the world pays attention to details. Spellcheck insures that when the writing counts, the spelling will be right. I imagine many of you are up-in-arms thinking your kids can’t get a job without knowing how to spell. Read more
The idea of learning for the sake of learning comes from the Renaissance. It’s the first time in history that people celebrated the idea of sitting around reading secular material, purely for the joy of learning new ideas. Read more
Time magazine has a history of publishing research about homework. If you are still thinking you should make your kids do homework, here are some of my favorite articles for you to read: Read more
I don’t believe in curriculum. I don’t believe in telling kids what they should learn. I believe that inconsistency is the sign of open-mindedness and creativity. So it’s with pleasure that I tell you I’ve a penchant for curriculum for emotional intelligence. Read more
I fired our writing teacher.
I was hesitant to fire her because she is the only black person my son has ever talked to outside of a store setting. But once I started thinking like that, I knew I had to fire her. Read more
It used to be that the key to being a smart kid in school was to memorize everything. But now that we have the Internet, memorizing is not such a useful skill. On the other hand, the ability to search is an incredibly useful skill. But what does that skill look like for homeschoolers? Read more
When my sons tell people we homeschool, invariably someone asks, “Oh, how do you learn math?”
The last time an adult asked this question, my son said, “I can just google it. Look. ‘Siri what’s seven times eight?'” Read more
My thirteen-year-old is two grades behind in math and like five grades behind in language arts. Read more
I wasn’t planning on teaching writing to my kids. I taught undergraduate writing at Boston University, and the experience convinced me that you can’t teach people to be good writers. People who love to write, write a lot and almost always improve. People who don’t write a lot never improve. Read more