Once a week I have a moment of panic that unschooling is not working. But it’s not like I’m telling the kids, “I think you should go to school.” It’s more like I tell myself my kids will grow up to tell everyone how they wish their parents had emphasized math. Or schedules. Or socializing. Or I don’t know what. I just worry that I need to exert more control over something the kids are doing, but I’m not sure what. Read more
I’m fascinated with call centers. This started when I was in my 20s, running a software call center. I was in marketing, but I saw that there was no one really running the call center. So I told the CEO I could run the call center. I promised him I could decrease customer service costs 20% in three months. I handed him a list of ten ways I thought I could decrease costs. Read more
This is a picture of my son on his first day of school after we moved to the farm. I like looking at old pictures of the boys because I have the feeling I had at the time of the picture. And the feeling I have is sort of a breathlessness. Which is what I felt after I worked so hard to get him to school, with what he needs for school, at the right time for school, and then he is gone…
I look at this picture and I can’t believe that I didn’t start homeschooling sooner. I missed so much time with him. One of the reasons I write this blog is because I can’t make up for the time I missed, sending my kids away every day. But I can help another family avoid doing the same thing that I did.
And you guys do that with me. Thank you.
In creative writing courses, you always hear the advice, “show don’t tell“. This is because people tune out when you describe something to them, but they pay attention when they watch something happen. Read more
Melissa sent me an essay from the New Yorker titled I Switched to a Standing Desk and You Should Too. The guy writes about how the standing desk has changed his life and solved so many of his problems and everyone should do it. Read more
This is a guest post from Erin Wetzel. She is a artist who lives in Tacoma WA and homeschools her daughter. You can connect with her on instagram @ekwetzel.
Homeschooling is a counter-cultural movement. Although it is gaining momentum with each passing year, there is still a stigma associated with it. Homeschoolers are too often perceived as educational cultists, weirdos who hide from mainstream culture, oddballs who don’t engage in any meaningful way with the conversations and values of the communities around them.
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In college I studied the history of political thought, and I found that by the end of four years, the only thing I knew for sure is that people come together because it’s human nature to come together. And people like to feel they are contributing to the good of the group. Read more
For those families going to London this fall, (which is probably none of us but this site sounds so exciting and cosmopolitan when I start a post that way, doesn’t it?) there’s an exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum called Disobedient Objects. The exhibition is a celebration of our natural ability to break rules.
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I meet a bunch of high schoolers on this blog, and my favorite, Thi, recently informed me that at her rich-kid, Palo Alto school all their AP tests were disqualified.
Guess why they were disqualified? Because the desks were four centimeters too close together. Read more
The question is, of course, what makes a good role model? Or, better yet, what do we want to model?
And I think the answer is self-confidence. Whatever role you have in the world, if you do it with self-confidence, then you model for your daughter what one version of a self-confident woman looks like. And while you can’t expect your daughter to grow up to be like who, at least your daughter can have a reference point in her mind about what self-confidence looks like.
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