As my kids got to be around age 10 I phased out my play-all-day approach to homeschooling. Instead, I considered anything homeschooling as long as there was a goal and a daily plan for meeting that goal. Playing string instruments fit neatly into this scheme, but here’s another thing that fit: esports.
When Covid came I knew right away a lot of parents would start homeschooling. What I didn’t realize is that everyone would have homeschool. I wanted to scream on rooftops that everyone was doing homeschooling wrong. But Covid. Now that a little dust has settled, I realize that I just want to help people do […]
I am aware that I have poor taste when it comes to clothes –– I just don’t have an instinct about what other people think looks sane. My younger son described my style as a “six-year-old with a sophisticated eye for taffeta.” I bought my older son clothes that I saw other kids his age […]
My son was in a preschool classroom with ten kids who could read by age three. The kids all had autism diagnoses because the correlation between reading by age three and Autism was widely known, even back then. The teachers permitted only books without words, and toys could not have any letters on them. The […]
When the CDC placed a moratorium on evictions, 18% of renters had fallen behind during COVID and could be evicted. The CDC warned that we were on the edge of a homelessness crisis. Today that number is 14%. Yet the moratorium could expire this month, and renegade landlords are already pursuing evictions.
I know I bet my whole reputation on homeschooling. How many times did I tell people they DON’T HAVE TO FUCKING TEACH MATH TO THEIR THIRD GRADER? And how many arguments did we have on this blog about whether or not you have to learn grammar? Here are all the three big homeschooling arguments I […]
Kids who are applying to college this fall can’t find the same open spots that other years would be a sure bet. This will be the year of the phantom college essay: stories about what could have been and what was there once and poof gone. At least I’m hoping that this will be the […]
I was thinking the silver lining in Zoom school at home is finally police would stop being involved in the education of Black students. So I was crushed to hear that police and judges were going after kids for not doing their online homework. Of course the kids the police are going after are disproportionately Black.
Here’s the results most parents expect from a good English curriculum: being a competent speller being well read being familiar with the five-paragraph paper being conversant in the rules of grammar But just forget all that. That English curriculum is cancelled.
When I can’t cope I clean. And if everything is clean, I organize. Once I overheard my younger son giving a tour of the house and he said, “This is our bedroom. My mom makes us put our stuff in her boxes so everything is her colors.” I thought I was teaching my kids to […]