I have decided that the key to trying to balance a career with a happy homeschooling family is commitment. That is what has come up after my next set of flower essences, dowsed by my friend Becca, who is the gifted backbone of Bailey Flower Essences and a committed homeschooling mom herself.

The essences [...]

So, recently, I began to take courses of flower essences, given to me by a dear friend and flower essence guru (aficionado? aficionada?) whose family business, Bailey Flower Essences has been formulating these remedies since the 1960′s.

Anyway, I did a blog post on how they have been working in my life, [...]

Bake Some Bread

This mixes learning patterns (from the braiding) with science (cooking is always 1/2 science 1/2 art) creativity, more math (try doubling the recipe, for example).

This recipe is super easy but awfully bland. I’m always looking for that sweet spot between easy & amazing. I’d love any hints or improvements. Leave [...]

A big decision I made a few years ago was to semi-embrace the idea of “non-coercive parenting” My, my, my.

What a rabbit hole that decision was. Overall, non-coercive parenting works for me (in large part this may well be related to the fact that I was a gymnast coached by [...]

Good morning!

I hope you had a lovely Hallowe’en and Christmas. Since it’s almost Easter, thought it might be nice to write a blog post & catch up a little.

(And just this weekend my boys and I had a heart-to-heart and I earnestly told them I would drop the sarcasm. I guess I have [...]

Our second morning of homeschool is finished, it is noon, and I find myself alone in the house. The silence is disquieting (not sure if that description works for you or not, but it’s completely accurate).

We started our morning around the dining room table, half opening our math books, half hashing out what [...]

Good Morning!

I don’t know about you, but my week has gotten off to a rather hurricane-like start (and no, we are not on the east coast).

All week last week I culled old books, reorganized our bookshelves, and prepared myself for our coming year. Voila: I’m ready for anything.

Tuesday morning, four [...]

I just finished reading Virginia Heffernan’s Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade. She’s reviewing the book Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn by Duke professor Cathy Davidson.

The argument that public schools teach kids to be future factory workers is [...]

Fern Verdant and The Mysterious Benedict Society are not listed together at Amazon under “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” but I think they could be. Both (Fern is a single book, while the Benedict Society is part of a three-part series) feature strong kids who need to save the day without the help [...]

I just finished watching Waiting for Superman and then finished reading a series of reviews at Amazon.

I cried during the movie. I was taken by Geoffrey Canada’s assertion that a great teacher is like seeing great art. I was moved by how much the children’s lives were shaped by the lottery, and [...]