Last November, Neil took the SAT for the first time. At least one fellow homeschooler has opined that someone as accomplished as Neil needn’t jump through such a hoop, but the sad fact is that many scholarships are tied directly to having an SAT score, and, after all, it didn’t seem like such a stupid…
The More Ways We Have to Communicate, the Less We Communicate at All
We live in what should be a golden age of communication. At no time before, have there been so many ways to get in touch with one another. If I need to ask you a question, I can email you; text you; call you on the go; make a free international call via VOip programs…
The Great Christmas Light Fight
My family and I are greatly enjoying The Great Christmas Light Fight on TV this season. With Thanksgiving late, and the kids getting older (and thus more independent), we jumped into the Christmas season with joy this year. We put up our tree and decorated it right after Thanksgiving, enjoyed the post-Christmas sales (though we…
Black Friday Begins on Thursday
Several years ago, Peter and I got up extremely early on the day after Thanksgiving to check out the “door buster” sales. It was fun, and we got some great deals, but it’s not something we’ve been inclined to do. And I’ve been chagrined as Black Friday has edged its way into Thanksgiving Day itself….
The Coat Came Back
I enjoy following James Altucher’s postings and last night, I would have sworn he wrote a post about losing a new coat he’d just bought. It made me think about my favorite coat, which was also once lost, and came back. It’s a trench coat I bought in 1981 or 1982. I don’t remember what…
The Day of the Dead San Jose 2013
In 2011, my family and I went to the San Jose Museum of Art and made sugar skulls as part of their community day celebrating Dia de los Muertos. As we pulled them out for our Halloween decorations this year, Kelly was nostalgic, and asked to do it again. This year, the festivity took place…
Christians Who Don’t Do Halloween
Kelly told me one of her classmates wasn’t participating in Halloween at all, and that instead of going trick-or-treating, she’d be going over to Chuck E. Cheese that night. I told Kelly another one of her friends (one of her closest companions when we were homeschooling) also eschews all Halloween activities. I explained to Kelly…
In Praise of Hands-On Lab Science
Integrating hands-on lab science is a typical challenge for homeschoolers. Some of the companies providing homeschool instruction have kits with the equipment and materials needed for a lab. Personally, I have bought several excellent science lab books, and hunted around for the equipment and materials myself. We’ve made many a trip to San Jose Scientific…
The 2013 Celebration of Mind at Stanford
The 2013 Celebration of Mind at Stanford was a cross between previous events: as in 2010, it had a series of speakers on various topics about recreational mathematics, and like the 2012 event, it had a strong component of hands-on exploration. Peter was out of town, so this time, Neil and I brought Kelly along….
Obamacare and the Federal Exchanges vs. Local and Community Based Health Care
After years of argument, the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) which was clumsily shoved through Congress in 2010 is out in a form which consumers can review it and judge for themselves if they truly are getting more care for less. For the 14 years before my husband took a day job with employer-provided insurance,…