On Playing Games & Changing the Rules
A couple of Christmases ago, I was at a cocktail party, and a game of trivia was proposed. A handful of our dearest friends in New York City are high school teachers, and it happened that the party was equally split: teachers…
Learning, Play, and Peter Gray
This week, my mom and I have been talking a lot about Peter Gray’s lecture at the Conference on Alternatives to Compulsory Education (the video is about an hour long, but it’s 100% worth checking out!). He was speaking about his research on…
On NOT being grouped by date of manufacture
Several years ago, before my mom and I decided to work together on this blog, she had unearthed her original journal from 1987 and had done some writing of her own, reflecting on the journal entries. One of the things…
Stay-at-home Parenting in the DIY Generation
When I talk about homeschooling with peers who are parents, or those who are planning their families, there are a couple things that come up a lot. Mostly these two issues: First, economics — how do you support a household…
A Question of Agency
I was listening to a TED Radio Hour podcast last month; the subject was The Pursuit of Happiness. One of the featured lecturers on the episode was Kathyrn Schulz, who was speaking about the very human experience of regret. She talked about regret…
The First Pages
My sisters and I are our mother’s life’s work – this is a thought that hit me with some impact when I first articulated it. She is a fiercely capable, opinionated and intelligent woman – who grew up in the height of…