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A Chip Off the Old Block
From my lovely spouse:As we were doing our writing exercise this morning Jessica asked how to spell the word pretty. This was about her fifteenth spelling inquiry, and it was really slowing us down....
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Bossing and Begging
Me, from the driver's seat, engine running, car in reverse, foot still down on the brake: "Are you belted in yet?"Jessica, from the back seat: "So where are we going to meet Mom and Nathaniel? What...
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Moonlight and Love Songs: Never Out of Date
I'm much too young to remember, but I seem to recall reading a line from Jimmy Durante. Somebody said to him "You're no Caruso!" and he responded with something like: "It's true I ain't. But sometimes...
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Barbie and My Daughter on Math
I worked for Mattel when the Barbie doll was at its international peak, shortly after the Teen Talk Barbie notoriously proclaimed, "Math class is tough!" But really it was not her political gaffes but...
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Risks of Teaching the Old Testament
Numbers 14:27How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.Camille was speaking to Jessica about what motivated the September 11...
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Children and Chessboards
Last night we watched Searching for Bobby Fischer, the old, based-on-a-true-story movie about a chess prodigy whose parents struggle to support his genius while cultivating his humanity. I recommend...
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Upwards and Upwards
When the batteries finished charging, Nathaniel came running. "I'm going to fly it now," he said with precisely the sort of confidence that prevents the army from hiring 11-year olds to pilot...
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Cooperative Board Games for Families
Learning to lose gracefully is a valuable lesson, but as my kids grow closer to competing with me as equals, losing stings them a little more, too.I had heard that some cooperative board games lurk in...
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My Sippy Cup Habit
My switch to sippy cups wasn't planned. The kids were still toddlers, and I wanted some orange juice as I headed out early one morning, and the fancy travel mug that always leaks and dribbles onto my...
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Moments of Childishness
Jessica emerges from brushing her teeth to the kitchen where I'm wiping down a counter."Dad, look at me." She's cheerful and eager and slightly bouncing with excitement. "Is this my tongue or is it a...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Monday
Our kids are taking on The Poem Farm's challenge to write seven poems in seven days about one topic.Observing a Hermit Crabby Nathaniel, 12Scuttling down the beachAnd up a rockInto the waterAnd out...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Tuesday
Fireworksby JessicaFlying in the skyA mile highGreen, pink, and red“Holy cow!” I saidGod’s menDoing great works of artLooking up at colorsYou say, “Amen.”I Am a Hermit Crabby NathanielI love to...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Wednesday
SparklersA Haiku by JessicaFlying sparks, don’t touch.Could burn your hand, ouch, don’t touch.Be careful, don’t touch.Pick Meby NathanielI'm shinier than the restI'm roomy and colorfulClean and sturdyI...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Thursday
What Do They Do at Night?by NathanielThey make such a racket during the nightSometimes I wonder what they do at twilightDo they talk? Do they dig? Do they play hide-and-seek?Oh how I want to take a...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Friday
As part of our participation with Amy LV at The Poem Farm, today Jessica pens an acrostic, and Nathaniel opts for a conversational poem.Is there a word for a conversational poem—one in which two voices...
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The King of Pop and Taylor Swift
On the way home from choir practice, the radio news played a report related to the investigation of Michael Jackson's death.Jessica, still surfing the gregarious wave that an ocean of thirty girls...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Saturday
I've been delighted and surprised to see the different structures and forms our kids have tried during their collaboration with The Poem Farm this week. Most surprising of all, perhaps, was to see...
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Shakespeare in Our Kitchen
In sixth grade I thought I read Hamlet.Shakespeare was a famous name to me, nothing more, and I think I saw some personal challenge in reading this most famous of grown-up writers.When my book report...
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Our Week with The Poem Farm: Sunday
I'm very grateful to Amy at The Poem Farm for sharing her own poems this week and for offering comments so generously to Nathaniel and Jessica on their poems. We've really enjoyed participating in this...
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A Week of Poems
A short list of what emerged while we wrote daily poems with The Poem Farm last week:Attention to DescriptionChoosing the best word to capture something, the emotionally charged word, the word with the...
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Trying Khan for Math
Nathaniel seems to have a knack for mathematical concepts. He can picture fractional quantities in his head, for example. He is impatient with memorization and drills, however.He’s fifteen now. He...
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Trying to Master Pre-Algebra
I’m sort of evolving my teaching-with-Khan plans as I go.My loose goal for the school year is to get both kids through the Algebra and Geometry curricula.I’m not confident, however, that they’re ready...
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I Like 5 in a Row
I remember—too clearly!—what it felt like to open my math homework after coming home from school at 3:30. Or possibly from the school paper at 6:00. Or from the grocery store at 8:00. I was tired, math...
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How We Started Reviewing with Khan
So far I’ve had the kids doing Khan in parallel. This is what that looks like.They sit side-by-side, each at a laptop.When there’s a video lesson that I think would benefit both, I make them both watch...
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The Freebie Problem
I ran into my first real problem with Khan Academy the other night.Both kids struggled a lot with the Rate Problems 2 section in Khan. These are problems that require multiple steps to solve, and a...
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