I was born independent. My mom will swear to it. It was nature not nurture (I am sure my mom would have paid good money to get me to stop at many points during my life). Starting in third grade, I had a run-in with every principal of every school I attended.Interesting story – in… More Independence, Values and Helping Our Kids Find Their Way

I’m interrupting this blog for a brief rant. We are relunctant home schoolers. I wasn’t my original plan. And Katie insists she’s returning to “real school” next year. (We’ll see…) Anyway, I want to keep her somewhat on par with what fifth graders in California are doing. So I bought this workbook based on California… More Rant: Are You Freaking Kidding Me? Fifth Grade Standards…

Since I lived through the Loma Prieta quake in 1989, I have a pretty good sense of what the heck can happen when the earth decides to shake. I woke Katie up early for the big ShakeOut (because of class, we had to miss the 10:15 time) but it worked just the same.For us, the… More 10 Things We Learned from the Great California ShakeOut

Since we now turn everything around here into a home school activity, I thought I would drag Katie into the fray. Today’s Blog Action Day 2009 and the focus is on Climate Change. So, I had Katie ask her friends if there were any brands they preferred because they are helping save the planet? The… More Blog Action Day 2009: Kids Speak Out About Going Green

As this amazing storm continues to pound Northern California, Katie decided to do a little weather reporting. Of course, within five seconds of going outside, she was soaked. It’s crazy wet, and rainy, but I think you can get the feeling for what’s going on! Holy smokes! No more leftover typhoons: Melor, we are talking… More This School Day Interrupted by THE WEATHER!

In 1989, I was at the ball game when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit. Magnitude 7.2 or 6.8, I am not sure what they decided it was, but it was BIG! We came out from the stands and saw what looked like all of San Francisco on fire. We could see the helicopters by the… More The Great California ShakeOut: Earthquake Prep as Curriculum

We had a great time camping this weekend with the home school gang. In an effort to help us get to know each other, our home school team set up a camping trip for us to Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains. We headed up on Friday evening (after a crash-burn afternoon… More Reflections: Home School Camping Trip – It Was Awesome!

Here’s the link to the blog that has the recording for the Steve Wozniak event. He talked about education and his enthusiasm was truly infectious. And I guess, now you’ll see one of the things I do for my “day job!” Go WebEx!

Here’s hoping there are “educational” properties in Webkinz. Why? Because Katie has spent the better half of the week setting up house with her animals. In an article by Allison Merlino, she writes, “There are various educational benefits to taking care of your virtual pet online. The concept of care taking maintenance is exercised in… More Today’s Lesson: The Webkinz Economy!

Before the rush to Sacramento to help my aunt, we had planned to join my mom’s sister and brother and other family members at the park to celebrate Carmichael’s 100th Birthday. A big deal for them as she was born and the family was raised in this lovely suburb near Sacramento. I treasure the times… More Reflections: Our Extended Family Delivers Lessons for Life

When we found out we had to rush up to Sacramento to help an ailing relative, of course I threw all our home school stuff in a bag and brought it with us. One of the assignments had to do with looking at grocery store ads. It was a great, practical lesson and since I… More Gramma Teaching? It’s all about Grocery Ads!

I totally blew it. I could have had the coolest “home school” experience for Katie and I choked because I just don’t have my brain completely around the concept yet. She could have met Steve Wozniak! I am such an idiot. My awesome client booked him for a presentation – I will post a link to it… More Steve Wozniak Danced Into Our Lives and I Missed It!

It’s five in the morning. I have been awake for over an hour. I can’t sleep – maybe it’s some hormonal thing or maybe there’s too much on my mind. I decided to get up because I have way too much to do for work and all I really want to do it spend some… More Insomnia Sucks: Still Struggling to Find the Balance

My whole goal of this blog is to help me remember what we did and our experience of home school. So I guess I need to admit the hard stuff along with the good. With a few exceptions, this week pretty much sucked for me. I love working.I really do. I am the kind of… More Reflections: I am Struggling with Work/Life Balance

In a rather cool move by our local County Fair, winners in the poetry contest are asked to come and read their poem to the crowd. Katie won first place. And of course her mom said, “She’d love to!” when she was invited. Okay – maybe that was a little stretch. But isn’t the point… More Scarier than Dying? “Public Speaking” at the Fair? 10-Year Old Style