(This is part one of two on our trip to Gold Country.) Living in California rocks. Um, hard rocks. Like in hard rock mining?!? Katie didn’t get much Gold Rush education in fourth grade (I am sure it was too taxing for her poor teacher). So I wanted to pick it up as part of… More Bringing the Gold Rush to Life: Hard Rock Mining and More!

If you grow up in Santa Cruz County it’s inevitable you will end up going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium every year for a field trip. So of course we went on a field trip with Ocean – our home school team. We went on Monday and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We got to… More Great Field Trip: Monterey Bay Aquarium Welcomes Homeschoolers

At one of the first parent support groups, one of the things the experienced parents talked about was giving Katie time to “de-program” from her experiences at public school. I had no idea what they meant but I listened and watched because I figured they knew what they were talking about. Turns out, they were… More Public School “Deprogramming”: I Think We Did It!

We have the coolest place in Santa Cruz – it’s called Roaring Camp and they have old steam engine trains that take trips through the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And on Halloween, they have the ghost train based on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So, of course, I had to do it… More Halloween Homeschool! The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Trains!

We are always looking for interesting ways to tie-things together so Katie can engage with a subject in different ways. With the release of Amelia, the movie, we decided to dive into Amelia Earhart. On Sunday, we took our friend Sandra to the movie with us. Although it was a little long, we really enjoyed… More Bringing Amelia Earhart Back to Life

A couple of weeks ago Katie came home all excited because she found out she could bring one of her pets to share at school. This would be the end of one of the “inquiry days” and all she has to do was sign up to introduce one of her pets to the class. And… More Show and Tell: Home School Style (this would never happen in public school!)

We took two friends to lunch today downtown to the Saturn Cafe. It’s uber Santa Cruzy – a vegetarian restaurant (I know! I eat there!) with the best FLT (that fake bacon) and grilled cheese in the world. And fat fries. Yum. Anyway, we come outside to see another uber Santa Cruz moment – the… More Hot Dog! The Kid’s a Grass Roots Activist! It’s all about 350!

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!