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

Just a quick follow-up to our veggie art story – we went to the fair today and she won! A first place blue ribbon and special honors (they didn’t have enough ribbons so it’s not there but she’ll be getting a big yellow ribbon too!). The families pulled together a list of all the kids… More Fair Update: Her Veggie Creature Won!

I know this is probably a familiar story to any parent who home schools. The big fight(s) about getting the actual work done. We had a lovely one today. But we also ended up with an amazing save driven by Katie. I am still in awe. I’ll admit it. Today was awful. I started with work… More Fighting at “Home” School – With an Amazing Resolution

When Katie had a fever of 103.5 yesterday, I figured there was no way she was going to be able to create her “Veggie Art” project for the fair today. But at 6:30pm, the fever broke and she started to get a little spunky. So I crossed my fingers and got her to bed at… More Best “School Work” Ever: Art Project for the County Fair

Woohoo! We wrapped up the second week of home school and it was better than the first. Well, at least from a “getting actual work done” perspective. We got some great workbooks and that helped Katie get a bit more excited about doing the work. I think the workbooks feel more familiar to her –… More Reflections: Week Two – It’s So About Me!

A year ago I was dealing with a total remodel (which means we moved out), a pair of seniors whom I love but were facing both bankruptcy and ill-health, a busy workload and I was losing my mind. I can’t get health insurance so I have to be very proactive about my own health and… More I Must be Doing Something Wrong, This is Too Much Fun

I was at an all-day offsite today and that was one of the questions we tried to answer. I have my own company that works to understand how young people use technology and then we share that information with Silicon Valley companies. Today, we were trying to map the future of a new product and… More Discuss: Where Will Education be in Five Years?

Setting the (insane) controversy aside, I am going to have Katie watch and listen to Obama’s speech tomorrow. We won’t be realtime because I have to work all day, but we will watch the recording together and then we’ll do a little bit more. Typically, during any show, we pause the action a lot (thank… More Lesson Plan: Using Obama’s Speech to Teach, er um, Learn