Here's my son, in a hotel room, practicing. I forgot the chair he usually sits on to play, and the only thing short enough for sitting was the toilet. It turns out that there are interesting acoustics in a bathroom, so it was fun to play in there. But you can be certain that it…

Do you ever hear parents who send their kids to school talking about curriculum? No. Right? Do you know why? Because it doesn't matter. If you use curriculum or you do not use curriculum, that is a very big question. Riverdale is a school that is following child-directed learning: no set curriculum. Most public schools…

I notice that lots of people use college admission as evidence that homeschooling works. Here's an example of a mom who says college is proof of her homeschooling success. This is shocking to me. While homeschooling is controversial, ditching college is much less controversial. There are lists of wildly successful people who did not graduate…

The state of New Jersey is considering a bill that would require a state-mandated annual medical exam for all kids who are homeschooled. I understand why homeschoolers get upset about this. The implication is that all homeschoolers are child abusers. And this is, in fact, a problem. Take this New York Times article by Erik Eckholm….

At some point, maybe when I decided to let the kids spend their school days playing air hockey, I started to panic that my blog is mislabeled as homeschooling – it should be unschooling. Finally I emailed my editor to ask if I should change it. He is used to these sort of crises. For…

Here is my son at an empty pool. So many places we go are empty because we go in the middle of the day. This photo happens to be at the University of Iowa, where my brother is getting a PhD in chemistry. But the photo could be anywhere. As someone pointed out in the…

We are in NYC for the weekend. Usually when we come here, my preparations are finanical. For example, perparing for the inevitable $8 hot chocolate (pictured above). But this time we were going to a wedding and I knew we had to prepare for the questions about school. So, the first thing is, I'm done…

My son is learning to use a potter's wheel. The woman who is teaching him is a potter (is that the right word?) and working with her is phenomenal. When someone knows their craft so well, their teaching is breathtaking to watch — it comes from deep in their soul where their passion for the…

This is a guest post from Kate Fridkis, whose family did homeschooling when she was growing up. She blogs about body image at Eat the Damn Cake and she blogs about homeschooling at Skipping School. When you're homeschooled and interested in something, you don't go to your mom and say, "Mom, teach me more about this." You try to…

I went to a meeting of homeschoolers. In rural Wisconsin, of course. Because that’s where I live. We talked about that the group is a safe place to talk about the things we’re having trouble with. A leader pointed out, “If you go to church and tell someone you are having trouble teaching algebra, the…

This guy emailed me. He said his in-laws live near our farm. He's CEO of a homeschooling startup. So I took a chance on him and invited him and his family over for lunch. He hung out with me in the kitchen and told me his company helps schools do project-based learning and “experiential” learning….