A big part of my income comes from public speaking, and it's speaking season. So I took my six-year-old on the road. With his cello and his skateboard. Last week we were in Illinois, Florida, and California. People often say they can't homeschool because they have to work. Here's a snapshot of what it looks…

I took this picture when I was in New York City, in the middle of the week, at a totally cool place called Make Meaning. They have cakes that are ready-made, and they have totally cool things for decorating the cakes, including a spin-art setup, where the cake is on the spinner instead of the…

We went to visit my brother in New York City when his baby was born. My kids loved holding her. Finally. There's been a lot of lead-up to this. For example, the last time we visited, as we were going up to the apartment, in the elevator, my six-year-old said, "If Aunt Kristen is pregnant,…

It's too bad that I've starting reading a lot of parenting books because I get free business books in the mail every day, but I'm sick of them. I've been getting free business books in the mail every day for the last five years, and I shudder to think how many I'd get each day…

I have come to enjoy when people ask me, "How is the homeschooling going?" I used to say, "Fine." Now I don't. Now I say, "We are not schooling. I decided that school is unnecessary and we are doing self-directed learning." People say, "What is that?"

I read a lot about how kids should have unstructured time to learn in non-sedentary ways. I totally agree. It's just that I think it's a conversation initiated by parents of overscheduled kids. For homeschoolers, the idea that kids should have down time just being kids is pretty easy. After all, there are 14 waking…

We spent three days in New York City. It's amazing to me that we lived there for ten years, because I experience huge sensory overload when I'm there. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure if I was always that way or being at the World Trade Center on 9/11 made me that way. I…

I was in low track math. I remember when I realized it. I was in the front row, on the far right, and did not understand anything going on in algebra class. We had a tiered system in our school. I was in the highest track for most classes, and the lowest track for math….

When my son realized I had his dance class music on my iPod, he started asking for it all the time. Then he started asking about the lyrics. "Are they saying shit?" "Yes." "Can we say that?" "When we are singing the song." "Really? Let’s go back to that spot in the song. I want…

Since we don't have school anymore, and I can earn a living from anywhere, we went to Mall of America. I gave a speech at the University of Minnesota's Business School, and I ended up bringing the kids and spending three days enjoying the fact that the amusement parks are empty during the school day….

I promised myself that I would stop going to the Lego store as a form of entertainment. There is no difference between using video games to take care of the kids and shopping to take care of the kids, except that while both are evil, video games don't cost money every time we turn to…