School let out for my children on Friday! Well, let’s have a slightly closer look at that statement, because actually, two of my three school-age children weren’t in school, per se, that day so the end of school was a bit more fuzzy. A-, my oldest at 18, is in an online school and she’s close, but not quite done with 12th grade. G-, my 15yo son, is taking a bit of a break from school…Read More
It’s a dilemma that every one of us in education is quite aware of: how do you measure success? Not just with an individual student, but across a class, a school, a city, even a state? I’m not a huge fan of standardized testing, but the reality is that it’s the best way to have a consistent yardstick to measure children across region, culture and socio-economic status. Done well, it can sidestep language, gender, sexual orientation, religion and…Read More
Sounds a bit like the beginning of a joke: A guy walks into a room full of teachers to talk about the Internet, privacy and cyber-bullying… but it’s the furthest thing from a joke I can think of, actually. A few days ago I was invited by my children’s school to address the faculty on these very topics and as it’s something I’m very concerned about, I was happy to participate in the discussion. What…Read More
I like college. In fact, I have a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from UCSD, a Masters in Education from Purdue University and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore, Merrick School of Business. You can glean that from my LinkedIn profile, but what few people know is that I earned my MBA through the Merrick online program, completing the first year while we were wrapping up our life in California and…Read More
If you’re a diligent reader of this blog, you’ll be saying “hey, wait a sec! your oldest is in 12th grade, not college! what the deuce are you talking about with back to college?” And you’d be spot on. I’m writing about the cheapest wireless plans, perfect for families — or students! — on a tight budget. The phone of choice: The slick Nokia Lumia 521, available at your local Walmart for a bargain $49.88….Read More
One nice thing about my children going to a private school is that the teachers have the leeway to do a lot of things that would be frowned upon, logistically impossible or a violation of policy in a public school. Heck, we’ve been at the school for so long that we’re are now used to celebrating offbeat saints and holidays too, including Santa Lucia, Saint George and Michaelmas, with special guest Saint Michael (of course!). You’ll…Read More
I was sitting at my favorite coffee shop a few days ago and couldn’t help witness the parenting drama play out in front of me, the extraordinarily overt demonstration of what is popularly called “helicopter parenting”. Let me start with a photo I took (and then blurred out the faces for privacy) so you can see how things were set up: On the left side you can see a tween boy working on a small dry…Read More
There’s a certain point in parenting when you need to accept that you are no longer steering the rudder or controlling the prop and that the best you can hope for is that you’re still in the front of the ship in the navigator’s seat instead. “You’d do best to turn left here, cap’n, to avoid the reef” is about as good as it gets once your children hit their teens. I’ve always likened parenting…Read More
School is still a few weeks away and it’s beastly hot as August arrives, the hottest weeks of the year. In this heat, it’s easy to become a complete couch potato, fan on high, snacks piled on the table and the TV blaring away, consuming those spare neurons and wasting hours on end. But while that’s fun once in a while, day after day it’s a recipe for a really difficult transition to school starting…Read More
One of the greatest challenges with being a single parent to multiple children is finding the time to have solo, one on one time with each child. As they get older it’s possible that their own schedules enable some solo time by dint of the siblings being at other people’s houses, but it’s tricky with my three because while my youngest loves having friends over for sleepovers, at 10yo she still only sleeps if she’s with me or her…Read More
I was nerdy as a kid — no surprise there — but had no idea that there was a bigger picture than my family and my school. Still, I never entered the local science fair (if there even was one, I don’t recall ever hearing about it even though I was in the honors program for junior high and high school) and kinda wish one of my kids was growing up to be a science…Read More
My son G-, 13yo, can’t seem to decide on a single sport. In the summer and autumn, it’s all about lacrosse, then when winter hits, he’s back to basketball as indoor sports seem a whole lot more pleasant when it’s 15F and windy outside. He’s played both competitively for years and we’ve been blessed to have good coaches who focus on winning, but also focus on the boys having fun and learning both sport fundamentals…Read More
I have three children eventually heading to college. My oldest, A-, just turned 17 and picking colleges and college life are constant topics of discussion, so managing the cost of college is always on my mind too, as you’d expect. Years ago I set up three 529 accounts and set up auto-deductions so that they’d grow regardless of how the stock market did. They’re not huge, but each should cover at least the first year…Read More
One of the many news sources I read to stay up-to-date on world affairs is The Guardian, a popular newspaper out of England, and this headline caught my eye over the weekend: New national curriculum to introduce fractions to five-year-olds. Read on just a bit more, and reporter Richard Adams explains that the final version of the new UK National Education Curriculum also includes 5yo children writing computer programs. Now maybe it’s just me, but…Read More
We’re already four weeks into summer vacation and my children are off with their Mom on the annual few weeks at her family’s house at the Lake of the Ozarks. A few weeks where I am suddenly a bachelor and, as always, it’s a mixed bag of freedom and missing my minions. It’s also a time for me to be able to think about how our lives are going, how they’re doing on their individual…Read More