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The First Pages
My sisters and I are our mother’s life’s work – this is a thought that hit me with some impact when I first articulated it. She is a fiercely capable, opinionated and intelligent woman – who grew up in...
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Conversations: Looking back
A couple of years ago, while living in Brooklyn, New York, I was at a party, talking with a woman my age who I hadn’t met before. We were talking about dancing; she had studied ballet, and my younger...
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A Question of Agency
I was listening to a TED Radio Hour podcast last month; the subject was The Pursuit of Happiness. One of the featured lecturers on the episode was Kathyrn Schulz, who was speaking about the very human...
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Questions from Readers
In the last few posts I’ve talked about being aware that we were pursuing an alternative path. I’ve talked about having a sense of responsibility that was greater than my peers in school, and I’ve...
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Stay-at-home Parenting in the DIY Generation
When I talk about homeschooling with peers who are parents, or those who are planning their families, there are a couple things that come up a lot. Mostly these two issues: First, economics — how do...
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On NOT being grouped by date of manufacture
Several years ago, before my mom and I decided to work together on this blog, she had unearthed her original journal from 1987 and had done some writing of her own, reflecting on the journal entries....
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Motherhood: Love, Fear & Living for Today
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas everywhere! I thought I would take this holiday to reflect with my mom on making the life-changing leap into motherhood. Since the beginning of this blog, I’ve had a...
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Learning, Play, and Peter Gray
This week, my mom and I have been talking a lot about Peter Gray’s lecture at the Conference on Alternatives to Compulsory Education (the video is about an hour long, but it’s 100% worth checking...
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The Teacher and the Unschoolers
When I talk about my family’s story of alternative education, one of the things that people often find surprising is that my dad worked as a public high school biology teacher for 35 years. I think a...
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For Learning’s Sake
I went to my cousin’s college commencement last week. She was graduating from Occidental College, the small Liberal Arts school in Los Angeles where President Obama studied before transferring to...
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On Playing Games & Changing the Rules
A couple of Christmases ago, I was at a cocktail party, and a game of trivia was proposed. A handful of our dearest friends in New York City are high school teachers, and it happened that the party was...
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Not Too Many Growls & Roars
Eight weeks have already passed since we published a first post on this blog. There’s still a lot to explore! But for today, I just wanted to share a sweet page from my mom’s old journal that also had...
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My Other Two-Thirds
I am the middle of three kids. But because my mother’s journal, which we’ve been reflecting on, was written when it was just my older sister and me, there has been little mention in this blog about the...
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Same Parents, Different Chapter
In my last post, I examined the different experiences of my siblings, and I questioned how birth order impacted our views on homeschooling within the same family. I referenced several quotes from a...
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Inspired by Mr. Rogers…
In this mini journal excerpt from September 29, 1987, my mom writes about play inspired by two TV shows. It led me to consider the role of popular culture as a common vernacular, shared experience, and...
View ArticleWomanhood and Motherhood and the Possibility of Too Many Choices
It’s a cloudy, quiet Sunday in north Oakland. My husband slept in this morning after a long week of work and distance-cycling with his bicycle club. Our two cats woke me up early to feed them...
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“What Do I Do Monday?”
It is the start of another beautiful summer day in North Oakland. Before I run to work, I wanted to share a mini-post of something I’m reading, something that’s inspiring me and resonating with my...
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Un-Schooling Another Generation, And Being A Living Example of The First
About a month ago I recorded a long interview with my husband. It was more difficult than the interviews I have done previously with my family. I shelved it, until now. Unsure what to say about the...
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Un-Schooling Another Generation: The Interview, Part 1
As promised, this post focuses on the dialogue I have been having with my husband, comparing our very different experiences growing up as an unschooler and a traditional schooler. Forgive me for the...
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Un-Schooling Another Generation: The Interview, Part 2
Well, the last post was… a lot. And, like I said, it’s ultimately very personal. I came away from Monday’s post reflecting on how almost everyone I know went to school. But Josh, like other partners of...
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