When I was younger, each summer my parents would drive me from San Diego to Los Angeles and drop me off at my grandparents’ home for a week’s vacation. My aunt and uncle lived next door so I spent my time going between their two houses. Both homes had something in common- they smelled. My…
Remember TV Dinners? You, probably not. Me, unfortunately yes. They were introduced to the public in the 1950’s. TV trays followed around the same time. Combining both products provided harried and overworked family members with some screen time. No food preparation required. No interaction desired. Fast forward to today. TV Dinners and trays have given…
All of us tell our kids that “actions have consequences.” What we don’t tell them, maybe because we haven’t thought this through ourselves, is that there are initial or first order consequences and there are second order consequences. There may even be third order consequences. First order consequences are often very different, surprisingly different, from…
My wife and I home schooled all three of our children. All three went and graduated from college. And, all three are currently employed in fields unrelated to their degrees. As I tried to advise them post-high school, I think I operated under a false understanding of today’s workplace – at least for two of…
A lot of us got into home schooling so that we could customize the instructional menu to match our child’s learning style. So… • Your child doesn’t like to read and is an auditory learner? No problem. Use audio books, or a website like Audible. • Your child needs to see everything, and is a…
In a previous post I encouraged you to “prepare for tomorrow, today.” In other words, I suggested that planning as opposed to “winging it” yields better results. The question I often get asked is, how far into the future and how specific should lessons be planned? A week, two weeks, a month? Years ago, one of…
Maybe you remember an experience like this when you were in school. The bell goes off and class “begins.” Sort of. “Begins” is a relative term. The teacher waits for the two or three stragglers before beginning the lesson so she won’t have to repeat herself. The attendance record now needs to be revised. Pencils…
In my last post I suggested that content presented first is more easily grasped and retained than equally difficult content presented later in the same sequence. But, there is an exception. When content is more meaningful, or interesting to the learner, it will be more easily learned and remembered regardless of when it is presented…
If you’re like many of us, yesterday was the first day back to school after Christmas vacation. Hard to get going after being off schedule for a couple of weeks. Sort of like going to the gym after being away for a little too long and getting on the elliptical to warm up. After…
Did you stay up late last night to see the new year in? I used to when my kids were younger. And while it was fun to play games, eat junk food, and watch movies until after midnight, I’m kind of glad that phase of my life is over. After tranquilizing the dogs, I turned…