Are you rethinking how you will be celebrating Thanksgiving this year? As we approach this holiday, I’ve been thinking back to where I was two years ago. In August of 2018, I was getting ready for a two-day-a-week class I would be teaching to junior high students. I had purchased gratitude journals for each of…
I was thinking about writing this near the end of August. In Oregon, we were looking forward to a pleasant fall season: warm and dry. I wanted to encourage you to add a healthy practice, a practice you could start now and continue through most of October. Take some of your education outdoors! Make it…
I celebrated a bonus birthday at the coast last week. This was a trip planned months ago by my wife Jenny. Four days of literally no TV, but a considerable amount of Netflix each evening. I wasn’t supposed to get this birthday. Actually, I wasn’t supposed to get the one before it either. Over the…
Is it too late to test? A related question is, “Is there a reason to test at this time of year?” The deadline for getting testing done here in Oregon was November 1. Does this mean that testing after the 1st doesn’t count? No, this isn’t the presidential election :)! The deadline set by…
Is this your first year home schooling in Oregon? If so, state law requires that you notify your Educational Service District (ESD) of your intent to homeschool. This does not have to be done until your child is 6 on September 1. Your notification must contain the following information, but nothing else: Your name and…
The phrase, “majoring in the minors,” is cliché. Someone who tells you you’re guilty of this is saying you are treating something small as if it’s something of great importance. The comment, accompanied by a snarky and accusative tone, often lead to a pretty heated conversation quickly. But what if you are actually majoring in…
Lemmings are small rodents. Their actions have been popularized by Disney with the classic nature film, “White Wilderness.” Lemmings have also been used in light-hearted video games by the same name. Their behavior points to a phenomena of human behavior: our tendency to conform, to “not rock the boat,” to simply “go with the flow.”…
In 1974 Solzhenitsyn wrote an essay bearing this title. Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist, philosopher, and historian, was also an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and Communism. He helped raise global awareness of the Soviet Gulag forced-labor camp system. He, himself, had spent time in the gulag for writing a single letter that was critical…
The word is out among public schools. According to one study, the average student could begin the new school year having lost a third of reading progress and up to as much as half a year of math progress. How will they know? They won’t unless they do some baseline testing. Establishing a baseline means…
Have you noticed the change in the season yet? It’s August, and here in the Northwest the crickets are beginning to make themselves heard each evening. In spite of some very warm days yet to come, the nights are becoming increasingly cooler. The sun is setting a minute or two earlier each day. School is…