Susan's Pendulum

We are watching a psychology show on Netflix right now.  Brain Games explores the way the brain works, and how it can play tricks on us.  T...

"If you measure something, it will get better." That is the premise behind a new program "offered" by our health insur...

Oh, the grand plans that homeschool moms come up with!  And how hard to execute all those lesson plans! I was intrigued by the program use...

Maggie and I are watching the Sister Wendy videos about art history and art appreciation.  Neither one of us likes it much, but it's on...

Common Core increases (yet again) the testing requirements on students.  a) Testing doesn't measure what it purports to measure.  b) Too...

First it was "A Nation at Risk."  Then under Pres Bush it was "outcome-based education" with nation-wide curriculum goal...

Admit it.  We're two-faced about perfectionism.  We say it's bad for us.  We say it's stressful.  We say, "Well, nobody can...

Liz posted this picture yesterday of the competition between the fire departments.  For those of you who don't live in small towns, it...

Philip was one of those kids who would've been kicked out of school unless we put him on Ritalin.  He was bright.  He had an awesome mem...

For those of you who have a hard time keeping it straight, left-brained is the orderly, rule-oriented side of the brain, and right-brained i...

Ever since classical education became popular again, I've been trying to wrap my mind around what it is. Some people tell me that I...

On my second day of training at my new job, my mentor took me aside and told me that I had to stop talking to myself. She said that a coup...

Barbara Frank has a new book out. It's about the economic changes in the last couple of decades and what impact that has on our familie...

On Saturday I was chatting with a woman at Gary's company Christmas party. She had just started her job about five weeks earlier and ha...

Some people think that high-schoolers should be able to teach themselves. They say that homeschooled kids should be trained to read and stu...

Oh no! Test scores are falling! American children score near the bottom of the heap in _________! Drop-out rates are climbing! The sky is fa...

Some homeschoolers I know have been talking about decompression time, when a family new to homeschooling takes some time off to recuperate f...

Sandy tells the story of how, when she was little, her uncle would play a game of asking the kids to "sing an A" or "what is...

As Andrew and I prepped for his ACT, we were both initially intimidated by all the stuff that he was supposed to know about literature. I d...

This series doesn't look as interesting as the other two , but I want them sorted out for perusal anyway. After all, how will I know wh...