We’re going to be talking a lot about mistakes. It is, after all, where all the learning happens. Today, the teachers were together, cutting our cow patches out of fake leather, for the kids to use to cover their new History books. I stepped in to help. After cutting out my first one, one of…

The first day back to school and I am always in awe of how we can help kids to really love school. It is most obvious in the new students. They really anticipate having a solidly horrible day. Until, of course, they come here. We hear it every time, by the end of the day,…

Back to school is its own special kind of joy. Life has been so much fun for a very long time (6 or so weeks) but normal is what I crave most after all the sun and storms of December. Sounds so uncomplicated, right? So easy to achieve on paper, right? Let me make it…

I think that learning difficulties are somewhat like having the wrong manual for the problem you are trying to solve. As a young mom, I would struggle with trying to fit my daughter into the system that was presented to us. The system that almost everyone else fitted into. It was only when I put…

Sometime last week, I came across a challenge. There were four big ideas but the first ‘had me at hello’. Get rid of 27 things in your home, every day for 9 days. When I read this I was feeling overwhelmed and burdened by the year behind me and this challenge really made sense. (If…

This week was our bi-annual optometrist visit. We go twice a year for two reasons. The one has to do with medication my children take that has been known to affect the macula of the eye and must be checked every 6 months. The second reason is that the correct glasses stop the decline of…

I have a Chinese symbol tattooed on my left shoulder blade. I think! I mean I know I have the tattoo, I can just never tell which side because I only ever see it in a mirror. The tattoo, I was promised by the A4 plastic pocket flip folder of options, meant ‘strong’. Now that…

I am not proud of this silly story about broccoli and a boy. I, of all people, should know better. But this is the experienced me talking now, the older me, the me that has raised my children already. In this tale, I was not a mom yet, and I was about to learn a…

You are in the audience of your child’s amazing life. There is that moment on a stage when an actor or a dancer or a musician is alone, a single spotlight creeps on. They don’t move, they wait. And everyone waits with them. The tension is rich and not one word or movement or hint…

We taught levers as a mechanical advantage this month. Our starting point was to tell them that the next day they were going to see if they could get a teacher up into the tree. They came to school so excited. We had a guest teacher come in because we know ‘difference’ grabs the brain’s…