In a previous post, I explained how it came to be that my son (S) enrolled in an online remote school in order to compress 7th and 8th grade into one school year. This was a locationally liberating step. I’ve
When you don’t have to “go to school”
Grade skipping
Skipping a grade appears to be advised against these days, and we found it in practice quite difficult to do. But our son (S) did so, and I’m sharing the experience in case it helps anyone else. Technically, S finished
What retirement is like for me
So what’s it like in retirement? Let me tell you. Every night is Friday night. And every day is Saturday. And that does not get old. I feel a bit of glee every night as I get into bed that
The Unexpected Joy of Homeschooling
If you’d told me a year ago that I would be listening to Debussy’s Clair de Lune with my eleven-year-old son’s head resting on my shoulder while we learn about music theory, I wouldn’t believe you. That we’d be laughing
Masks: an easy & fun microscope lab activity for kids
At the start of the school year we were lacking for science projects to do. There was one thing we had a ton of — masks: bandanas, cotton masks, synthetic, surgical masks… We also had a cheap little microscope, bought
Old Wrinkly and the Internet
In the “How to Train Your Dragon” children’s book series, the hero, Hiccup, consults his grandfather, “Old Wrinkly,” when he encounters a problem, such as his friend getting sick with a mysterious illness, or not knowing the function of the
A year of being a self-published pest
The first self(?)-published author I can recall foisting his book upon me was my 9th grade French teacher. He told the class he had written a book, praised it at length, and instructed us to order it. Shortly thereafter he
On running and not running
Runners — in many ways I have to grudgingly admire them. When I roll in to work, they are already there, hair damp, crunching on some granola, having woken up at some ungodly hour to go for a run. More
The unquantified self
It was a sunny Saturday morning in Phoenix, AZ, when I found my friend sitting in a lounge chair outside, working with a spreadsheet, while his daughters played nearby. “Sorry you have to work on a Saturday,” I said, mildly
My trouble with physics
[The following are my embellished recollections of things that happened about 20 years ago, and as such may not resemble reality… much.] “The trouble with physics”, a book about the questionable validity of and investment in string theory, did not