I'm not talking about the content, first-person shooters, glorified gangs, thieves, and pimps....I'm talking about ME versus everyone, and I mean literally EVERYONE, who blithely lets their kids play video games and pluck away on other devices. Kids with cell phones? I just heard of a 5 year old who has their own [...]
Watch the video above....it's not just a pic with a weird arrow on it! That was at last week's homeschool talent show in NYC. We started piano only 13 months ago. But Christine started singing this past fall (in a choir) and has really taken to it. In fact she has asked for a private [...]
John is chugging along with Khan Academy. As you can see, now he's completed 320 of the 415 *skills*. If one goes too slow with this, well, that's not good in its own right, not an effective way to learn math, but also he or she will fall behind because Khan keeps adding skills! Two [...]
John's teacher said that in the course of a single year he has done "at least two and a half year's" worth of work. When John wakes up in the morning, every morning, the very first thing he does is saunter over to the keyboard usually with his favorite blanket draped over him. And when [...]
I believe I've previously posted another video of this man - Sugata Mitra - where he also discusses the poor Indian children who taught themselves all sorts of amazing things from a PC. (That's indeed an embedded video above, not just a pic with a weird arrow on it!) Here's the bang-up quote from the [...]
It's common knowledge now, that success in general comes simply from putting more hours in and doing more reps than your competition. I've read studies that supposedly *prove* self-discipline is the most important determinant for academic success in college - as opposed to incoming SAT scores or high school grades... But I submit that outside [...]
I just signed my daughter up for IXL Math, an online math application. Ads for it are everywhere but that's only because it's a little expensive ($10 a month) and because the people that run the website are smart enough to let affiliates market it for them. First of all, my 8.25 year old son [...]
When unshackled from an *institutional education*, children and parents enjoy complete freedom - freedom to study, pursue, dabble, socialize, experiment, ponder, etc. whatever it is they decide upon. Of course, the choices they make and the discipline, energy, and savvy they employ are CRITICAL in determining long-term outcomes. And without any authority to answer to, [...]
In the wake of his First Chess Championship....it was time to step up a weight class. This past weekend John and I drove to Philadelphia to compete at a larger venue. Whereas the tournament John won this past fall featured kids, his own age, with chess *ratings* below 600....this one had no age restrictions and [...]
