Two years ago we moved to Long Island, New York. An avid golfer, I immediately assessed the local golfing landscape (EXPENSIVE!) and decided that it was not worth my money or precious time to play golf regularly here. As my son would say, "What a bummer!" But I didn't give up the game by any [...]
It's a shame that schools don't teach kids geometry until 8th, 9th, or even 10th(!) grade. One, because it's an SAT subject they need to know. Two, because in my experience, almost all students love geometry - ESPECIALLY younger students. And three, because oftentimes it appeals to those who might not be enamored of [...]
Still less than 3 months after his first lesson: Admittedly, I don't know much about the piano and I'm sure the early learning curve is *steep*... But still, John seems to have made RAPID PROGRESS and his instructor has said as much. We can't help but wonder if all the *other* early work we've done [...]
When your 7.63 year old is already better than you at chess...see our respective rankings above... It's not only extremely humbling, but it's also probably time to find him a more advanced instructor. And that's what we're doing now. I've procured the services of a highly ranked (2100 rating) tutor for 1-on-1 lessons for John [...]
One of the oft-repeated excuses of parents is that they cannot teach [physics, chemistry, calculus, etc.]...so therefore they ARE NOT qualified to give their child a complete education. But that is ridiculous. Other teaching/learning resources abound in this day and age. Plus, those are subjects to worry about much, much later on. Consider my son's [...]
The latest online edu-gold mine we are using is Khan Academy. Many people have heard of it....but few are actually using it right now. And that's a shame because it's become an amazing resource. (Funny what million$ in funding can do!) When it was first highly publicized (by Bill Gates, among others) it was just [...]
Teenagers, in the course of their education, DO NOT read enough. And they definitely don't read enough of the important books from the last 50-100 years or so which are tragically ignored by school curricula. These are some of the books that I've read recently and believe are MUST-READS for the +12 age group: Flags [...]
First, they have to learn how the pieces move. So you can find someone familiar with the game to demonstrate the moves - or some free instruction on the internet. OR you can use Chess Titans, a program that comes bundled with Windows (under Accessories, next to Solitaire and Minesweeper). On that game you can [...]
My daughter has finally become a full-blown bibliophile! All the signs are there: opening a book in bed the second she wakes up, reading at the breakfast table, walking around with her eyes buried in a book, etc. Those are just SOME of the books she has checked out of the library right now. In [...]
Here's my daughter's recent dance performance from the town's annual *school* fair. It shouldn't be too hard to identify Christine: My kids have never felt butterflies in their stomach, suffered stagefright, or any other public performance malady. In fact, they're always begging to go up on stage. I do believe that the ability and confidence [...]
