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Dancers in traditional Georgian dress surround Ilusha Tsinadze, who is playing guitar and singing.

Geography and cultures

Georgian folk music

The first two songs we learned in the Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers program are Georgian folk music, with musician Ilusha Tsinadze.

Musicians performing on stage. Some are wearing Native American ribbon dresses, some are wearing African Zulu garb.

Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers

A free education resource from New York's famous Carnegie Hall teaches kids about music from around the world.

The cover of Beast Academy Science 3A, with four cartoon beasts smiling in a hail storm.

Beast Academy Science is here!

A first look at the first Beast Academy Science book, 3A.

Geography and cultures

Seterra geography quiz

I recently started using Seterra to beef up my geography knowledge. I use the free iOS app, and there are also Android and web versions. Seterra gives you the name of a country (or city, or mountain, etc.), and challenges you to find its location on an unlabeled map. I

A broken pencil.

Homeschooling fears: will I goof up teaching her?

This is the final post in a series about the fears I had about homeschooling before we began, and how I feel now, four years in. * How will homeschooling change my relationship with my daughter? * What will my public school teacher friends think? * Will she make friends? * Will I goof

Two girls are side-by-side in a hammock, facing away from the camera.

Homeschooling fears: will she make friends?

If a kid isn't in school, where does she get friends? Turns out: anywhere and everywhere.

An elementary classroom, with children seated on the floor in front of their teacher. Some kids have arms raised.

Homeschooling fears: what would my teacher friends think?

When we switched to homeschooling, I felt a knot in my stomach at what my teacher friends would think. Would it be viewed as a betrayal?

Don't Panic is written in all caps, in big, red block letters.

Homeschooling fears

What worried me about homeschooling before we started, vs. how I feel now.

A bright yellow Animal Farm paperback book with cartoon drawings of farm animals, and a student workbook.

Animal Farm

George Orwell's dystopian classic, with a ten-year-old. Terrible idea, or great idea?

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are depicted using LEGO bricks.

Media recommendations

The Brick Bible

To deepen our secular learning about the stories from the Bible, we turn to a retelling of the Bible using LEGO bricks.

An illustration of a young Black woman holding a book, regarding images from historic sites.

Choosing a world history curriculum: Curiosity Chronicles

A look at the reasons we chose the Curiosity Chronicles curriculum, and how we're using it.

Five men and one woman stand, each one dressed in clothing from a different historic period.

Videos for homeschooling history

Some of our best history learning has come from watching videos. Mostly funny ones. Here's a long list of recommended videos!

Irresponsible Day 2022!

Irresponsible Day 2022!

For the third year, we take a day to be completely IRRESPONSIBLE!

History of the entire world, I guess

The ultimate history shortcut

I've got a few posts about teaching history brewing in my head. It's a massive, messy, muddled subject, and I have massive, messy, muddled thoughts on it. While I wrestle with what I want to say and how I want to say it, enjoy Wanda'

A young girl is working intently at her laptop, which is decorated with Node.js stickers.

Routine, flexibility, and hyperfocus

Understanding how an ADHD brain works best is baked right into how we structure our days—and how we sometimes toss that structure out the window.

The cover of The Knowledge Gap, on an orange background.

Book recommendations

The Knowledge Gap

A book review of The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler, about the lack of focus on building a foundation of general knowledge in modern education, despite cognitive science pointing to its importance.

A book, "How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare," some lines from a play, and a picture of Shakespeare that says WILL POWER.

Book recommendations

Shakespeare for young kids

I've been introducing Wanda to Shakespeare over the last few years, and we recently leveled up to the real deal: Shakespeare's actual words.

I don't know what I'm doing

I don't know what I'm doing

Today is the third anniversary of our starting homeschooling, back in 2019. I still don't know what I'm doing. When Wanda was younger, she had some moments of doubt on her birthdays. She's generally not prone to magical thinking, but when she turned six,

A walrus in a suit and a human carpenter are seated before about a dozen oysters, standing on twig legs with shoes on.

Book recommendations

An Annotated Alice detour

Alice would approve as we set aside our lesson to chase after a rabbit... or in this case, a walrus and a carpenter.

The cast of the TV show The Good Place are seated on a couch in the town square of the afterlife.

Media recommendations

The Good Place

This philosophical sitcom turned out to be a sneaker homeschooling hit.

Fingers hold a small card that says, "What can you do today that you couldn't do a year ago?"

Assessment testing

Standardized assessment testing is not required for PSA homeschoolers in California, but we wanted to do it anyway.

Wanda has her hands clasped over her joyfully agape mouth, in front of the Quiz Show intro slide.

Quercus Prep Quiz Show!

The most fun way we're doing memory work is... a quiz. Really! Thanks to Homestar Runner and some sound effect buzzers, it's a blast.

A box holding index cards separated by numbered dividers. A visible card says "What is the formula for describing momentum?"

Memory work with flash cards

I'm putting my anti-flash card stance on ice, because dangit, turns out they work. Also, they're easy.

Two paper hats shaped like brains, with regions of the brain labeled.

Retention: forget to remember

A look at what the research says about remembering what we learn, and a review of how our chosen curriculum supports retention.

A Japanese structure, brightly painted red with a peaked roof, overlooks a manicured garden.

Geography and cultures

A trip to the Japanese Tea Garden

Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden is now free to San Francisco residents, so we learned about Japan and took a field trip.