Recently I was perusing my Facebook feed to see what friends were up to. I noticed a college girl posting a stream of pictures from her study abroad in the UK. The smiling, waving kids — who seemed to be doing a lot more sightseeing than actual “studying” brought back a flood of memories. When I [...]
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For ten years we lived in the stereotypical retirement mecca called Boca Raton, Florida. the only problem was, we weren’t retired. In fact, I wasn’t even 30 years old when we moved there, so we were rather out of the median age range. At the time we joked about retirement communities called Leisureville, Century Village, [...]
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One year after our oldest daughter graduated from BYU, our son-in-law followed suit. Yesterday we watched him file in amongst the rest of the class of 2012 to Pomp and Circumstance and then, later, walk by the podium to receive his diploma. I sat thinking back about 25 years, when I receive my bachelor’s degree [...]
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Before I had any school-aged children, I typeset my sister’s master’s thesis. It was titled Scientists, school teachers, and the two cultures of mathematics. Her research showed how school teachers generally think math is a magical machine that chugs out mysterious answers when you drop in numbers. Scientists, on the other hand, think math is [...]
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I married a geek. Or is it a nerd? I can never remember. One of them is supposed to be cool and the other one not so much. My husband is definitely on the cool end of science genius. My dad also has a scientific PhD. And my brother-in-law. My sister, a master’s degree. Our [...]
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Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is. Christiaan Baarnard sait that. He’s a medical doctor. I’m not. I don’t pretend to be one or even play one on TV. In fact, although I’m not some a anti-medicine fanatic, I have spent my life noticing the almost inherent arrogance of doctors who don’t seem to notice how very [...]
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This is the third in a three-part homeschooling series. It was first published in 1996 in Super Learning Tools. Although my theories have morphed somewhat over the years, this series represents the beginning process of forming and implementing our homeschool and educational philosophies. In the March/April issue, you learned that we are not unschoolers and [...]
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This is the second in a three-part homeschooling series. It was first published in 1996 in Super Learning Tools. Although my theories have morphed somewhat over the years, this series represents the beginning process of forming and implementing our homeschool and educational philosophies. When my husband and I, at the suggestion of our oldest daughter, [...]
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This is the first in a three-part homeschooling series. It was first published in 1996 in Super Learning Tools. Although my theories have morphed somewhat over the years, this series represents the beginning process of forming and implementing our homeschool and educational philosophies. When I joined the growing home education movement I was astounded to [...]
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By Mary Rubin Stuart The trouble came on Harriet Callahan slowly. As a high school freshman she had been placed in a science and math honors program and began the year enthusiastically. But after a few weeks in first-year algebra, Harriet felt confused and scared. “I’d sit there and hear my teacher talking about variables [...]
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My first research paper — for my high school AP English class in 1982 — still gives me nightmares. The process of typing out an enormous paper was foreign and intimidating. My topic: J.D. Salinger. I pulled an A, but not without pulling an all nighter and much of my hair out. My last research paper [...]
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Help With College My husband and I have a total of 14 years of college education. That’s a lot of tuition and scads of (exorbitantly-priced) books and (tiny, white-walled) apartment rental and hot dogs and ramen soup. That’s a long time to be poor. It’s even longer when you have have two children while making [...]
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We are seriously into themed birthday parties around here. While I only have two kids under 12 now, even the older kids still get into the mix sometimes. We’ve been doing big birthday parties for over 23 years now (not coincidentally, since Jessica’s first birthday). Considering that we had two children before completing graduate school, [...]
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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPromise for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. I am a big believer in calculating return on investment. In accounting parlance: ROI = (gain from investment – cost of investment)/cost of investment But in layman’s terms it means calculating the efficiency of an investment. [...]
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Logical Fallacy > Informal Fallacy > Ignoratio Elenchi > Argumentum Ad Populum Argumentum ad populum (appeal to the people, appeal to popularity) is an argument which concludes that a position must be true because many people believe it is true. Other Names for Argumentum Ad Populum Fallacy Argumentum Ad Numerum (appeal to the numbers) Consensus [...]
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Have you ever heard someone trying to prove a point — possibly in a political, scientific, or moral argument — that just seemed wrong, but you couldn’t explain why? Have you heard or read positions that your gut said didn’t make sense, but you couldn’t pinpoint the problem? Have you stopped challenging ideas you thought [...]
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Our oldest daughter, Jessica, graduated from Brigham Young University in April (just four days before her wedding). As our first homeschool graduate to receive a bachelor’s degree, it was a milestone. We are so proud of her dedication and conscientious work. This fall she will be starting graduate school, another amazing accomplishment in her life. [...]
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This post brought to you by Collaborize Classroom. All opinions are 100% mine. When it comes to school stuff, I’m not a huge supporter. With all the resources and infrastructure, our schools could be second-to-none. But with all the competing interests and egos — not to mention billions of dollars — they’ve become a hodge [...]
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I put school science fairs right up there with the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. More often than not, it’s a competition between parents. But done right — which might mean allowing your children to do the work (and the learning) themselves — there is no better way to understand a science topic than by doing [...]
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The Salt Lake City Public Library checked out almost 700,000 books last year. From that expertise they compiled a list of the top five books for kids. #1 What’s Your Sound Hound the Hound? By Mo Willems #2 Dancing Feet By Lindsey Craig, illustratd by Marc Brown
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