Welcome to the new world. I hope you're reducing, reusing, and recycling all that cardboard. And while you're at it, teach your kids how to make almost ANYTHING with it. One example is using templates and 3d software to make a life-size Xenomorph with just a bunch of amazon boxes and some wood glue. That's just awesome.

Let's be honest. No one cares what music I think you should expose your kids to. Like me, you're going to raise them on what you dig, and hope your kids like what you like. Equally the case, there's a LOT of really amazing music and it's impossible to curate all of it for everyone in every way. One of the most important YouTubers in my opinion is Rick Beato: because he's teaching people to be better at listening to their own music. If you can learn to critically listen to the music you already know, then you can be better at choosing which material will impress your kiddos. The linked video is a great video essay about Smells Like Teen Spirit, and breaks down what's actually in the recording-- what set Nirvana apart from other rock and made the music indelible. (Spoiler: there's jazz in there)

There are few perfect days. Perfect weeks are almost unheard of. Perfect months are unicorns. Sometimes what you need is novelty. A new focus to fire up new connections in the brain and hopefully fire up the existing ones. Novelty can be motivating. Novelty is often an over-sought reward though. More, I think we need structure. In my opinion novelty is ostentation that really only functions well if accessorizing a solid structure. I am not organized enough for the kind of structure that results in billionaires or industries with several hundred moving parts, but I have come to see the value in the word "economics" or its Greek ancestor "oikonomikos," or "house keeping." Often, our house is physically out of order and it weighs on us. But that weight is not real. That weight is a sign of our mental house being out of order. If I set my mind, then it's easier to remember that dishes and clutter are not life and death, or even difficult. I remember that a...

Ok, so there's a time spectrum for everything.  For tasks you want to accomplish, there is a minimum time you must meet to make progress. For diversions, distractions, and recreation, there's a maximum time after which you see a detriment to other parts of your life. To be completely honest with ourselves, there is a max time for work and minimum time for play: too much work and you're not seeing to your life, and not enough play and what is all the work for anyway? This goes double for kids. They won't stay engaged if there isn't a payoff, and they most definitely don't easily understand the notion that staring at a screen for too long for games and videos can have unintended consequences. Being told time is up is never anything but disappointing. What's working in our house is an open conversation about balance. In order to get video game time, responsibilities have to all be met. It helps to have rewards that are on more than one scale. It's hard to b...

Before my son could read or write, he was able to make up vivid stories with his imagination thanks to these wonderful all-ages prompting devices. Honestly, I should not have to tell you about them, but since the internet and all the social media sites aren't riddled with Rory's based memes I am assuming I'm in the minority of people who've been blessed by the awesomeness that is breaking writer's block with this toy. I am no affiliate anywhere, and that's probably a shame, because here's how it works: Rory's Story Cubes  are dice. They come in a set of nine inside a convenient box that closes with magnets. On each cube are 6 glyphs, and each glyph is an easy to interpret symbol. 9 cubes x 6 glyphs = 54 in total, with a ridiculous number of possible combinations. There are multiple sets with different sets of symbols.  You'll get as much mileage out of them as your students.

High on my list of YouTube channels I'm thankful for daily is Cosmic Kids Yoga . Jamie's videos mix traditional yoga movement and mindfulness with stories and characters that are instantly recognizable for kids. When we're all trying to make sure our kids get enough physical exertion before they ask for videogames and passive video watching, Jamie's videos are a gift.

Sal Khan is a pioneer in free online learning. He literally started Khan Academy by making math tutoring videos with his microphone and tablet in the closet of his home, and mainly for his little cousins. He's a national treasure. Currently Khan Academy is a rich website full of video education on a variety of subjects, presented clearly. Math, Science, Finance, Art and Music Appreciation, Computer Coding... Here  is a link to the video log from a webinar in April about getting/keeping young students motivated and engaged in their learning at home.

If you find yourself needing to make resources for your kids, it helps when it works like the tools the professionals have available. Enter G.I.M.P. and Inkscape: the free and open source answers to Photoshop and Illustrator. I use both often. Both of my kids are artistically inclined, so not only do I make material for them, I show them how I did it. G.I.M.P.  is the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, and it has been around for much longer than most people know. It's been included in versions of Linux to function in the role Paint plays for Windows . It's way more powerful than Paint, though. It's grown up and taken on features that were desired by users who had experienced Photoshop and Corel Draw and wanted to bring them to the Open Source Software community.  Inkscape  is a vector art🎨 box. If you need to make a flyers, logos, graphics for cars, cutouts, custom coloring pages, what you need is to make vector art. Sharp edges and nothing out of place. Super u...

If you need to write a letter, you launch your favorite word processor and you make it happen. Essays, poems, stories, reports, cards... ...but what if you needed to do that with music? Until recently, your choice was definitely glitchy, probably expensive, and complicated. Now there's MuseScore3 , and since the update it's been absolutely a joy to use. My source material for learning its features has mostly been a pair of books that used to be in the piano bench in my parents' house when I was growing up. It's freely available and it's developed by the open source community. If you want music to be part of your students' education, it's a definite recommendation. There's nothing else close without spending money. 

Leonard Bernstein was indisputably one of the most important figures in America's part of musical history. He was absolutely a treasure as a performer, composer, conductor, and educator. Decades ago he conducted events called the Concerts for Young People Series. Classical music was presented by a full orchestra, stopped, started, and explained by one of the most capable possible narrators in realtime in front of a packed audience of youths from 4th grade to high school. Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts (In Order)

Hello and welcome to my home-ed blog.👋 I'm Nick , and I'm a parent with littles in the CJUSD , and I want to reach out and help parents meet the new challenge of supplementing their own students' educational experience in this historic time. I see the huge😱 number of resources we've been flooded with, and it occurs to me that it can be overwhelming for people who had no intention of home-schooling or any materials at home aside from the internet and maybe a printer. First: yes, there's a big pile of resources available, but obviously there's not a discussion page attached to every item and it's hard to tell which ones are worth the effort of setting up. Second: the stuff on the list is specific to what's been discussed and approved for district use, but does not go into free and open source solutions. here's a place I'll probably spend several updates discussing. There are a lot of apps that are free, useful, fun, and there are no advertiseme...