Skip to main content

What is this blog for?

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 advertisements in sight.

YouTube is our friend: but like all friends, YT has a dark and weird side that probably isn't for our kids. That being the case, I'll be curating a few channels I've followed for years, starting with specific episodes and playlists.

I'm even going to make a few videos myself.

Most importantly, though, is that I want to hear from you. What are your challenges in keeping your students engaged from home? What are your fears and concerns? It is my hope to put our heads together and solve these challenges for the benefit of all of our children.


With all of that said, thanks for your attention, and please let me know if you have any favorite sites, apps, or services that have helped you in raising and educating your kids, even if it was stuff you were using before they were school age!

--Nick

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cardboard Creativity: Epic Cardboard Props

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.

Rory's Story Cubes: Language and Narrative

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.

Inspiration When Things Get Hectic

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...