You come out of the shower to find your floor covered in cereal. You hear one kid hit the other in the back seat. You find out it was your kid who stole that one thing, or said that horrible thing, or.... Your response is the primal cry I imagine ringing out from parents since the dawn of time: … [Read more...]
Free Literature-Based Curriculum Download: Refugees
In 2015 I felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness as the world struggled to cope with the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Like many other Americans, I agonized over photos from many different parts of the world that showed people leaving their homes in desperation, and my husband and … [Read more...]
The Real Science Behind Calming Your Kid Like a Jedi
My favorite line from Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton is, "How lucky we are, to be alive right now!" I feel that way in the year 2016, as a person who loves to study the human brain. Why, you ask? The functional MRI. This miraculous device has, for almost three decades, allowed … [Read more...]
Sonlight or Bookshark: What’s a Progressive Christian Homeschooler to do?
It seemed like the world started dividing everybody up as soon as I got pregnant with my first child: breast or bottle? Cosleeping or crib? Home or working, or working from home? It got a little worse when we decided to homeschool. It wasn't my mom's homeschool world, where you either … [Read more...]
What it Really Takes to Homeschool
I have joked with more than one friend that I won't try to change your religion, but it's definitely possible that I'll try to evangelize you into homeschooling. It's true! Although I am a former public, private, and charter school teacher and have no lack of love for all kinds of education, I … [Read more...]
Self-Care for Survival
It seems counterintuitive to start a blog about connection with a post about self-care. For a lot of us, self-care feels selfish -- the opposite of connection! We don't have time, we don't deserve it, there's no way to get it. My most cherished value is that unconditional love is the most … [Read more...]
Just Connect!
When I first became a parent, I felt like an impostor. Everyone else seemed to have a plan, to know what they were doing. They were already crunchy moms, trendy moms, Pinterest moms, organized moms. I didn't even know if I was a good mom. I was trying to tread water and mostly … [Read more...]