Our two New York kids were home for Christmas. H went back a few weeks ago; Lulu is here for a few more days. It was pretty much the best thing ever, having all three kids home at once. It was also loud. My family is loud. Some of the family noise is good, don’t [...]

It’s been a month since you last wrote, and two months since you wrote a real post that was more than a link to writing you’ve done elsewhere. How to catch up? Do you need to catch up? What are the blogging rules? It’s December, which makes you feel that you should comment on the [...]

The family in 1998, a few months after we started homeschooling. Homeschooling requires such faith. For most of us, it means striking out on terrain that is unfamiliar, that requires new tools. We want to believe that we’ll get where we want to go, that the journey will be good for our kids, but how [...]

“Reading time! Grab your book!” This is what I call out to Mr. T, who is in the backyard, walking circles around the trampoline, lost in thought. He gives me his usual just-a-minute and eventually comes in, pulls Hunter from the book basket and sprawls himself in every direction across the leather chair like an [...]

photo by Shelli Bond Pabis I know that I keep bringing up home/school/life, the magazine I’m writing a column for, again and again. I’m just so impressed with what editor Amy Sharony is pulling together with a staff that could fit around a dining room table—and I mean one without the extra leaf installed. Her team [...]

Coming home to the empty bedroom is the hardest part. She took all the things she loved, and cleaned up the rest. Filled bags with old Vans and ballet flats to donate. Now her room looks like a fake teenage bedroom in a suburban housing tract model home. The week before she left, she brought [...]