learning

where the sparks fly

March 22, 2018

She’s four. Sewing for the first time. It’s August 19, 1999, which I know because I happened to write about this day in my Mother’s Journal. She has insisted on sewing “with a real needle.” Together we decide on a felt pillow for her baby doll, Cookie. She chooses purple cloth, purple thread, her favorite. That night […]

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life as a lyric essay

September 20, 2017

My daughter sits beside me, writing madly in her journal, the red journal she bought yesterday at the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue. I made her go inside with me after breakfast, after I flew in from California on a red eye because it’s inexcusable to live in Manhattan without having been in […]

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lost and found

April 10, 2017

I had a beloved coffee cup. Tall and handle-free, white with tiny red flowers and a silicone sleeve. A small chip at the lip. If you know me in real life, you have surely seen it in my grip at one point or another, as I used it constantly and not just for coffee. If […]

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a history of history fairs

May 12, 2016

A few weeks back I organized A Trip through Time for my homeschooling support group. The tenth annual history fair I’ve organized, and the last. I’m feeling a little sappy in the face of all that history. I have my own history of convincing my homeschooling group to adopt wild ideas. (Let’s form a Destination Imagination […]

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let’s talk about writing

February 24, 2016

My friends, bless their hearts, have heard me yammer on about kids and writing for years. They know that once I get going, I won’t stop. I have so much enthusiasm for kids, and writing, and how to help kids get enthusiastic about writing, that I will gladly go on for as long as they’ll let […]

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“I don’t like reading”

February 16, 2016

I don’t like reading. This is what my 14-year-old says, just before he breaks my heart. But what he’s saying isn’t exactly accurate. For one, he’s saying it as a response to me bugging him about why he doesn’t read more. Which irritates him, and makes him want irritate me right back. And he knows […]

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i like making my own assignments

January 7, 2016

I know I said I’d write about reading in January, but once January arrived I could think of no better way to oust that Christmas tree from this page than with a photo of a journal. Everyone loves journals in January. That one right there is where I’m working on my MFA. I ordered this journal last […]

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