January 2026 Timeless Principles of Teaching & Learning It took me a long time to unlearn my own assumptions about school & how kids learn. Do you know what I mean? I thought learning & school were the same; therefore, more school = more learning. I thought my kids needed me to show them how everything works. I thought there must be a right/ best/ better/ superior way of educating at home & searched for years to find it. Today's newsletter is born out of my 20 year journey of thinking about...

The fourth winter & your child's progress. It's winter #4 over here in the midwest. And it got me thinking... our winter 1 - spring 1 - winter 2- spring 2 - winter 3 - spring 3 - summer 1 - winter 4- spring 4 cycle is a good metaphor for how kids learn. As the midwest weather does not go from winter to spring to summer, so humans do not learn in a directly linear fashion. Learning isn't like the left graph... it's much more like the right. Remember, "school" isn't a checklist of tasks to be...

A gift for you this October! I've been working on creating a MASSIVE booklist & it's finally ready to share. It has 17 pages of book recommendations for various categories and age groups. You can just save it as a PDF on your computer and refer back to it whenever you want. It includes Preschool books Our family's favorite picture books Beginning Readers Teen Books Picture books that coordinate with many Musical Memory songs!!!! Alas, there are some categories and age groups I didn't get to...