Our Unschooling Adventure

Unschooling: The Movie

2009-06-23T16:14:00.002-04:00

I got this from an emailing list I am on: Unschooling: The Movie. Check it out!

Letterboxing

2009-05-25T22:43:00.004-04:00

We had our first letterboxing adventure today. Manisha found directions to 3 letterboxes in the Garfield Woods conservation area. It was a wonderful Memorial Day today and the 4 of us went in the afternoon. The hike was wonderful. Even Supriya, who likes to complain about hiking, enjoyed the whole outing. We followed the clues to the first letterbox, but could not find it. Determined not to go home empty-handed, we hunted down the second one and found it. It is called Bunny Dear and the stamp has a cute bunny face. I am glad our first letterboxing was successful. The kids enjoyed looking for clues and we all got a big kick when we actually found the second letterbox.

This is a great area for hiking. There is lots to see, including the Forty Caves area on the Clinton conservation land. There are also many boulders to climb on. I am sure we will go back again and again.

Renaming NCLB Act

2009-03-06T11:08:00.002-05:00

Some great names here for the updated NCLB Act. I like "The All American Chidren Are Above Average Act (AACAAAA)".

“Are We Overprotecting Our Kids to Death?”

2009-03-04T10:40:00.004-05:00

is the title of this post. Thought-provoking. Several points come to my mind:

Kids are seen as serious investments, so they need to be protected to the extent possible.
If you don't use it and somebody does get injured, you have no recourse. You also don't want to be the parent who doesn't "care" about your child's safety? Actually I do, because Autonomy is a higher value for me than Absolute Safety.
We are an affluent country, and it costs only $2 to add a safety-belt. So why not add it and remove one more potential legal liability for your company?

Introducing "Logan"

2008-12-12T19:00:00.002-05:00

This dashingly handsome young man may look like Aseem, but he is actually Logan. Supriya, his Super-agent, gave him this personality. (Don't ask me where "Logan" came from!)

"Talent is Overrated"

2008-11-26T09:57:00.002-05:00

Jim Citrin has this provocatively titled piece on Yahoo! Finance. Apparently it's the title of a book that just came out. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Contrary to popular belief, what makes certain people great is not inborn talent. Rather, it is something called "deliberate practice," a sustained, often life-long, period of purposeful effort designed to improve performance in a specific domain. This turns out to be just as true in business as it is in sports, music, medicine, chess, science, and mathematics.
Deliberate practice is characterized by several elements: It is an activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher's help; it can be repeated a lot; feedback on results is continuously available; and it's highly demanding mentally. It is far different than the general notion of "practice makes perfect." Instead of repeating a task over and over again in your comfort zone, deliberate practice requires that you identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be advanced and then work intently on them.

Sounds very intriguing. I will have to read the book now...

Drawing

2008-11-07T21:04:00.004-05:00

Here's a gallery of our recent drawings:

Today Aseem, Supriya and I sat together and drew a dinosaur from the book "The Draw 50 Way" by Lee J. Ames. Aseem started drawing and got frustrated immediately. I told him that we are all learning to draw and it is frustrating in the beginning. I felt that I had to get involved. So we went thru the drawing line by line. I would draw one line, describe it a little (straight/ curved/ connecting this to that etc.) and Aseem & Supriya would copy it. It was fun and satisfying. I am going to offer a course like this next semester at our coop.

Last week Supriya started drawing circles with her new protractor and that inspired her to make them into faces. I thought it made a nice series, variations on a theme.

"Rearrange the Sticks" Puzzles

2008-10-31T23:31:00.003-04:00

At the Museum of Science today I came across this young woman sitting at a card table near the door to the Mathematica room. She had a whole bunch of laminated "rearrange the sticks" puzzles and popsicle sticks. And I managed to crack all of them! I feel strangely proud of myself...

Check out this site. Tons of stick puzzles! I want to try them out with Aseem and Supriya. Supriya cracked the Tower of Hanoi puzzle again (in under 45 seconds for 5 discs, just for the record), as she had done last time. Another, older kid there took forever, 3 minutes and counting. She has a talent for these types of puzzles.

HSM3

2008-10-26T21:45:00.002-04:00

We have become fans of High School Musical 1 and 2. We have watched the movies several times and the van has been playing the CDs non-stop. So when a friend brought up going to the theater to see HSM3, we jumped at it. We went today for the matinee and loved it. What a song-and-dance extravaganza! Disney has pulled out all the stops, and the singing and dancing are fabulous. My feet were tapping all the way from start to finish. It was also Aseem's first ever movie in the theater which he sat through and enjoyed. I was in the theater after a long long time as well. We paid $8 for the matinee and even that feels too much. But I have to say I really enjoyed the experience of the big screen for the big song and dance numbers.

What about the plot, you ask? Well, does it matter?! It was a made-up plot for the senior year for the cast. And I was mentally comparing HSM3 with that other great musical about high school kids, Grease. HSM3 did not have the grittiness of Grease - no sex or teenage pregnancy, no foul language. It was all squeaky clean. All the seniors are talking about is getting into college. It's a sign of the times I suppose. Manisha points out that Grease was probably not targeted at the same age group HSM3 is, but I am still struck by the difference in the vibes.

Oh and by the way, I thought the theater was going to be a mob scene and I had Manisha go and buy tickets last night. When we got to the theater in the morning it was deserted! Apparently it was at the top of the box office for the weekend, but that probably means that the other movies had even smaller audience. Possibly the effect of the recession on discretionary spending?

Robotics and Apple Crisp

2008-10-20T22:54:00.003-04:00

I am peeling apples to make apple crisp. Aseem is at the small kitchen table in the apartment drawing with his markers. Manisha and Supriya are working on programming the robot to prepare for Supriya's Lego League assignment. It's just another evening in our crazy gender-bendy family...

Boughten?!

2008-10-20T22:49:00.003-04:00

You have seen the bumper-sticker: "Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids." What is also hereditary is using the ungrammatical-yet-useful words that your kids coin. The other day Manisha said to me, "This is something I shouldn't have boughten." I stopped, turned around to look at her and said, "Boughten? You too?" She said, "I know this is getting bad. Some day I am afraid I will say broughten in a meeting!" Tooken (as in the past participle of take) has already become a regular word in our household. And so the evolution of the English language continues...

Local Teenage Homeschooler Starts Business

2008-10-20T22:40:00.002-04:00

This link came across one of the local homeschooling email lists. I want my kids to start thinking entrepreneurially, so we made it a point to go visit the store. We would have liked to say hello to the kid but he was busy being interviewed by yet another reporter! It looks like he has a good idea of what he is doing and we will get more opportunities later.

Quit being What?!

2008-10-12T21:10:00.004-04:00

Yesterday evening Aseem and Supriya were playing with the Mindstorms robot. Aseem had now been assigned the task of building "attachments" for the robot. They were playing and Aseem was alternately singing and making funny sounds. So Supriya yelled at him, "Aseem! Quit being a Snozzlefluffer!" In case you did not know, a Snozzlefluffer is someone who makes funny noises. Just making sure you stay current with today's yute...

Robot-building Continues

2008-10-11T10:34:00.004-04:00

Supriya got up in the morning and went promptly to building a robot. By now she has spent a couple of hours (just today!) programming the robot. She has managed to make it go in a circle and go back and forth in a straight line, programming it all by herself. It is exciting to watch her play with the robot and make it do stuff. I am so glad we bought the kit.

Supriya Gets Mindstorms Robot

2008-10-10T22:22:00.002-04:00

Supriya is a part of the First Lego League at Voyagers. They have been working on building a robot that does a certain number of preassigned tasks as part of the 2008 challenge. Manisha and I finally decided that it was time to buy her her own Mindstorms NXT kit. I gave it to her today and she was ecstatic, jumping around and hugging me and thanking me a million times. When we got home she got straight to work and built a robot. Then she uploaded the programming software onto my laptop and programmed it to move. It did not work too well. Then Manisha wanted her to build a robot from the manual, but Supriya thought that was boring. Of course she wants to build her own creation and program it to do cool stuff. She doesn't realize that she needs to walk before she can run. Granted she has done a programming course with the NXT, but she has a lot to learn - patience, most of all!

New Words to the English Language

2008-09-26T10:31:00.000-04:00

Great words my kids make up. Aseem just talked about a "bigiature" gun he made up from Duplos to go with the "miniature" made from Legos - and it was a perfect replica, same types of bricks in the same colors. Very cool.

A couple of weeks ago as we were loading stuff into our storage unit, Supriya walked me through the rest of the building, pointing out all the "untooken" units! "Tooken" has always been a trademark Supriya word. And it's perfectly logical, as in take - took - tooken. But "untooken" just blew me away. Sounds very Middle English and flows better than does "taken".

"A Well-Rounded Education Doesn't Have to Start with College"

2008-08-28T10:29:00.005-04:00

Much of what I learned in school or college was useless. I did not choose it and had no investment or interest in it. Our emphasis for our kids' learning is always going to be to make it personal, relevant and real. Needless to say, I agree with this article completely.

...I have some advice for talented high school students: Don't go to college.

And advice for talented college graduates: Don't get a job.

Of course there is a caveat. You should do both of them eventually, just not right away. Take a year off, either after high school or after college.

Use that year to do something interesting that you'll likely never be able to do again: write a book, hike the Appalachian Trail, live with your grandparents, trek in Katmandu, volunteer at a health clinic in India, or serve your country in the military.

Just do something that will make you a more complete person. I suspect that it'll also make you appreciate your education more (and, ironically, make you more attractive when you do apply for college or enter the job market).

Chef Aseem Salad

2008-08-28T10:29:00.002-04:00

Manisha and the kids planted cherry tomatoes in one Earthbox (which have worked out well for us, by the way, even though we have not made real good use of them) this year. The kids have taken good care of them - all you need to do is water them every day. Now the tomatoes are ripening, and we are getting deluged with fresh, juicy, red tomatoes right off the vine. It's a great problem to have! Yesterday Aseem created a salad using the cherry tomatoes. He does not know how he got inspired, but the resulting dish was just wonderful!

cherry tomatoes chopped in halves
peanuts
raisins
yogurt
salt to taste

Just mix and eat!

Aseem's Daredevilry

2008-07-08T12:10:00.001-04:00

Aseem loves doing stunts on his bike at the local skateboarding park down the street from us. Here are a couple of pictures:

"Red, Blue and Turtle"

2008-07-08T09:12:00.002-04:00

A story by Supriya and Sarita ("Aaji") Padki

There was a bird. He lived in a nest in a tree. He had a friend. Both used to fly together in the morning. One was named Red and the other one was named Blue. One morning Red said to Blue, "I am going to go to the pond today."

Blue asked, "What will you do there?"

"I am going to take a bath," said Red.

"I will also come and have a nice swim." said Blue.

After they were done they called their friend Turtle. They said, "Come and fly with us."

Turtle said, "I cannot fly."

"Would you like to look at the top of the tree?" the birds asked.

Turtle said, "Yes! But how can I do that?"

"We will fly you up there." The birds said.

"But how?" Turtle asked.

"Red will grab your front feet and Blue will grab your back feet."

"But take care, don't hurt me!" Turtle said.

"We have to hurry. We go faster so there will be less chance of dropping you."

Red and Blue caught hold of Turtle and up they went.

"Well, I wish I could fly. The tree looks so beautiful!" Turtle said.

"We will pick you up whenever you want to fly." The birds promised.

NOTE: Yesterday my mother and Supriya wrote this story. My mother wrote the first sentence. Supriya wrote the next one and so on they went, alternating lines.

More on Aseem's Reading

2008-06-28T19:45:00.002-04:00

My friend Betsy told me what her grandmother said to her about learning to read. Her grandmother was a reading specialist in the Ohio system, with a whole lot of experience teaching kids to read. She said, "Reading is 99% readiness and 1% exposure." If you push before a kid is ready to read, you and the kid are going to be frustrated. On the other hand, cnce they are ready, the 1% exposure is all it takes for them to start reading.

We are seeing the truth of this in action with Aseem. He recently started reading and now the process is accelerating as he assimilates his newly-learned skill. I am trying to do what I can to make him aware of patterns in words. So today I wrote: RED, BED, TED. He read them without a hitch. I followed up with:

AND, BAND, LAND
ZOO, ZOOM, ZOOT
LOO, LOOM, LOOT
TEN, TED, BED, BET

He read them all without a problem.

I have a chart of sight words (100 basic words that everybody needs to know to read at a basic level), and yesterday he took a shot at reading them. He knows many and he was able to sound out many more. It's so much fun to watch him learn these new skills with evident excitement and pride of ownership. I feel like I have the front seat for the greatest show on Earth!

Aseem is Reading

2008-06-22T21:55:00.001-04:00

Aseem has been really eager to read and has been focusing on sounding out letters and asking for help with making sense of words he cannot make sense of. His efforts are beginning to stick. In the morning he read "R-E-D, red" without hesitation. Yesterday Aseem kept pestering Manisha about getting his XO connected to the Internet. She clicked on the Camelot email folder to retrieve the relevant email and he said, "Mom, you won't find it in the Camelot folder!" Today he read off the box of crackers - 5 g Fiber "5 grams of fiber" and the name "All-Bran Crackers".

Aseem has a great thing going for him - his perseverance. Once he grabs something by the horn he will not let go. That's how he has learned to read and ride his bicycle and now he is doing awesome stunts on his bicycle at the local skateboarding park (I will have pictures and videos soon...)

Supriya's Band

2008-06-12T21:10:00.002-04:00

Supriya had a band rehearsal today and boy what a difference eight months make! Six months ago these same kids had met and played at being a band. Today there were a band! Luke and Joe had created a song (and their music teacher had created a structure for it). Today Supriya and Wiley added drums and accordion to the mix and the result was very impressive.

Next step? Finishing the song and then creating a music video for it. Rumor-mill has it that guinea pigs will feature prominently in the video. Stay tuned...

Supriya's Reading

2008-03-10T09:53:00.001-04:00

Supriya is reading very well. She picked up Aseem's current favorite bedtime book ("Rainbow Fish & Friends: Hidden Treasures") and read it to him. From the ease and speed with which she read it I thought she had read it recently. But no! It was her first time reading it. It just made me realize that she has indeed become an excellent reader.

Aseem's Phonics

2008-03-10T09:07:00.002-04:00

Aseem is on a roll with sounding out letters. Sort of like Phonics 101, except that he is teaching himself. "Drops begins with a D and ends with S." he goes around observing. "Temperature ends with an R." I am not going to bother correcting him for a good while as he builds up his basic model and gains confidence in his own abilities.

More Drumming

2008-03-10T09:07:00.001-04:00

Supriya and I have been making music. I sing, with a tambourine in hand, and she drums. She really wants to be in a band. I explained to her that she needs to master three basic beats and she will be able to play 90%+ popular songs. She has already mastered the basic 4/4 rock beat. After looking up an online drumming website I came up with a basic 6/4 rock waltz beat. And Supriya got it immediately.

When we go this Thursday I will be taking along 2 Beatles songs to drum to (as her instructor suggested): "Here, There and Everywhere" for the 4/4 beat (to add intro, fills and ending) and "Norwegian Wood" for the 6/4. This is getting really exciting.

More Drumming

2008-03-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I said to Supriya's drum teacher, "What you are teaching Supriya - the basics, focusing on the snare drum - is fine. Could you also teach her a basic rock beat so that she and I can make music together?" It was as if he was waiting for me to ask that question! He promptly drew a basic rock beat in her notebook, left hand on the high-hat (closed), right hand on the snare and right foot on the bass drum. This is by far the most difficult thing Supriya has encountered in drumming - and she mastered it just like that! He guided her through the pattern beat-by-beat and by the end of the half-hour session she had it under her belt. I made her practice it after we got home - with me singing the ending refrain of "Hey Jude" - and also a couple of times today. She owns it now.

"5 Ways To Help Your Children Turn Their Dreams Into Reality"

2008-02-24T10:14:00.002-05:00

A very nice post that fits in nicely with our ideas of unschooling. To me this (turning one's dreams into realities) is what life is all about.

Aseem and Spelling

2008-02-21T22:22:00.003-05:00

"I know how to spell TOY!" Aseem declared and spelled it for me with much glee. He was watching Toy Story and had evidently made the connection between the word and its spelling. I aked him, "So how do you think you spell BOY?" After a moment's thought, "B-O-Y!" came the reply.

Today as we were driving I wanted to build on this. He remembers ZOO from "Put me in the zoo". So I asked him, "If Z-O-O spells zoo, how do you think you spell zoom?" "Z-O-O-M!" "And what is Z-O-O-T?' "Zoot!" He was on a roll. Later at the mall I wrote zoo -> zoom, zoo -> zoot, boo -> boot, boo -> boom, too -> toot, and he made all the connections. On the way back he went through M-O for mo and N-O for no and D-O for do. He is really getting it.

Next on my list are two words he already knows the spellings of: dad and mom.

Supriya and Divisions

2008-02-21T19:45:00.001-05:00

So last night Supriya came up to Manisha and said, "I am really good with this line with two dots!" She had found a deck of division flash cards. She knew what it was about and had worked out many as well - she just did not know that the "line with two dots" was called division!

She showed me how she worked out the problems and I have to say it's a unique method. She just solved "49 / 7". She drew 49 dots on paper. Then she drew lines around groups of 7. At the end she had 7 such groups, which is the answer. This is a brilliant method and shows a high degree of understanding of what division is all about. I am truly impressed.

She is sitting right next to me and working out the rest of the problems from the deck. I can see that she is in a state of Flow. She is fully absorbed and engrossed in the challenge. She is in it for her own reasons and it is building up her self-image and self-esteem. It's a pleasure to watch...

Guinea Pigs!

2008-02-16T20:17:00.003-05:00

Supriya turns 9 in April and she got an early birthday present today in the form of two guinea pigs. They are both females and we got them as a pair (plus all the paraphernalia). The kids have been playing with them practically non-stop for the last six hours they have been home. There has been much discussion about what to name them - Monkey, Kenny, Penny, Goldilocks, Teddy, Bouncy, Teddy Bear, Nine (?). They might settle on some names soon, or they might not! The pigs may remain "the brown one" and "the black and white one" for all I know (or care!). It's a good thing the guinea pigs do not mind.

Chef Aseem

2008-02-08T22:40:00.001-05:00

Today Aseem helped me make dosas. He made one for himself and one for Supriya. He really enjoys cooking (something Supriya never did) and regularly helps me make omelettes - from cracking the eggs to pouring them in to flipping it over to serving it in a plate. He is getting better and better at it and it's great to see his self-image develop as a chef.

More Drumming

2008-02-08T22:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we got the muhurta to go for Supriya's second drumming lesson, a full two months after the first one. Apparently Supriya and the instructor picked up where they had left off. "A pleasure!", he said to me after the half hour session, "She is a very quick study." Supriya had a greaat time as well. Before the lesson she had been vacillating about whether to continue lessons or not. It was a different story afterwards. Now she really wants to continue and I am happy about it.

So we spent about half an hour tonight on reviewing her lesson from yesterday and went over the assignment. She did very well. She had a couple of complicated rhythms to play and she could hold her own even when I sang a song against it.

Supriya's List to Make Money

2008-02-08T22:01:00.000-05:00

Supriya is doing the personal finance and investments class I am teaching at Voyagers. The assignment I sent out for next Monday was: Write down 25 ideas which you personally could use to make money. I also sent out a list of ideas I can see myself using for making money. I told Supriya about it and the next thing I knew, she was sitting down with her notebook and writing down her list! Here it is:

Walk a dog
Clean some windows
Make a movie and sell it
Get a job for money
Buy a home and fix it up
Sing for money
Get a farm, grow beans and sell them
Be an actor
Make background for plays
Do work such as watering tomatoes
Read for little kids
Find lost toys
Babysit pets
Teach how to do stretches, handstands, monkeybars
Make newspapers
Make books for all
Make game consoles (Wii, Playstation, Gamecube etc.)
Make clothes and sell
Make TV shows
Help people with problems such as directions and safety
Help little kids to keep them safe
Be a clown
Sell art (drawings and paintings)
Make playgrounds (climbing structures)
Make websites to visit and learn

I am still impressed by this list. My purpose behind giving this assignment was to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Evidently it worked!

Supriya's Art

2008-02-03T10:41:00.000-05:00

Supriya, Aseem and I have been on an art spree the last couple of weeks. The idea is to create something every day and to explore color, texture and have fun doing it. For a year in 1999 I did art regularly. I basically created one piece of art every day. Obviously not all were great, but that was not the point. The point was to establish a groove and develop my skills and imagination, and I did accomplish that goal.

I have started the same ritual this year. So some time in the morning, Supriya, Aseem and I do art. Supriya is really getting into it and doing some wonderful work. She had a really good time smudging the pastels and creating funky textures. When anybody's piece is good enough, we spray it with hairspray to fix it. If not we just move on. It's turning out to be a lot of fun.

Photos from MoS

2008-01-31T21:22:00.001-05:00

A couple of pictures in front of a concave mirror. The reflections were awesome and I am surprised at how good the pictures came out. I love Aseem's BIG hair!

Museum of Science Trip

2008-01-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

Marianne had organized a field-trip of the homeschooling group to MoS. Naturally we decided to join in. It turned out to be a long playdate for Aseem and Supriya. The kids spent a lot of time at the new virtual fish-tank exhibit, which is designed to explore decentralized group behavior (such as flocking). It was clearly beyond what the kids could understand, but that did not deter them and they spent probably an hour and a half there. Supriya also saw the electricity show with her friend Emily.

All three of us had tickets to the Dinosaur Live! show at the Omni theater, but only Supriya ended up watching the show. Aseem got really scared right the beginning (as we had suspected) and he and I came out. We went and played in the exploration area and he got to make a cool helicopter that actually worked. We spent a lot of time throwing it up and watching it come down twirling, as we waited for Supriya.

On the way out we made the mandatory stop at the Museum Store. Supriya bought a pocket encyclopedia of dinosaurs, and Aseem bought a Rocket kit that uses vinegar and baking soda to shoot rockets (upto 50 feet, according to the box!) - and I bought a MoS tote to carry the stuff!

An excellent time was had by all...

Aseem Cracks the Code!

2008-01-26T11:53:00.000-05:00

Aseem and I are lying in bed just talking. He says, "I ate cereal while you were asleep: A - Slee - Puh." [For the last many days Aseem has been saying ,"I have two words for you: N O!" (copying his big sister who apparently was going around threatening her cousin Aamod, "I have three words for you: You Will Pay!"] Manisha and I had been thinking about his reading progress in connection with something else, so I ask him on a whim, "Do you know what letter makes the "puh" sound?" "P" he says! "And Slee?" "S!" "How about LLLLLL?" "L!" At this point Assem has realized for himself that he was onto something great and he has this huge grin on face!

Then I go through "Time", "Door" and of course that most favorite word, "Butt". At this stage I am interested only in the beginning and ending consonant sounds. He gets them all.

Now he is on a roll and wants to read a book. By now the whole family is gathered in the bedroom to celebrate this milestone. Supriya recommends "Hop on Pop" because it has only a few words on each page. Aseem has his own idea and picks up "Put Me in the Zoo". Supriya and I read the book to him, slowly and word by word. Aseem knows the book practically by heart and follows along. It is tiring work and he is done by the end of the book. It's a lovely start to the weekend.

Cut the Knot

2008-01-24T20:12:00.000-05:00

Manisha sent me the link to Cut-the-knot.org today and Supriya and I spent some time there. Lots of cool stuff. We worked on three problems of strategy, something Supriya is good at and generally enjoys:

Toads and frogs: Supriya got stuck a couple of times and then cracked it. I increased the number of frogs and toads to 5 each (the max) and she got that also. We ended up generalizing the solution (get the frogs and toads to alternate, simply put).
Towers of Hanoi: I had written about this when we visited the Museum of Science just about a year ago. Supriya went to work on it as if she knew the answer - and she did! I was amazed at her recall ability. She first zoomed through the 4 ring default problem. Then I increased the number to 10 (the max). She went all the way to transferring 5 rings and then stopped, complaining about her fingers hurting from all the mouse-clicking!
Goat, cabbage and wolf: This is an interesting problem and Supriya was stuck until I gave her the hint. The solution was trivial after that!

One Laptop Per Child

2008-01-22T07:51:00.000-05:00

We landed back in the US a couple of days ago. Our held mail was waiting for us in the side porch. The big box was the big attraction. Aseem and Supriya had been waiting for it. "It's our laptops!" (We had bought 2 by donating to the Give One, Get One campaign run by One Laptop Per Child last year.) They could not wait for me to open the box. I was afraid it was going to take a long time to charge the battery and get the laptops working, but luckily it just plugged into the wall socket and started working.

I am very impressed with the XO, as it's called. It is very well-designed and quite intuitive. Supriya has spent a lot of time in the last 4 days and learned to use many of its many preloaded programs. Yesterday morning she was at my bedside at 5 o'clock, showing me a little animation she had made! We have already created our own little mesh network, connecting the two XOs wirelessly. We have been able to chat with each other and measure the distance between the two by using its Accoustic Measurement program (with a cute little dolphin icon).

I am as impressed with Supriya's fearless exploration of the XO as I am by the machine. It reinforces my belief that the whole idea behind OLPC is brilliant and is going to revolutionize education across the globe. (Here is a related story.)

Daniel Pink on Homeschooling

2007-12-25T16:43:00.000-05:00

Manisha and I are reading "Free Agent Nation" by Dan Pink. He has many interesting observations about free agents (the Self-employed, Freelancers, Independent Professionals, Consultants, Nanocorps, Solopreneurs, Small Business, Home-based Business). Homeschooling figures prominently in his analysis of where the American (& increasingly global) economy is going:

The main crisis in schools today is irrelevance. And the main problem with most education solutions is that they incrementally improve Taylorist [assembly-line] solutions for a Tailorist [individuated] workforce. Of all the institutions in America, schools have least adapted themselves to the free agent economy. Watch for more middle-class families opting to home-school their children on their own terms and consistent with their own values. And expect more Americans to being questioning whether formal schooling should be compulsory and whether a college degree is necessary.

In Chapter 15, "School's Out: Free agency and the future of education", he writes:

[...] home schooling is almost perfectly consonant with the four values of the free agent work ethic [...]: having freedom, being authentic, putting yourself on the line, and defining your own success.

Needless to say, I agree with his overall analysis and recommend the book highly. Now I want to go read his newer book "A Whole New Mind".

Warren Buffett on Success and Happiness

2007-12-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

Paul Farrell has this brillliant article on wealth and happiness on Marketwatch. From Tip #2:

"Success is getting what you want," says Uncle Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha. "Happiness is wanting what you get." And to University of Nebraska students: "If there is any difference between you and me it may simply be that I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you."

Who am I to argue with the world's second richest man?!

Math Abbott-and-Costello-style

2007-12-25T12:26:00.000-05:00

Supriya has been asking me to get Abbott and Costello movies again from Netflix. She and Aseem really enjoy their slapstick stuff. So I decided to look up Abbott and Costello on Youtube.com and of course it's a treasure-trove of all their routines - including a variety of their awesome "Who's on first?" skit. I thought this math routine is particularly appropriate on this blog (which includes the famous lines: "Did you ever go to school stupid?" "Yeah, and I came out the same way!")

Frosty the Snowman

2007-12-23T11:35:00.001-05:00

We have a warm front moving in from the West and the snow is beginning to melt. The temperature is just right to make big snowballs and of course a snowman!

Surfrider Supriya

2007-12-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

Supriya just got done with another session of Pool School. She is enjoying herself and wants to keep going back.

Best Buddies

2007-12-22T18:44:00.000-05:00

Aseem and Supriya really look after each other. I went to the copying place with Aseem. He picked up 2 lollipops, one for himself and one for her. She does the same for him. Today was the last day of Pool School and they were having a party. Supriya knew beforehand that she was going to get something for Aseem. She picked up a little soccerball medallion necklace and brought it home for Aseem! It warms my heart to see this generosity of spirit and the caring for each other. They truly are a team!

Another New Word Coined

2007-12-22T16:01:00.000-05:00

Supriya: Get up Daddy!
I: Why?
S: You have been sleeping for four hours!
I: So?
S: You will get Sleepothozia!

Sledding in a Winter Wonderland

2007-12-21T20:42:00.000-05:00

New England has been hit with a couple of snowstorms in the last couple weeks. We have had a couple of feet of snow and the scenery is just breathtakingly beautiful. The kids and I finally got the chance to go sledding yesterday and today. We went to the nearby Tyler Park and sledded to our hearts' content. It's a short slope, but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Supriya mastered her snowboard & the snow-scooter, and the daredevil in the usually-mild-mannered Aseem came out to play! He would set down his round blue sled at the top of the slope, go back about five feet, run and jump into the sled with a cry of "Cannonball!" and down he would go like a rocket.

Supriya's Debut

2007-12-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

Monday was the last day of the Fall semester at Voyagers. Supriya made her debut as Monk Hok in "Stone Soup", a brand-new musical comedy written jointly by the students and the talented director Lauren Sprague. The play was about 20 minutes long and it went quite well. (I learned something new about Supriya. The playbill says, "she would like to be a playwright when she grows up." Who knew?!) Here's Supriya with Emily (Ching), her best friend at Voyagers.

We are really enjoying Voyagers. All 3 of us felt right at home when we walked into Voyagers in September. Of course it helped that we already knew half thefamilies there! It has been a great session and we are looking forward to another great session when we getback from India.

"Top Ten Global Trends That Force Us To Rethink Education"

2007-12-19T20:01:00.001-05:00

Here they are at Education Futures. Nothing really new except for this quantitative bit in Trend #9, "Change is accelerating":

The doubling time of information is now under one year. In 20 years or less doubling time may drop to a few weeks.

I don't know where they came up with these numbers. It does not really matter I guess, but estimates of this ilk always intrigue me.

In any case, I think it is incumbent upon parents in this 21st century to think about these issues. If the doubling time of information is under one year (assuming that it is a good enough estimate), the very nature of life is changing faster than our categories of thought can evolve. For example, the very concept of "education" may become outmoded. Our kids do live in a very different (global, accelerating, automated, knowledge-intensive) world and they are going to have to create concepts to describe that world on their own!

TaeKwonDo Promotions

2007-12-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

We had our testing on Friday and got our new belts today. Supriya got a double-promotion and is now a dark-blue belt. Aseem and I got green belts. I started TaeKwonDo exactly a year ago and it's the best thing I did in 2007. I have lost a fair amount of fat, gained a fair bit of muscle and flexibility - and had a great time doing it with the kids!

"The Dyslexia Advantage?"

2007-12-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

A very interesting post on Dan Pink's blog:

In AWNM [A Whole New Mind] I wrote about studies showing that self-made millionaires are much more likely to be dyslexic than the rest of the population. Now comes a fresh round of research, reported in the New York Times and pointed out to me by my pal Chris Nippert-Eng, revealing that a whopping 35% of American small business owners identify themselves as dyslexic.

"Planet Earth"

2007-12-13T16:04:00.001-05:00

We - Supriya, my mother and I for the most part - have been watching BBC's latest extravaganza "Planet Earth", an award-winning series of 5 DVDs. We have watched the first two DVDs and really enjoyed them. Highly recommended.

Supriya Singing Harmony

2007-12-13T16:04:00.000-05:00

Supriya is singing harmony by herself! She auditioned for a kid duo part within a longish song yesterday. She and I have been working on it for a couple three days and she nails it most of the time. She was a little flustered at the auditions and kept getting sucked into the melody. For now she has earned a spot as a backup for the performance in February.

Is "Screwdrive" a Verb?

2007-12-09T20:33:00.000-05:00

Like his sister, Aseem is making up words that need to be made up to suit his purpose. He said, "Mom, I need to screwdrive this out." Hey, if fundraise is acceptable as a verb, why not screwdrive?!

Supriya Starts Drumming Lessons

2007-12-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

Supriya had her first drumming lesson on Thursday. The half-hour went by too fast, but I got good vibes about the instructor. He is a practicing drummer which made a big impression on Supriya. He started her off by showing her the correct way of holding the drumsticks. Then he got her a book which has drumming exercises written in standard music notation and had her play from it. I liked his approach. We shall see how Supriya takes to him and the lessons.

John Holt Quote

2007-12-05T10:11:00.000-05:00

Manisha sent me this John Holt quote today:

Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.

She comments, "This seems obvious now because we've seen technology change. It was one of the factoids in that video [in the previous post]. But it's amazing that he could see it then - probably 30 years ago."

Shift Happens

2007-12-01T21:24:00.000-05:00

I was sent this link to the YouTube video called "Shift Happens". Among a litany of meaningful statistics is this nugget (Didn't you know that anything that fits my biases is a nugget, the rest is trash!):

According to former Secretary of Education Ruchard Riley, the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn't exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist... using technologies that haven't yet been invented... in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

Aseem and Numbers

2007-12-01T19:50:00.002-05:00

I wrote today that I worry about Aseem not getting math basics. That is not really true. It all depends on the context. If you ask him "How much is 7 minus 5?", he may not be able to answer you. But here's what happened today. He likes to keep the TV volume at 5 when he plays the GameCube. Manisha brought down the volume to 7 from 21 and asked him if that was OK. He said, without hesitation, "Two more." Evidently he has a good enough working knowledge of numbers and basic math!

A Couple of Milestones for Supriya

2007-12-01T19:50:00.001-05:00

Couple of progress points this week for Supriya:

Christina asked Supriya to sing alto on one song in our family chorus. This will be Supriya's first time singing harmony - at the tender age of 8 1/2. I am envious! "I thought she might enjoy a new challenge, and I thought she'd be able to rise to it," Christina wrote to me.
She did a couple of good dives at her swimming class, Manisha tells me. That's something new for Supriya.

Aseem and LEGO Star Wars II

2007-12-01T19:50:00.000-05:00

I sat next to Aseem as he played "LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy" videogame on the GameCube. He and Supriya have been at it for the last 3 or 4 weeks, cracking the game bit by bit. The challenge is that the game is targeted at 10 years and up and Aseem is only 6. But by dint of hard work and with help from each other, they have basically managed to conquer the game.

As I watched him play, it struck me how much he knows. He has essentially built up a map of the whole game inside his head and he is able to navigate it without getting lost. I said to Manisha, "I occasionally worry about him not reading or not getting math basics. But then I see him play a game like this and I stop worrying! He is doing fine." She replied, "Any time you think that he is not progressing on reading or math, remind yourself that nobody went to school in the old days before they were 8! He is doing fine. Stop worrying!"

नवी पोस्ट - देवनागरीत!

2007-11-25T11:25:00.001-05:00

मी आत्ता ब्लॉगर वर साइन केलं तर समोर काय तर देवनागरी फॉण्ट! सगळ्यांना हां ऑप्शन असतो का फक्त मलाच आहे हे पाहिले पाहिजे। बहुधा मी देवनागरीवर पोस्ट लिहिल्यामुळे मला त्यांनी हा ऑप्शन दिला असेल। ब्लॉगर ची कमाल आहे!

This is something else! I did not expect to see an option to write Devanaagari on Blogger of all places. I doubt that everyone is the world gets this option. Most likely I was given it because I wrote about Devanaagari recently. I am not able to write exactly what I want, but it's close. I am truly impressed by Blogger.

Supriya and Her Sansa

2007-11-23T22:33:00.000-05:00

Supriya's cousin Gargi gave her the Samsung Sansa m240 (mp3 player) for Thanksgiving ("the best gift Gargi ever gave me!"). She spent the whole day going around the house with headphones on, listening to the songs I uploaded and also the radio. Aseem was feeling rather left out so she gave him her CD player (also given to her by Gargi). At one point she gave the right earbud to Aseem - with the left one still in her left ear - and they walked around listening to the Sansa together. "Look, Dad," she said. "I am 'i' and Aseem is 'Pod'!" Then she added, "I am 'mp' and he is '3'!"

Aseem's Reading

2007-11-15T21:37:00.000-05:00

Today Aseem pointed to the calendar and asked, "Does it say October?" I asked him to point to what he was asking about. So he went up to the calendar and pointed to the word October. He added, "It is November now!" Firstly, I did not expect him to read "October", but evidently the time he spends on Starfall.com is helping him figure out words. Also it is just like Aseem to know that it is November and that it is just plain wrong that the calendar is still showing October!

"Logic Links"

2007-11-13T16:51:00.000-05:00

We have had two Logic Links books for a year now. Supriya worked on Book A ("grades 1 and 2") a while ago and did many problems from it. Yesterday she brought it out and basically finished it. She did not do all but did many near the end. Aseem was nearby and got interested. So we went to the beginning of the book and they both did the easier ones side by side. Aseem did not seem to have any problems with the puzzles. I am going to try to involve him more in Book A and see what he does with it.

Today Supriya and I worked on a few puzzles from Book B ("grades 3 and 4"). The level of difficulty is much higher and now they are in 2 rows. She was able to zip thru 6 thru 12 without any problems. She still gets a little confused between left and right, but she has the logic part of it down pat. We will keep working on the book until she tires of it or finishes it, whichever comes first!

"Is Raising Kids a Fool's Game?"

2007-11-12T09:48:00.000-05:00

This is an article by Karyn McCormack on BusinessWeek Online. It opens with:

Like many parents, I'm suffering from sticker shock. It's not just the $375 monthly tuition for preschool. (And that's for just three hours, two days a week; five full days would cost me $1,000.) Little things add up, like the school's solicitation to donate to their school in Africa and monthly dues for Scholastic Book Club (how could you say no?). The school even put a price tag on potty training: If my daughter, who will turn 3 in December, was not able to use the toilet by herself by the end of September, I'd be charged $100 a month until she achieved this milestone. (She did it, whew!)

I don't know whether to laugh or cry! All I can say is that I live in a different reality.

Fall Hike at Great Brook Farm

2007-11-09T21:27:00.002-05:00

We went on a great Fall hike at Great Brook Farm State Park yesterday with our friends Katie and Ray. It was cold and we were in parkas and mittens. We walked for about forty minutes, following horse-tracks and hoping to get lost. Then we came to a meadow where we took a snack-break. We played tag for about half an hour and got warm enough to take off our parkas. Now it was time to head back. That's where we came across this humongous mushroom growing on a tree stump. Since the ice-cream shop was closed we came back to our house for some ice-cream. After that Supriya invited herself & Aseem over to their house for dinner! A great time was had by all.

Learning about Orchestration

2007-11-09T21:27:00.001-05:00

The kids and I were listening to the Beatles "1" CD in the van. It came to "Come Together" and about a minute into the song it struck me. There is hardly any guitar or keyboard in it. The accompaniment consists of mostly drums and a very loud bass guitar. In fact the bass made the whole van vibrate! There are a couple of guitar riffs in the song and then there is a guitar solo at the end, but not much more. Very unusual, I said and Supriya agreed.

On the way back Supriya asked me to play the song again ("that song with the loud bass"!). After that I went back and played "Hey Jude" and we went over its orchestration. It started very minimalistically with just lead voice and piano, but then we listened carefully and checked off the other instruments as they came in one by one - tambourine, backup voices, drums (& cymbals) and finally the bass guitar. I feel very good about this discussion with Supriya.

Another Great Article by Tim Ferriss

2007-11-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

This one is about learning (not mastering) a language in ONE HOUR. I have not tried this yet (nor am I likely in the near future), but what I like about Tim is that he always challenges conventional wisdom and finds short-cuts to wherever he wants to go.

For a past couple of weeks I have been reading up on running marathons. We watched this fabulous documentary called "The Marathon Challenge" on NOVA, about 13 "ordinary" (i.e. fairly physically unfit) people who trained together for 9 months. They all managed to complete the Boston marathon! A friend of mine who recently finished a half-marathon told me that the rough rule of thumb is that it takes about 15 weeks of training once you can run for 30 minutes. Now that's news to me! I thought it takes years and years of preparation to run a marathon. (I guess 90% of it is half mental.)

That reminds me of another conversation I had with the great Dr. Greg Lyne (a god among barbershoppers). I asked him how long it would take for a quartet to qualify for the Internationals (basically a matter of performing at a certain level). He replied, "One year!" Not years and years. One year. I have come to believe that if you are really committed - which means being smart about rehearsing, working intensely on the basics and above all being willing to change - one year will take most quartets to the Internationals. In fact I am trying to put together a quartet to do just that.

The point is that we have a picture in our head about how difficult a certain thing is and how long it's going to take us to get there. It also seems obvious that the insiders have a vested interest in prolonging the training ("It will take you 10 years to master a language!" "It will take you 6 years to get a black-belt.") There is a lot of research and personal experience (such as Tim Ferriss's) out there that proves otherwise.

Devanaagari Continues...

2007-11-07T09:47:00.000-05:00

So Supriya got up in the morning and wrote some more Devanaagari stuff: "Hey Dad, I wrote my name again without looking at it [what she wrote yesterday]!" She and my mother spent more than half an hour just now rewriting all our names and then names of several cities. It's great to see Supriya turned on like this and also the bonding between her and her Aaji (grandmother).

Writing in Devanaagari

2007-11-06T21:15:00.001-05:00

Today my mother taught Supriya how to write all our names in Devanaagari. Supriya has been copying them over and over again, trying to cement it in. It's a lot to take in in one day, but she has managed to absorb a lot. (Go to this Wikipedia article for more.) It's an abugida script (that sounds so esoteric! I learned that word from the Wikipedia article.) - where you start with a basic consonant sound and modify it using diacritical modifiers to denote different vowel sounds. I explained to Supriya the difference between this system and the standard alphabetical way of doing things. It's rather obvious when you write Devanaagari and I think Supriya got it.

IQ Article on Cato Unbound

2007-11-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

This month's lead article on Cato Unbound is "Shattering intelligence: implications for education and interventions" by Prof. James R. Flynn (he of the Flynn Effect, the discovery that over the past century average IQ has been increasing at a rate of about 3 points per decade across most countries). This is college-level material. I just read it and will likely have to go over it again to fully grasp it. Worth reading in any case.

Supriya's Marathi

2007-11-04T14:12:00.000-05:00

Supriya has always had a decent grasp of Marathi and since my mother moved in with us this Summer, her Marathi is getting more exposure. Aseem has never been immersed in Marathi and understands very little.

Today Supriya and I made a list of everyday words she knows in Marathi and we came up with more than 35 (besides counting from 1 to 10). She probably knows many more by context and inference (like all of us). She is well-prepared for our upcoming India trip. She still does not speak Marathi, but that is normal and OK with us. That's how I was with Konkani, my father's mother-tongue. I could understand conversations but did not feel confident enough to speak it.

I would not call Supriya bilingual yet, but she is well on her way there. If we went and stayed in Pune for three months, she will be probably be reasonably bilingual.

Lego Star Wars

2007-10-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

Supriya bought the Lego Star Wars game (with her own money) on Sunday and the kids have been glued to it for the last three days. It's a rather complex game and they are busy cracking it.

Manisha is glued to Harry Potter, in parallel. She is on the last book and is enjoying it immensely.

Transhumanism and Unschooling

2007-10-14T20:45:00.000-04:00

I call myself a Transhumanist. It all starts with Humanism, which Wikipedia defines as:

a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities—particularly rationality.

The article goes on:

Humanism entails a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, Humanism rejects the validity of transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or allegedly divinely revealed texts. Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of the human condition, suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot be parochial.

Transhumanismtakes this one step further. It is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of new sciences and technologies to enhance human mental and physical abilities and aptitudes, and ameliorate what it regards as undesirable and unnecessary aspects of the human condition, such as stupidity, suffering, disease, aging and involuntary death. Transhumanist thinkers study the possibilities and consequences of developing and using human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies for these purposes.

The World Transhumanist Association describes itself as

an international nonprofit membership organization which advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities. We support the development of and access to new technologies that enable everyone to enjoy better minds, better bodies and better lives. In other words, we want people to be better than well.

In my mind (& Manisha's) my ideas of Unschooling and Transhumanism are joined at the hip. They share a whole list of common themes and preconditions.

The belief that life is good.
The optimism that life is getting better.
The belief that this is an abundant, friendly and trustworthy universe.
Our inalienable right to control our own minds and bodies.
Friendliness towards technology.
Happiness as the ultimate goal.

Aseem Pogoes

2007-10-14T18:54:00.000-04:00

After much diligent - and often frustrating - practice Aseem has mastered the Pogo-stick. He can consistently do more than 10 now. I just searched my blog for Supriya's Pogo-stick mastery and found the post on November 5, 2005 about Supriya learning to do it (when Supriya was about 6 1/2). Evidently Aseem is 6 months ahead of her.

House-painting at Friends'

2007-10-14T09:56:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we went and helped Dee and Jon with paint their house from the outside. Supriya and Aseem enjoyed working with the paint-brushes. Supriya discovered painting with rollers and did quite a bit of work with a couple of different sizes. We all had a good time and did some net positive work (I think).

Supriya's Music Composing

2007-10-11T21:59:00.001-04:00

Supriya has been playing with the piano today. She came up with a lovely theme and really memorized it and has been playing it the whole day. I have explained to her what a theme is and right now she is trying to come up with variations on her original theme. First it was all white keys. Now she is adding the black keys. I showed her how you build a tune by starting with a theme, going away from your original theme or "home base", doing something similar and then coming back to repeat home base. She is getting the idea. (As Supriya is experimenting at the piano, I hear Aseem humming her theme while playing at the Lego table!)

I will have her record the tune tomorrow and then find a way to post it somewhere on the web. I will also try to get some classical music to demonstrate the concept.

"Is College Worth the Cost? Part 2"

2007-10-11T21:59:00.000-04:00

This is the follow-up article to the first one by Anya Kamenetz. It starts with: "Isn't a master's degree the new bachelor's?" A lot of statistics about salaries for various post-graduate degrees follows. This one caught my eye:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the payoff from social science and liberal arts master's degrees is actually negative -- the average liberal arts MA earns less than the average of all BAs.

"We Send Too Many Students to College"

2007-10-11T11:51:00.000-04:00

is the title of this great article by Marty Nemko, a career coach. The statistics just goes to reinforce my beliefs (and biases).

Secrets of Greatness

2007-10-06T21:38:00.000-04:00

This continues the thread about achieving greatness in any field. My brother sent me a link to an article about deliberate practice. That turned out to be a 44-page PDF file. So I Googled and got this valuable & fairly short article. A couple of excerpts:

"The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition."

"Armed with that mindset [of deliberate practice], people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.
Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset."

Very interesting. The two questions Manisha and I want answered:

How do you know the person in question is not "talented"?
How do you keep/stay motivated for long stretches of time without frequent rewards? I suppose the answer is intrinsic motivation; i.e., you do the activity for its own sake and the rewards you get from your improvement are enough to keep you going. But that raises the question of why that particular activity interests you so much.

Taekwondo Testing

2007-10-06T18:05:00.000-04:00

We had our testing yesterday. We did the whole routine - sparring, poomsae and breaking. Aseem did his Basic poomsae confidently. Supriya and I did the 3 1/2 that we know (Basic, 1, 2 and 1/2 of 3). Then we broke boards, first with our hand and then with front kicks. I broke 2 boards with a middle punch, and my hand is still sore! All in all it went very well. We will get our new belts (green for Aseem, light blue for Supriya and orange for me) next week.

More Garage Band

2007-10-04T18:54:00.000-04:00

Today we have a new episode of the garage band (BTW I think this whole garage band thing will make a great show for reality TV!) It was Supriya, Wiley and Joe in attendance and yet another day of great internal struggle for me. For one I want them to play on their own and create music as they want it. That's the whole point of the garage band. On the other hand I can see that they are floundering for lack of focus and leadership. All of them are great musicians and in a few years they are going to be in serious bands. For now, though, I am afraid that this weekly floundering is going to create boredom which will lead them to lose interest. My solution to the dilemma is to let them "jam" on their own for most of the time and work on a known piece of music for the rest of the time.

I had handed their moms copies of Yankee Doodle Dandy yesterday. Apparently Wiley did not get his music. Joe had worked on sounding it out on his guitar. He did get the notes but he could not go as fast as the song needed to go. No matter; for about one glorious minute, we sang the song well. By we I mean Wiley on accordion, Joe on drums, Supriya singing melody and I singing harmony on the chorus. This is not the configuration we had planned in advance, but it worked. And that's all that matters.

The kids also created a short piece with Joe playing a weird bass-line on the keyboard, Supriya on a mini-accordion and Wiley on a concertina. It sounded strangely musical, perhaps a foreshadow of the music they will make in the future...

"Planet Earth"

2007-10-03T09:43:00.001-04:00

We watched the first DVD in the series last night. Like all the other BBC productions, the photography is spectacular, and David Attenborough's narration is of course classic. There are many memorable scenes of chases: a snow leopard trying to catch a mountain goat, a shark catching a dolphin, a pack of wild dogs catching an impala. One thing that kept bugging Manisha and me was the frequent cuts in scenes. It felt like they were cutting every 15 seconds or so and jumping continents without any warning.

Hanging with the Money Crowd

2007-10-03T09:43:00.000-04:00

is the title of the story on Yahoo! Finance today written by Jean Chatzky. It starts:

One of the summer's biggest stories carried the headline "Weight Gain Is Contagious!" Sensational? Sure, but based on some pretty good science.

Humans are social animals and we do follow social norms (at times behaving like automatons!). The article makes some very good points about money habits about your peer group - and also about money habits of your family, your closest social group.

Voyagers

2007-10-02T22:52:00.000-04:00

Three weeks ago we joined the Voyagers, Inc. coop. We went there the first time to check it out and immediately felt right at home. We knew many of the families, and Supriya and Aseem looked comfortable with the environment and the people.

Supriya has joined the Musical Theater class, run by the talented Lauren Sprague. They are working on producing a short musical comedy based on "Stone Soup", written by Lauren with input from the class. She handed in the script to the cast members yesterday and Supriya read it to me in the van on the way back. She is really excited to be in the play. She has also joined the Dungeons and Dragons club. I have no clue what goes on in the club! All I know is that she has a whole bunch of friends in there and she is enjoying it. By the time she is done with these two, she seems to have no mental energy left for any more focused tasks and plays with her friends the rest of the time.

Aseem is doing 2 classes: Rhythm Sticks and dinosaurs. He is really into dinosaurs these days and enjoys the dinosaurs class a lot. So far they have made a dinosaur habitat, dinosaur fossils and a papier mache dinosaur bone. He spends the rest of the time playing in small groups or by himself.

I have been enjoying hanging out with my friends. I also help out Christina in the Rhythm Sticks class. After lunch I run a juggling club, and after that I take part in the weaving class (which turns out to be more fun than I thought!). So overall we are really enjoying Voyagers.

Yankee Doodle Drumming

2007-09-30T12:16:00.001-04:00

Supriya and I spent about an hour this morning working on "Yankee Doodle Dandy", and she made some serious progress. We worked on understanding the structure of the song. She had not connected the words "verse" and "chorus" with parts of the song, so we started there. She already has 2 or 3 drum patterns under her belt. We labeled 2 of them #1 and #2 and assigned #1 to the verse and #2 to the chorus. Yesterday we had worked on adding a flourish at the ends of the verse and the chorus. With all this, the drumming part became rather complicated, but after a couple of tries she mastered it. I want to run this a couple of times today to cement it in.

I realized something else: our breakthrough happened when we labeled the two patterns #1 and #2, and also when I clarified what verse and chorus mean. The labels are short-hand for a concept or an idea, and when the lable is internalized, you can use that as a building block for the next level.

Deepak Chopra on Unschooling?

2007-09-27T21:00:00.003-04:00

Recently I watched Deepak Chopra's DVD called "7 Spiritual Laws of Success". I am not as skeptical about this kind of books as I used to be (I will call it maturity if you don't mind!). The talk ends with a message that resonated with me. He says, and I am paraphrasing here:

Real success is about realizing and making most of the gifts you came into this world with. Once you keep that big picture in mind, the rest follows.

That's our thinking behind our unschooling adventure as well...

NEA’s Opinion of Homeschooling

2007-09-27T21:00:00.002-04:00

NEA’s opinion of homeschooling: 2007 - 2008 NEA Resolutions

B-75. Home Schooling: The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children ofthe immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be bypersons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.
The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in anyextracurricular activities in the public schools.
The Association further believes that local public school systems should have the authority todetermine grade placement and/or credits earned toward graduation for students entering or re-enteringthe public school setting from a home school setting. (1988, 2006)

Not much, in other words...

Robotics and Garage Band

2007-09-27T21:00:00.001-04:00

Today it was Day 3 for both the garage band and the robotics class, and I came home pumped! I felt that a breakthrough was achieved today by the band. The kids are all very musical, but were basically floundering because of lack of leadership and focus. I was planning to stay out of the band but felt compelled to step in. Once I suggested they try something they already knew, the ball got rolling and some fine music was made (so what if it was only 15 seconds!). I feel like I have to provide the leadership until the band members are ready to do it for themselves. For now I am going to insist that they play something the majority of them know. There will be plenty of time later to write original music! These are 8- and 9-year olds after all...

Then came robotics where they programmed Spike to go and sting. There was a great sense of fun and excitement amidst much giggling and laughter. I wish I had a video-camera to capture the energy!

Follow-up to Tim Ferriss Post

2007-09-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

John left a comment on my previous post about Tim Ferriss's post (Thanks, John!). I agree with John that we can certainly find activities where you will not be a world-class performer after a year's immersion. On the other hand, I do have a couple of nuances to add to the original post:

The issue of relative versus absolute improvement: When we talk about "world-class" performance, we have a certain absolute standard in mind (whether or not such a thing exists out there!). We can certainly name many fields where you will not be able to ascend to those levels. OTOH, if you did spend a year of immersion into any field, you will most definitely improve your performance relative to where you were when you started. I do not see any holes in that statement; do you? For all practical purposes this is what we typically seek - to be significantly better at something. No? (I want to be a really good roller skater, for example. I do not particularly care about becoming world-class.)
How good do you have to be to be called "world-class"? I am talking about quantification here. Top 10%? 5%? 1%? 0.1%? Obviously this is an arbitrary cut-off. I do not think it is logical (or fair) to equate being "world-class" with being a "star". At a given point there will be only one tennis champ, but there will be a much larger number of world-class players.
Another question to think about: are there certain fields where it is possible and others where it is not? In other words, is there a taxonomy of fields along the "possibility of becoming world-class in one year of immersion" dimension? In competitive sports there is usually a ranking available so it will be generally possible to quantify world-class, howsoever you define it. On the other hand whom do you call a world-class computer programmer?

More Tapatan

2007-09-25T13:16:00.000-04:00

Supriya and I played Tapatan again in the morning, and she beat me soundly again. She showed me a particular sequence of moves that always leads to a win and explained to me how it works. Then she repeated a couple of times, "I can't believe I am teaching you!"

"Give a Laptop and Get One"

2007-09-25T10:59:00.001-04:00

Read about the latest development in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) story. This is a grand vision which I want to be a part of.

Tapatan

2007-09-25T10:59:00.000-04:00

Supriya and I have been playing Tapatan for the last couple of weeks. This is a Filipino strategy game, sort of a cross between Tick-tac-toe and Nine Men's Morris. Very simple rules leading to a rather challenging game - the ideal combination as far as I am concerned. Supriya is naturally talented in strategy games and Tapatan is no exception. Last night we played a couple of rounds and she beat me both times (7-4 the first time and 3-2 the second).

Power From the People!

2007-09-21T10:07:00.000-04:00

This website sells plans for a Pedal Powered Generator. Basically it's a stationary bicycle that generates electricity that can be used to power "LED lights, the monitor on my computer, my cell phones, and many other small battery-powered things". As he puts it,

"It is the most inspiring workout you can imagine."

The plans cost $50 and it costs another $230 to build the thing. It's going to be a great project for us after we move to Camelot next year. I want to make a conscious effort with my family to reduce our energy consumption by using super-energy-efficient appliances. And then supplement our grid-usage by renewable sources - including this generator (which will also get us regular exercise!)

Another Great Post by Tim Ferriss

2007-09-18T22:49:00.000-04:00

Here's the link to "The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades". This statement caught my eye:

Based on my experience and research, it is possible to become world-class in almost any skill within one year.

Nothing in my personal experience tells me otherwise. I think the key is immersion. I know the speed with which kids learn new skills (be it a new language or skating or dancing) when they are immersed in that culture. I know us adults have the same potential if only we stop judging ourselves too quickly and too harshly.

And I absolutely love this:

Be too complex to categorize.

"This I Believe" by Tony Hawk

2007-09-18T17:24:00.000-04:00

Manisha emailed me this absolutely wonderful piece by Tony Hawk, professional skateboarder, on NPR. He ends with:

You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous.

(On the other hand, there seems to be no other way of becoming rich or famous than by doing what you love! It is necessary but not sufficient...)

Synchronized Poomsae

2007-09-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

We did our first Taekwondo demo last Sunday. Master Freddy had signed up at the carnival at the D'Youville Senior Care Center in Lowell. Master Antonio started us off by warming us up with some kicks, punches and blocks. After that we lined up and did Basic Poomsae. Then came the highlight for me. Supriya and I did the 3 poomsaes we know: Basic, Taegeuk 1 and Taegeuk 2. By now we have done it tens of times, and we do it with very good synch with each other. I am very happy with how it went. After that the kids broke boards with jumping side-kicks and later with bare fists. It all looked very impressive and we got a lot of kudos. The weather was cloudy and cold and windy. It rained quite a bit before we started as well. But the kids had a grand time anyway playing on the carnival jumping thingies.

Robotics and Seymour Papert

2007-09-15T21:31:00.000-04:00

On Thursday Supriya had her second robotics class. She and her teammate actually programmed a Mindstorms NXT robot. They made the robot go around in a square and then an equilateral triangle. I am thrilled by this whole activity; Supriya is engaged but not thrilled. As the instructor points out, the goal of the class is actually to teach programming using robots. That brought to my mind Seymour Papert's "Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas" (I don't think it's a coincidence that Lego chose to call their kit Mindstorms). We sold this book when I worked at the Holt (& Growing Without Schooling) bookstore 12-13 years ago, and Manisha and I remember being impressed by Papert's ideas on using Logo (the visual programming language he invented at MIT's Media Lab) and turtle geometry. Well, it's a decade later and our child is actually learning math and programming using those concepts. That's so cool. I have brought out my copy of Mindstorms and we plan to reread it.

Our Unschooling Adventure

Unschooling: The Movie

Letterboxing

Renaming NCLB Act

“Are We Overprotecting Our Kids to Death?”

Introducing "Logan"

"Talent is Overrated"

Drawing

"Rearrange the Sticks" Puzzles

HSM3

Robotics and Apple Crisp

Boughten?!

Local Teenage Homeschooler Starts Business

Quit being What?!

Robot-building Continues

Supriya Gets Mindstorms Robot

New Words to the English Language

"A Well-Rounded Education Doesn't Have to Start with College"

Chef Aseem Salad

Aseem's Daredevilry

"Red, Blue and Turtle"

More on Aseem's Reading

Aseem is Reading

Supriya's Band

Supriya's Reading

Aseem's Phonics

More Drumming

More Drumming

"5 Ways To Help Your Children Turn Their Dreams Into Reality"

Aseem and Spelling

Supriya and Divisions

Guinea Pigs!

Chef Aseem

More Drumming

Supriya's List to Make Money

Supriya's Art

Photos from MoS

Museum of Science Trip

Aseem Cracks the Code!

Cut the Knot

One Laptop Per Child

Daniel Pink on Homeschooling

Warren Buffett on Success and Happiness

Math Abbott-and-Costello-style

Frosty the Snowman

Surfrider Supriya

Best Buddies

Another New Word Coined

Sledding in a Winter Wonderland

Supriya's Debut

"Top Ten Global Trends That Force Us To Rethink Education"

TaeKwonDo Promotions

"The Dyslexia Advantage?"

"Planet Earth"

Supriya Singing Harmony

Is "Screwdrive" a Verb?

Supriya Starts Drumming Lessons

John Holt Quote

Shift Happens

Aseem and Numbers

A Couple of Milestones for Supriya

Aseem and LEGO Star Wars II

नवी पोस्ट - देवनागरीत!

More Logic Links

Supriya and Her Sansa

Aseem's Reading

"Logic Links"

"Is Raising Kids a Fool's Game?"

Fall Hike at Great Brook Farm

Learning about Orchestration

Another Great Article by Tim Ferriss

Devanaagari Continues...

Writing in Devanaagari

IQ Article on Cato Unbound

Supriya's Marathi

Lego Star Wars

Transhumanism and Unschooling

Aseem Pogoes

House-painting at Friends'

Supriya's Music Composing