A few days ago Søren shared an idea, “am going to write a story using all the letters on the periodic table.” What in the world? After a summer of focusing on the garden—tilling earth, planting seeds, and harvesting fruit—the…

I’ve been watching our garden grow. The boys have learned so much about attention as they tend this living and growing thing. When little green tomatoes appeared they beamed with satisfaction. And when it was time for the first harvest…

Sir Ken Robinson has all sorts of ideas about creativity: “You can be imaginative all day long and never do anything.” “To be creative you have to do something.” He defines imagination as, “…the process of having original ideas that…

When Hannah was little, one of her favorite books was The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. We read this story over and over! The story is clever, rhythmic and provides terrific opportunities for garden…

I love summer not because we are “off” but because we get to jump start and fine tune our rhythm of routine. We get to be outdoors. And this summer that fact, connected to our policy of TQM equaled a…

Words are great! We collect them. Yesterday, before lunch, we played one of our favorite word games in the garden, Quiddler. And then, later in the day, we played another favorite, Scrabble, in the living room because a note to…

Inside schoolroom spaces, children see hear touch move freely experience discover and respond! As children engage with schoolroom spaces, learning becomes an active pursuit rather than a passive process. Schoolroom spaces provide opportunities for the child to practice deep concentration.…

Van Gogh chimes in, celebrating Da Vinci Summer II: “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Can’t make it to the art museum this summer? Well, create your own museum at home! This is a…

Last week Søren decided to copy a Van Gogh drawing. He pulled out a sketchbook, sharpened some pencils and spent an hour studying line and texture, shape and value. The result is stunning. This reminded me of the wonderful creative…

California history projects Our Waterhouse cooperative school began in Kim’s 900 square-foot, flat roof house. We hosted a diversity of characters during those early years. There was Mikalya, the darling recumbent student who taught us about her individuality as she…