Every Sunday, she disappears. Her family keeps Sabbath and takes it very seriously. They attend church, spend the day as a family. No swimming in their pool. No video games. It’s a day for God and for each other.

Two years ago, I thought, That’s a good idea. We should do something similar.

So I cleared our Sundays. No activities (except church). Just family time.

But you know what I did? Laundry. Cleaned the house. Went to the grocery store.

Needless to say, Sabbath didn’t last. It didn’t feel special. Just a whole day dedicated to errands and the ones liked least at that.

A few months ago, I decided to try again. But this time I did something different. I didn’t just clear out calendar.

I removed the work. No errands. No phones or computers.

It was … well … transformative.

Last Sunday, my children pulled out books I used to read to them as toddlers. We read them together for hours. They pointed out memories, things they used to say on each page, things that once confused them and new things they noticed. It was so special.

Later, my youngest shared something that had been weighing on her for a long time. She bared her soul in a way she hadn’t before. I finally understood why she gave up dancing — something she used to cherish. We worked through it. I understood her better, and we’ll walk a new path soon.

Would that have happened if our day had been filled with noise? No.

It was possible because we had spent the whole day together dedicated to one another. Unhurried. Undistracted. Open.

There is always more to do. Always. You must make connection sacred.

You can’t lead your children without it.

And connection doesn’t happen accidentally.

Every week should have time dedicated for the explicit purpose of being together. Even better if that time is spent contemplating the divine.

I wonder what you’ll find in the stillness.

Laughter that comes more easily.
Conversations that go deeper.
A version of your children — and yourself — you haven’t seen in too long.

It will look different for every family.

But one thing I know for sure.

The laundry can wait.
Your family shouldn’t.

Start with one Sunday.

How about this one?♥️

If this resonated with you, you might also enjoy The Hidden Curriculum of Greatness, Stop Managing Time – How to Start Living by Your Values, Tools That Build a Curious Home.

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Remember → Children are our most important work.

~Dr. Claire

My children ask their richest questions at bedtime. The noise of the day has quieted. Thoughts they didn’t have time for suddenly appear.

Today, at 8:30pm my daughter asked, “What does courageous mean?” Why do questions like this wait until the world is still?

Children’s minds are particularly receptive to hearing you at bedtime. It’s a beautiful time for songs and stories (and I’ll share my favorites in a minute), but it can be more than that. Over the years, we’ve nourished their hearts in different ways in different seasons.

When they were toddlers, bedtime was about comfort and calm. As they’ve grown, it has become a time to build confidence through connection, affirmations, and steady reminders of who they are — and what we see in them.

You see — Sleep is not empty time.

Your brain is working on what was lived and learned that day. We wake stronger in skills we practiced the day before and clearer on problems we wrestled with. Research supports this. Children who practice the piano wake to play more quickly and accurately — true of many things.

Why not use bedtime to prime their dreams to ponder things of importance?

I’m not talking about math facts (though sleep helps them). I’m talking about deeper things: self-worth, security, courage, belonging, gratitude, the memory of being deeply loved.

I know what it feels like to be tired at the end of the day. I know the temptation to rush through bedtime just to be done.

But I want to encourage you to see those moments differently. Not as one more task to finish, but as a rare window when your child’s heart is open, and your words can mean the most.

What would you say if you knew it really mattered?

Here is what I say.

This one is pretty personal friends. I share the special songs and stories I read to my children, the affirmations I use with my middle schooler, and a few other family practices that have mattered deeply to us. It’s for my beloved supporters. Thank you for helping me support my family♥️

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It’s shaping their habits, their values, what they like, and how they see the world — often in ways you don’t notice.

Two years ago, I noticed something unsettling.

We rarely, if ever, had family meals together.

We homeschool. My family spends a lot of time together… but meals? For some reason, we were always eating separately, perched around the kitchen peninsula. Even when we were eating at the same time, we didn’t eat together.

I talked about it. We tried to fix it. Nothing really changed.

Then I redid our dining room.

Our original dining room had slowly been taken over as a homeschool club space. We have a small home, and the table now housed pencils, paper, erasers. It was a great space — but not for eating.

One day, I cleared it off. I put down placemats. And at the very next meal, everyone sat down together without a single word from me.

No reminders. No systems. Just a space that invited us to eat together.

That small change raised a bigger question:

✨What does our house invite?✨What does it discourage?

There are plenty of blogs that will help you choose paint colors, find your style, or declutter your space.

This isn’t about that.

This post is about something far more foundational:

Designing a home that trains your children in the values you care about—automatically, quietly, every day.

Below, I share the steps we took to intentionally align our home with the habits, ideas, and values that we espouse as a family.

May it help you live a more intentional life too.

The Art on Your Walls Is Not Neutral

Toddlers are more helpful when surrounded by images of others being helpful.

Stop. Read that again.

We are primed by what we see. The images around us shape what feels normal, expected, even possible. Our environment changes our attention, what we focus on, and ultimately our behaviors.

And yet most of us have a completely accidental collection of things on the walls of our home — things we inherited, picked up on sale, or chose because they “looked nice.”

But your walls are speaking.

They are telling your children:

• what is beautiful

• what is worth noticing

• what kind of life is being lived

When we enclosed our patio to create a homeschool room, I chose the artwork carefully.

Every piece shows a path — a journey into something unknown but beautiful. A figure moving forward. A landscape that invites exploration.

Because that’s what I want my children to feel: that they are on a journey worth taking.

In other rooms, I’ve made different choices. Spaces that invite play. Walls that display my children’s own artwork—because I want them to see that their contributions matter.

None of this is accidental.

Your environment shapes behavior. What are your walls shaping?

Spaces That Invite Connection

If you want your family to spend time together, your home has to make that easy. Our dining room change made that obvious. So we applied what we learned to other rooms.

We turned the center room of our home into a game room. It draws us in. It beckons, “Play Together.”

It silently answers the question: What do we do here?

The layout of your home is constantly answering that question for your children. What does your home invite your children to do?

A Place to Learn

Not everyone believes in a dedicated homeschool space. But children benefit from signals and clear transitions that tell their brain: now we focus. In our home, we have a simple ritual. We play classical music. We light incense. We sing. We pray. Then we sit together to learn.

It’s not elaborate. It’s not expensive. But it is consistent.

My husband has his own version before he begins work. Same principle.

Focus is something children must learn to enter and maintain.

Your environment can either fragment attention—or gently gather it. Which does your home do?

What Does Your Living Room Say?

When my children were little, we removed the TV from our living room. Not because TVs are inherently bad — but because we didn’t want it to define who we were.

A TV in your main living space answers the question: What do we do together?

For many families, the answer becomes: we watch television.

We wanted the answer to be → we read books, we play together, we learn.

The point isn’t whether you should have a TV.

The point is this: Your home is always teaching your children. What do you want it to teach yours?

A Home Built Around Reading

If you want your children to be readers, they need to be surrounded by books.

Not tucked away on a single shelf. Not reserved for school time. Visible. Accessible. Within arm’s reach. Books you read. Books they’re drawn to. Books that stretch them.

Because proximity matters.

A child is far more likely to pick up a book that is already part of the environment than one that requires effort to find or go get at the library.

When my children were younger, we used the library heavily. Now, I’m more selective. There are far too many books and too little time.

I want what surrounds them to be worthy of their attention.

What your child encounters daily becomes what they naturally reach for. Are books in your child’s reach?

Designing a Life, Not Just a Home

It’s easy to think of our homes as neutral backdrops.

They’re not.

Every object, layout, and visible choice is quietly shaping your child’s expectations of life.

• What do we do when we’re bored?

• What do we do together?

• What do we reach for?

• What do we value?

Your home is answering those questions. You don’t need a perfect house (I don’t have one!). You don’t need more space, more money, or better furniture.

But you do need to ask: What is my home training my children to become?

And then, gently, intentionally, begin to align it. Clear the dining table. Hang paintings that make you feel something. Bring books into sight.

With time, these small changes become something much bigger.

They become part of your child’s inner voice.

✨Because children don’t just live in a home. They become what that home invites them to be.

If you are looking for more on how to Stop Managing Time – How to Start Living by Your Values, How to Build a HOME Library, or Tools That Build a Curious Home, you might like these posts.

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Until next week, remember: Children Are Our Most Important Work.

~Dr. Claire

PS. I got the classic painting reproductions at…

icanvas LINK to the classic fine artists. There are other options out there. We liked this one. They even let you split up large canvases into smaller pieces which is a cheaper option - thus our pool table with 3 panels.

If my child knows math but hates it. Have I Failed?

You might be thinking: Why does it matter? Who cares if my kids hate one measly subject?

But if a child decides, “I’m not a math person,” they close doors they haven’t even tried to open.

I want my children to see the world as open in every direction. Not all paths will call them, but it’s my job to give them 360 degrees of possibility.

My husband is a data scientist. As a child, he would have told you he didn’t like math. If his parents said, You don’t have to learn this, the career he has come to love — that supports our family — would have been cut off from him.

So yes—it matters if kids hate math.

But sometimes this feels like an uphill battle. Math is both the easiest subject to make fun with games and the hardest to turn into something deep and rigorous without tears.

So how do we change children’s relationship with math?

We reframe it.

Math isn’t testing us. We are testing math.

I know. I know — easier said than done.

It won’t be good enough to tell kids these ideas, we must demonstrate them through story and action.

Today, let’s consider five reframes that will change how your child (and probably you, too) see math.

Your child doesn’t have to hate math.

Ready? Let’s go.

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✨5 Reframes to Change How Your Child Experiences Math

These aren’t quick fixes. They are gentle, repeated invitations to see math differently — through stories, play, and real-life moments.

1. You’re Entering a Different World — And It’s OK to Make Mistakes

Math exists in a perfect, precise world — and it’s totally imaginary.

Because math in the real world is anything but perfect.

Every right angle in your home is slightly off. Every tile in your bathroom, a smidge crooked. Anyone that has ever done a home remodel or DIY fix knows this.

Here’s a fun activity. Have your kids run around your house measuring the right angles of your walls. They won’t find them. Not really.

It’s almost enough to make you nervous. But you know what? The house is still standing.

Kids need to know that real world math is imperfect. Because that allows them to be imperfect too.

It takes some of the burn off mistakes — and that my friends will make all the difference.

2. Math is a Mystery — Not a Test

Some mathematicians spend their whole lives on a single problem. Many of them will leave this world having never solved it.

That puts long division in perspective — amiright?

We need to help our children see each math problem as a small mystery to be solved. Come to math with a playful spirit.

How do we accomplish this?

Games and puzzles are a fantastic bridge. My kids love the dice game PIG (instructions below). The game requires quick mental addition, subtraction, and even develops an intuitive feel for probability and risk. Bonus, I’ve never played a game without the kids laughing. Even neighbor kids love this one.

How to play PIG (ages 6+):

• Players take turns rolling a single die.

• Add up the numbers you roll on your turn. You can roll as many times as you like. BUT….

• If you roll a 1, you lose all the points from that turn and your turn ends.

• At any point, you can choose to “hold” and bank your points for the round.

• First to 50 (or 100) points wins. (You can also play the reverse for subtraction getting to zero from 100. Another version adds a second dice — the game changes suddenly as probability changes everything)

I’ll give you more games in a minute.

But don’t stop at games!

Let them follow in Euclid’s footsteps. Let them puzzle over why no matter what a triangle looks like, you cut off the angles and it makes a straight line. Why? Wonder aloud together. The joy is in the path towards discovery.

And you know what? Puzzles are rarely solved the first time. We must try, try again.

Teach children to meet the unknown with curiosity and play.

3. Math is an Art — And Repetition Makes Perfect

Monet painted the same water lilies over and over. The same bridge. The same garden. Each time seeing something new. Each time getting closer. You keep on until one day, the garden is perfect and people hundreds of years still hang it on their wall.

Math is the same.

You must revisit the same problem over and over. Whether multiplication facts, fractions, or long division, every time it gets more clear. It gets easier. Until one day, it flows without effort. And on that day, you become ready for the next puzzle.

Next time your child pushes back about practicing another math problem, show them Monet’s water lilies. Ask them which version is the best, and what would have happened if he’d stopped at one?

4. Make Messes — Be Brave, You Are the Explorer

Ancient maps marked unknown waters with the words Hic Sunt Dracones — “Here Be Dragons.”

No one ever said that exploration was safe and comfortable. It’s scary and hard. One must be courageous to tackle new worlds.

Our children need permission to take chances with problems they don’t yet know how to solve. Some problems will have neat solutions that they’ve memorized. Many will not. Let them try, tweak, and make a mess. Don’t overcorrect. If they get it wrong, help them figure out why. Don’t jump in to tell them right away.

The key message they need to hear is → There are many paths to the right answer. What matters most is the courage to begin.

Model this for your children. My oldest is already doing math I don’t remember. I work the problem myself with her. I tell her I’m not sure how to do it. I show her that I’m struggling, thinking, and figuring it out too. I also will often arrive at the answer differently than the textbook says we are supposed to. It gently shows her there is more than one way to solve a problem — and it’s OK to make a mess to get there.

5. You Don’t Start Good at Math — You Become Good at Math

Most kids think being “good at math” is something you either are or aren’t.

But no one starts out good at math.

You become good by struggling through problems, making mistakes, and trying again. By staying with something longer than is comfortable. Often what separates “math naturals” from everyone else is that they approach the work with a playful heart.

We must help our children see that struggle is a gift — and math is the type of struggle that is surmountable.

Final Note for Parents

Mind shifts take time. You won’t tell these to your child tomorrow and watch all the math drama melt away.

It’ll be more like building a new habit. Like trying to exercise or eat better. It takes time, and there will be missteps, and backward steps. But as long as we keep getting up, progress always follows.

Pick one of the reframes above, work on it through games, stories, and even just gently saying it in times of struggle (I’ve got a list of suggestions below).

Then, pick another.

It may feel slow. Real change always is. But if you pick one mindset shift a quarter (3 months) and you’ve done four in a year!

Your child is worth it.

This week’s bonus for paid supporters is humble, but it includes math puzzle books, curriculum, books about growth mindsets and making mistakes, living books about math concepts, and a free documentary on a mathematician or two. These can be combined to bring the reframes above to life. Scroll down for it.

PS. Would you be interested in a 5-Day Fall in Love with Math Camp? I’m running this camp in my house this summer. I can record a version for subscribers. It’ll include.

• At least five recorded lessons that bring each reframe to life with stories about ancient mathematicians and how they influence modern math for your kids to listen to

• Fun, low-prep activities, games, and puzzles you can do with your kids at home tied to the lesson to forge a new relationship with math

If 50 or more of you say you’re interested, I’ll put it together and make it available. It will be a paid subscriber bonus.

✨Onto this week’s bonus!

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How many of you have heard that question while helping your child with math homework? Most of you, I’d bet. If you’re like me, you’ve probably given some version of: “Because you have to be able to keep track of your money, invest, pay taxes.”

But is that really why kids should learn math?

Do we learn to read so we can decipher instruction manuals or furniture assembly guides? Reading is the foundation for everything good, true, and beautiful. It’s nearly impossible to succeed in the modern world without it.

But that’s not why we ask kids to read. We show them it’s because they’ll get to dive into stories about dragons, knights, far-off lands, and heroes.

That’s far more compelling.

With math, though, it’s → you need it to do taxes.

Ick. No thanks.

So why should kids bother learning math?

Because it connects them to an ancient tradition of solving some of the world’s most compelling and complicated mysteries.

Hear me out.

Every math problem your child does is the result of thousands of years of study. Yes—thousands of years.

We like to think of math as lifeless and abstract. But it’s as much a part of the great conversation as the stories we read to our children.

And I think reconnecting children to that history may be the most compelling reason to study math.

It quietly teaches that it’s okay for it to take hours—or even days—to understand math because once it took centuries.

Centuries of contemplating the universe. Of making the chaotic, ordered.

The Pirahã people of the Amazon are an anumeric (numberless) society. They have only three words to count: hói (~one), hoí (~two), and baágiso (many).

Once upon a time, we were all the Pirahã people. Numberless.

What an incredible journey we’re on.

Our children are a part of that journey—but someone needs to tell them that.

It’s easy to feel part of history when reading Little Women, Pride & Prejudice, The Prince & the Pauper, or Henry V. You connect with past humans as you become fully immersed tales decades or even centuries old.

Wrestling with long division is also part of that same grand story — it’s just much harder to see.

We need to tell our children Euclid and Pythagoras’ stories. How hard it was. Their struggles. Their triumphs. We should let children walk in their shoes, exploring the same ideas through imaginatively playing with triangles and circles.

Let our kids ponder: What would the world be like if there were no numbers?

Very different indeed.

In this way, we help children enter a new realm of humanity’s story—and show them that math is a grand adventure, not something to fear.

Next week, I’ll share simple ways to do this — including stories and activities to share with your kids.

If you resonated with this post, consider subscribing so you don’t miss it. Joining our community also gives you access to posts like Improve Your Kid’s Math Without Doing Math, Activities Most Kids Will Never Experience – But Should, and Alpha School’s Most Inspiring Ideas—And How to Bring Them Home.

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Remember → Children are our most important work♥️

~Dr. Claire

✨Once upon a time, studying science meant stepping outside and looking up.

But it was so much more than that.

It was about becoming a certain kind of person. One who notices what others miss.

On an ordinary night about 2,120 years ago in ancient Greece, Hipparchus stepped outside and noticed something incredible — a brand new star shining where none had been before.

This marvelous event would change not just his life, but ours thousands of years later. Hipparchus would painstakingly catalog all the visible stars in the sky (can you imagine!). He marked their brightness, their coordinates, and cross-referenced his observations with earlier records of the Greeks and Babylonians.

It was an extraordinary act of disciplined wonder.

This is what science once formed in people.

Today, I struggle to find a science curriculum I like. All fall short because…

I’m not teaching science—I’m raising disciplined thinkers who pursue knowledge and truth.

I want my children to stand in awe at the beauty of this marvelous world — and then know how to pursue deeper knowledge through careful, direct exploration of that world.

What does disciplined wonder look like in practice?

It looks like inspiring awe in geology through a rock cycle demonstration, or grasping the vastness of the universe by walking the planets scaled out with sidewalk chalk. It looks like explaining that the earth beneath our feet is actually moving, changing, and remaking itself every day through exploring plate tectonics — and then casually mentioning that the Moon is made entirely of igneous rock (the kind that on Earth usually comes from volcanoes). All things we did in our science club this year.

Then on a walk, I listen as my 9-year-old takes that spark of wonder and turns it into questions:

“If the Moon is made of igneous rocks, why is it white? Igneous rocks are usually black. Are there white igneous rocks? Oh — pumice is kind of white. What is it made of? Is pumice the closest rock we have on earth to the moon? How is it different from the black ones? Can we look at all our igneous rocks and figure it out?”

✨Inspire awe ✨Form questions ✨Pursue knowledge

Disciplined Wonder.

Today, I’ll outline the steps I’m using to teach my own children (and our science club) natural philosophy. This is the heart of how I teach science — disciplined wonder in action.

Some of these ideas may surprise you and delight you. For example, I recommend doing fewer experiments and explain why doing less will take you further.

Ready? Let’s go!

Joining our community of thousands of parents also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

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We read classic literature, study history deeply, use the progymnasmata to teach writing, and ground it all in strong grammar and Socratic dialogue.

I’m a fan — a big fan.

But classical education, as it’s practiced today, is incomplete.

We’re missing something. Something that shaped our great thinkers just as much (if not more) than literature and historical study.

Natural Philosophy.

Natural philosophy, as understood by the ancients, was the pursuit of wisdom through encountering the natural world with curiosity, attention, and awe.

Today, we call it science.

I recently toured two classical schools (one private, one public). When pressed, they admit their science students aren’t well served. They are focused on training the mind and soul through literature discussion (again - I’m a fan!)

But literature, while incredible, does something wholly different than natural philosophy.

Literature takes you outside of yourself through story. It forms you through the exploration of others’ lives: their experiences, their struggles, their quests. It shapes virtue and character through narrative.

Natural philosophy asks something different of you.

It asks you to encounter God’s creation — the natural world around you. It asks you to sit in quiet contemplation of this impossibly complex world, to observe, to question, to seek, to think.

To Wonder.

There is a growing movement to reclaim modern education — to return to the roots of our past.

Why aren’t we reclaiming Natural Philosophy too?

Perhaps, it’s because no one knows how truly beautiful old science was.

When I was a graduate student, we read Sherrington (1857–1952), considered the father of neuroscience. What strikes you immediately is how differently he saw and related to the world.

His scientific study reads like a novel.

He wonders about something, sets out to study it, is surprised. That surprise leads to more questions, and those questions lead him deeper still. He ends not with tidy conclusions, but with reflections about how his work reshapes our understanding of the world and our place within it.

It’s beautiful.

This is how he describes the brain as it wakes.

[The sleeping brain] where hardly a light had twinkled or moved, becomes now a sparkling field of rhythmic flashing points with trains of traveling sparks hurrying hither and thither.

The brain is waking and with it the mind is returning.

It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance. Swiftly the head … becomes an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern … a shifting harmony ... the body is up and rises to meet its waking day.

~Charles Sherrington in Man on his Nature

Where did this tradition go?

As a professor, I tried to cultivate something similar in my students. But modern academia wants to rush to the next class, read the newest papers, apply to another grant or scholarship.

There was little space for sitting with a question or thinking deeply about what we were actually doing.

You could see this in the student’s work.

Students would run an experiment and immediately push the results through a computer. They would come to my office and say, “I did it.” I would ask, “What did you discover?” They wouldn’t even know where to start answering.

They had completed the steps, but they hadn’t thought about what they were doing or why.

They hadn’t considered what their results meant, or how their work connected to anything beyond the task itself. Nor had they even considered how what they were doing was important or how it added to society as a whole.

You can argue that that is my job as their instructor — and you’d be right of course. But what bothered me so much is that I had to supply even the interest. So many of them weren’t there because they loved it or were seeking some universal truth. They were doing it because someone told them they’d make good money as an engineer.

How depressing.

The “science” education in my home looks very different.

It is far closer to natural philosophy than to modern science instruction.

I want them to think, to observe, to seek, to WONDER.

We don’t begin with instructions. We begin with the world. With questions. With things we notice but don’t yet understand. From there, we look for ways to observe more carefully, to test ideas, to explore what might be true. Sometimes that leads to experiments.

But the experiment is never the point, understanding the universe is.

✨We study the stars not to pass a test, but to wonder how many there are, what they are, and how far they reach into the darkness.

✨We study plate tectonics not to pass a class, but to realize the land beneath our feet is alive—slowly moving, changing, and remaking itself.

Let’s aspire to more.

If you are a classical educator — or really any kind of educator — I encourage you to reconsider how you think about teaching science. It is not the rote execution of experiments or the accumulation of facts.

It is the exploration of an intricate, ordered, and divine world beneath your feet, in the sky, and even inside your literal heart.

It is the practice of disciplined wonder. It is Natural Philosophy.

And I suspect that returning to natural philosophy is one of the clearest ways to draw our children back into reality… away from the abstractions and distractions of a screen saturated life, and into a deeper relationship with the world itself.

Let us raise our children to not merely study the universe — but fall in love with it.

If you resonate with this post, you might enjoy my other work. Joining our community also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

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Remember → Children are our most important work.

~Dr. Claire

Tracey’s advice is practical, heart-centered, and deeply reassuring: she reminds us that it’s okay to ask for help, that relationships come before rules, and that learning should be playful and flexible, especially for kids with special needs. She emphasizes the unique roles both parents play as children grow, and the importance of downtime, family connection, and truly being present.

You’ll come away with actionable strategies, inspiration, and a sense of confidence that no matter how full your days are, you can guide your children with wisdom, patience, and love.

I’m especially excited today because I have something special for my paid subscribers, the show notes include my top takeaways from this conversation—perfect for busy parents who can’t always listen to every episode.

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Which is it?

Is technology improving our children’s capacity to learn or is it destroying it?

The frustrating answer is… both.

I’ll never forget how my 6 month old baby was entranced by the television. Nothing could draw her attention away — not toys, not music, and most disturbingly …. not our smiling faces.

It left my husband and I deeply uncomfortable.

The TV went off — and stayed off. To this day, we watch one family movie a week. One.

But we couldn’t live in the dark ages forever.

A textbook can show you a picture of Versailles. A virtual tour can let your kids experience the sparkle of the mirror room and frescoes on the ceiling. A math textbook moves at one, slow pace, but an adaptive program creates a curriculum uniquely suited to my child.

Screens are powerful when used correctly.

So, how do we take advantage of the opportunities technology provides, while ensuring our children don’t become slaves to TikTok?

The answer is simple to state, but difficult to live:

✨Love Life and Use Screens✨

Children must learn to love life first — then let screens enrich that life.

(The opposite → children who love screens and tolerate life spells disaster)

As parents, we must create clear, non-negotiable boundaries while the brain is developing. We also must nurture a deep, aching love of the authentic, sand between your toes, looking at the ocean, real world.

If your children are not grounded into real life, the algorithm will change how and what they think.

Today, let’s talk about raising kids who type novels, learn math with Math Academy, and use simulation software to study plate tectonics — but spend their free time riding bikes, reading books, and knitting hats (hey, that’s my kids!)

Ready? Let’s go.

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The 5 paragraph essay is treated as the pinnacle of writing instruction. But does it deserve it?

I spent more than a decade reading 20-year-olds’ writing as a university professor, and I can tell you the problem wasn’t that they couldn’t write a 5 paragraph essay. It was they couldn’t formulate their own thoughts, much less communicate them.

College students’ writing looked like strung together sentences generally about the right topic, but that never actually said anything. In retrospect, they wrote like early versions of chatGPT.

So when 10 year old my daughter started pushing back against her writing program’s 5 paragraph essays, I had to ask: Is this really the best way way to cultivate strong, confident writers?

Do I want my child to be able to write a 5 paragraph essay or do I want her to be able to write anything?

The answer is obvious, so let me be more explicit.

I want my children to be able to express themselves clearly and with conviction—to take an idea, break it down, and rebuild it in a way that is coherent and resonates with others.

This is the heart of exceptional writing. This is synthesis.

The average writer may be able to summarize a book or article, but an exceptional writer can distill its essence, identify the core ideas, and strip away the irrelevant.

Teaching my children to synthesize has transformed their writing, not because their formatting is better but because their thinking is better.

The problem? It takes years to become an exceptional synthesizer. So, the question you should be asking is…

Where do I start? What can I do TODAY to begin my child’s journey to exceptional writing?

In today’s post you will…

• Learn a Simple Strategy to Teach Synthesis: A fun activity that helps your kids distill and reconstruct complex ideas across any subject - history, science, literature.

• Sharpen Your Child’s Critical Thinking: This technique extends beyond writing. It enhances note-taking, problem-solving, and expression skills.

• Resource Recommendation: I also give you my favorite resource with a full year of activities for those who prefer a formal program.

Joining our community of thousands of parents also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

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A simple activity to teach synthesis - in any subject👇

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In some ways, you would be right.

It’s easy for me to answer their questions.

What are clouds? → water vapor condensing around dust particles. Why does the moon changes shape? → our vantage point shifts as it moves around Earth.

But answering science questions is not the same as teaching a child to think like a scientist.

That part is harder. Much harder.

The scientific method is one of humanity’s greatest inventions — and if you want your child to be a formidable thinker, they must learn it.

The process of observation, prediction, testing, and revision built the modern world — from electricity to the computer you are reading this on.

Scientific thinking will be how our children build the future.

And yet, many children are taught science like a series of multiple choice questions rather than a system of thinking.

For a long time, I struggled too.

It was easy to show my 6 year old the beauty of the ocean and the stars, but I wanted more. I wanted them to form their own ideas and test them. We did small versions, but nothing quite like what I wanted.

I finally understand why.

You can’t think deeply about what you know nothing.

If I ask my children, “Why do stars twinkle?” I get imaginative answers.

“They are blinking.”
“The wind shakes them.”
“They are dancing.”

These are beautiful ideas.

But they are not scientific reasoning.

Many assume because innovators are often young, they are novices. But that’s not true. They usually possess deep, focused knowledge of their field.

Louis Braille, who created the Braille system after losing his sight in childhood, spent years experimenting with tactile writing systems. By age fifteen, he had developed the six-dot Braille system that is still used today.

He was not a novice. Nor was he an expert in the traditional sense. He was in the intellectual middle ground where creativity thrives.

So if we want to train reasoning, critical thinking, scientists, we must train our children in areas where they know the most.

That should leave you asking…

What field do children actually know something about?

Surprisingly, the answer is geophysics.

At first glance, geophysics sounds complicated and hard — and it can be. But at its foundation it’s earth, sand, and water. Your child has been building expertise in geophysics since they were toddlers digging in your sandbox.

This year, I wanted my science club (ages 9-11) to do a REAL experiment. One that was 100% driven by them from start to finish.

We’ve of course done experiments, but usually I have to feed them the hypotheses and suggest what and how we study them.

This time, I said, “We’re going to study rivers. I’ve got a board, sand, and a hose.” They immediately had a thousand ideas from building dams, watching floods, choosing the safest place for a house, and figuring out how to protect it when the water rose.

I took their ideas and helped turn them into quantifiable hypotheses, methods they could actually test, results they observed, and their first serious lab report.

It was the first time they ran a real experiment from start to finish.

I will remember forever — and they will too.

When I say joy and rigor belong together, this is what I mean.

In the rest of this post, I’ll show you exactly how to do a proper experiment —from hypothesis to methods, results, discussion — in your backyard or local river.

But whether you start with geophysics or somewhere else, just start.

Your children are capable of so much♥️

If you also want your children to do a real science experiment, below you’ll find 7 steps I used to help my kids design and run a real scientific experiment. These steps work in any field, but examples are given for geophysics.

You’ll also see a lab report written by my 11-year-old, along with a downloadable lab report template to help you get started.

This part is for my companions who generously support my work. Thank you all♥️

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It calls us outside — to play, soak in the sun, smell the flowers.

But…. the school year isn’t quite over. March is that final stretch. Close enough to see the finish line, but far enough it’s just out of reach. By spring, we’ve been working — really working — for months.

It gets harder and harder to get out the paints when we could just color - amiright?

If spring is starting to feel heavy, you are not failing.

You just need to lighten the load — or spruce it up a bit.

Here are my favorite things to do to brighten our home and school life heading into spring. PS. These tips work year round if it’s not spring where you are.

Let’s start with the basics — and then we’ll get…. well…. more imaginative.

Check the Fundamentals

Sleep. Movement. Nutrition. Play.

• Sleep: Most kids need 9–11 hours. My kids are on the high end of this range. I notice BIG time when they aren’t getting enough rest. Remember kids often need more in intense seasons or growth spurts.

• Movement: My youngest breaks up school work by “doing a loop” around our neighborhood block on her scooter. Bike rides before school when they were little also worked magic for focus and attention. Kids need a lot more movement than you think.

• Nutrition: Growing, active kids need protein and carbs. A lot of both. Check in with your diet. Can you put out chopped veg and fruit for snacks? Can you add in some healthy, high protein snacks? My easy favorites are coming.

• Play: Play is children’s mental health routine. It regulates, restores, reconnects - and studies show it’s doing a lot more than this. It is not optional. Ensure your kids are getting quality, open-ended, non-structured time to just be.

Pick the weakest pillar for your family and make a small change. You’ll be surprised at how big a difference a small change will make.

Don’t forget you need these too.

Try Snacks

I can’t tell you how many hard moments I’ve cured with snacks.

Our kids are often in the thick of growth spurts. Their bodies and brains are changing in big, big ways — demanding energy.

When focus fades, reach for food. PRO TIP: Throw some protein powder into hot chocolate or peanut butter power balls.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.

Add Something New & Delightful

In January, I introduced the girls to opera. They are still humming The Magic Flute. It reignited joy of learning without adding any pressure to our world.

Choose something bright:

• Classical music

• Shakespeare

• Crochet

• Origami

Spring is a beautiful time to fall back in love with learning.

For more ideas → Activities Most Kids Will Never Experience – But Should

Take School on the Road

When our home was torn apart during the remodel, everything felt chaotic. So I had the girls pack “anywhere school” bags. We went to local library with a view of the lake or to the park.

I assumed we’d stop once the house was back together. We didn’t.

Now when things felt heavy, we go. Because we’re already packed, we can decide that morning.

A change of scenery can change everything.

Reorganize a Room — Hear me out

I’m NOT asking you to clean!

I am asking you to pull out forgotten books, leave out a puzzle, set up a microscope on the table, stack origami paper and knitting thread by the couch.

“Strewing” is one of my favorite habits — quietly placing things where they could rediscover them. It still works for older kids.

Watching my children rediscover old loves is pure delight.

Field Trips: Your Secret Weapon

Yes, you know this one.

But think quirky. Off the beaten path.

We once toured a worm farm — huge hit. We’ve done illusion museums, instrument collections, farm tours, Shakespeare plays.

There’s this whole big, crazy world out there! You never know what might spark a deep interest in your children.

Did You Take a Break?

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is not following the public school calendar.

But spring break exists for a reason. Take one.

It doesn’t have to be expensive. Fill a week with hikes, library visits, documentaries, a new read-aloud, or some of that unstructured play time I mentioned above.

Let them get bored. Boredom is often the doorway to their best creativity.

Let Go of Something

As I spoke about in Stop Managing Time — How to Start Living Your Values, overwhelm is often misalignment.

Look at your calendar. Is there something that sounded right in the moment but is not longer serving your family?

Even releasing one commitment can create breathing room.

Refresh the Relationship

Last week, I spent 2 hours outside with my girls - no agenda, no devices. One crocheted while the other did origami. We talked about the books we were reading.

The best time I’ve spent all week. These moments matter just as much as math.

Connection cures most ails.

Make a Special Meal

I cook almost every meal. So, it’s a special treat when I wake them up by whispering in their ears, “Do you want to go out to breakfast?” The smiles - Oh, the smiles! If you prefer, cook a special meal at home together.

Children should feel cherished. And days go smoother when they do.

Remember Why You Chose This

It’s easy to get lost in the to-do lists and lose sight of your why.

• I chose this because I wanted a front-row seat to my children’s childhood.

• I chose this because their smiling faces mattered more than career accolades.

• I chose this because I wanted their lives filled with wonder and joy.

✨Take five minutes. Write down why you chose this.

Reconnecting with your why has a quiet way of making everything lighter.

You are doing important work!

It won’t always be easy.

But it will be worth it♥️

If you liked this, consider joining our community of thousands of parents just like. Get access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course. Plus hundreds more articles about giving your children a joyful and rigorous education. Hope to see you soon♥️

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Remember, children are our most important work.

~Claire

Some have been awesome.

Others… not so much.

Here are the ones that are actually worth spending money on.

Spoiler: I will not say Scrabble. Not even once. (Even though it’s pretty awesome)

Titles are hyperlinked to games. Contains affiliate links.

PS. Games are not in age order — if you have littles don’t worry there are some for you!

Shakespeare Game (Ages 8+)

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know the Bard is practically a family friend around here.

We got this game over Christmas and it was an instant hit. Players collect lines from Shakespeare’s plays and then perform them to earn money (in the game). There are strategy elements — blocking, stealing, etc. — but we mostly focus on collecting and dramatically performing. My kids were already in love with Shakespeare. It’s worth introducing him before you start this game. Need help? Read: 8 Year Olds Can Learn Shakespeare.

I’d say 8+ is ideal, though younger kids can join with help.

Prime Climb (Ages 8+)

This game is brilliant on so many levels.

It’s especially powerful for 3rd–4th graders because it helps them break numbers into prime factors — foundational for fractions, long division, and deeper number sense. Kids should have basic multiplication familiarity, but beyond that it’s accessible and surprisingly fun.

If you want number fluency without worksheets, this is it.

Where To? (Ages 7+)

A geography-based game where kids travel the world collecting destinations. When they claim a space, they read about a cultural event connected to that location.

It feels a bit like Ticket to Ride — but global, and with much richer exposure to world cultures.

Geography plus cultural literacy? Yes, please.

Sight Word Bingo (Ages 4–7)

My kids love bingo in all its many forms.

This version is wonderful for emerging readers who need repetition with high-frequency words. Yes, sight words require memorization — and this makes it joyful instead of tedious.

If your kids love Bingo as much as mine, I’ll give my favorite ways to use FREE Bingo games soon.

Numbalee (Ages 4+)

This one is wildly versatile.

We’ve used it for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Put a random number in the middle, start adding (or subtracting) to it. Sometimes we play competitively; sometimes we do a collaborative free-for-all where everyone builds together.

It’s a bit like Scrabble — but with numbers. And having number tiles around opens up a thousand other math games you’ll invent on the fly.

*Numbalee appears to be on backorder right now — HERE are some wooden tiles that would work just as well.

Kanoodle (Ages 5+)

You might be surprised to see this here because it doesn’t scream “educational.”

But it trains visuospatial working memory — a critical (and often overlooked) foundation for mathematical thinking. For more read: Improve Your Kids’ Math Without Doing Math.

Logic puzzles like this quietly build serious brainpower.

PS. If you have more than one kid, think about getting the competitive version HERE. I wish I’d done that.

Mathological Liar (Grades 2-7)

This is one my kids genuinely love!

Each round presents a “whodunit” scenario. One character did the math incorrectly — and that person is the liar. You have to solve the problems to figure out who it was.

They’re grade-level specific (above link is for grade 3, but they come in many grades).

My kids prefer to play a grade level down — just like rereading easier books builds fluency. That’s completely fine! Good even. Keep that in mind when purchasing.

Shut the Box (Ages 4–8)

A classic for early math facts.

We played this constantly during the preK–2 years. Roll the dice, flip the tiles. You can extend it by working backward for subtraction or even division.

Simple. Fast. Fun way to do early math facts.

Alphabet Go Fish (Ages 4–6)

My kids loved this long after they technically “knew” their letters.

We also adapted this when we were learning sign language & played the game using hand signs. Though we’ve never used it this way, you could do the same for foreign languages that share the English alphabet.

Pro tip: For early readers, use the letter sounds rather than the letter names (buh… not “B”). It makes the game phonics-rich instead of just alphabet recognition.

Mastermind (Ages 6+)

An excellent logic game.

Highly recommend. It builds reasoning, hypothesis testing, and strategic thinking. Also resilience for your perfectionist kids (I’ve got one of those!)

For my beloved companions: I’ll give you a FREE version of this game in a minute — including how to simplify for 5 year old and make it hard enough for your teenagers!

BONUS: You Laugh You Lose (All ages)

Not educational.

Utterly delightful though.

The goal is to make other people laugh. We play “You Laugh, You Win” — if you laugh first, you get to go next. Fantastic way to lighten the mood around the house — and great or parties.

Joy should absolutely be a part of every day friends.

The right games don’t just pass the time.

They build thinking.
They normalize challenge.
They make learning delightful.

And that’s the real goal, isn’t it?

✨For My Beloved Companions

Below, I share 6, FREE math fact games I made up when my kids were little. They require things you’ve got around the house (crayons, a deck of cards) — even better your kids get to help make most of them!

Most you can alter to do any type of “fact” knowledge — spelling, history, homonyms, letter sounds — almost anything really!

Enjoy!

Become a Clarified Companion

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I have many episodes recorded and ready. I’m just waiting for the space to finish them well.

Thank you for your patience♥️

To tide you over, I was honored to join the OpenEd Podcast for what ended up being the most in-depth conversation I’ve had yet about how we actually live day to day.

You can also listen on Apple Podcasts HERE.

What We Covered👇

1. Joyful and Rigorous: How to design learning that kids love—and that actually stretches them.

2. A Brain-Based Homeschool Day: How to structure learning for maximum focus, retention, and depth.

3. Your House Is Teaching Your Kids: How your home is shaping their attention, taste, and ambition.

4. Sensitive Windows Most Parents Miss: What neuroscience says about language, memorization, math facts—and when structure matters most.

5. Letting Your Kids “Date” Books: How dropping the wrong book leads to harder reading, better writing, and real intellectual ownership.

6. AI Can Teach Math. But It Can’t Replace You: How to use powerful tools without outsourcing the parent-child relationship.

7. Raise Their Taste and Their Effort Rises With It: Why opera, black-and-white films, Shakespeare, and hard books work to create intelligent, curious kids.

8. Structured Mornings, Expansive Afternoons: How to blend classical rigor with child-led exploration—without drifting into chaos.

If you liked this, you might also like my other work. Consider subscribing to join our community of nearly 6,000 parents.

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Remember → You are doing important work

~Claire

We’d of course been to museums before. The Natural History Museum — referred to as the “Dino Museum” in our house — might as well have been the playground when my kids were little. My kids ran about, tinkered with exhibits made for children’s hands, watched the animatic dinosaurs roar, and even panned for gold in the “old west” section.

But a real art museum is different, isn’t it?

Art — untouchable — sitting on a white wall. Far less inviting to a child. And children need to feel invited to a space. Without that, these empty rooms can feel clinical. Dull. Distant.

The first art museum I member enjoying was a humble one in Indiana. I’m sure it wasn’t extraordinary—and I’ve certainly visited more impressive ones since. But I’ll never forget it, because it was the first time art came alive for me.

It didn’t come alive on its own.

My mother showed it to me.

She was a volunteer docent. She knew every piece. She took me by the hand and taught me how to look — to see beyond what was there.

Alone, I’m not sure I would have “gotten it.” I might have walked through and forgotten. But with her guidance, art came alive. I still remember walking into a room with a large black painting on the wall.

She asked “What do you think?”

I said “It’s not very interesting.” (I wasn’t easy to impress, friends)

She said “Go, look closer.”

I walked forward, and that painting wasn’t a painting at all. It was a carefully crafted illusion. It felt like magic.

In the years that followed, my mother would introduce me to the best art in the world. She would tell me its stories and change the way I felt about art forever.

I want my children to have the same relationship with art that my mother has.

I want them to see art as not just beautiful but alive — to feel the power of stillness, linger over brushstrokes, and stay long enough for its stories to unfold.

I planted seeds for years before we ever stepped into a “real” art museum.

But even still, I didn’t know how they’d react. I never imagined how much they would love it. They begged to go back the next day. Two years later, they still ask when we can return — it’s a long way away. They were 7 and 9.

But their delight didn’t begin that day.

It began years earlier.

Here are the simple, joyful steps we took.

They’re easy to start today, cost almost nothing, and bring so much wonder. I hope they open the same doors of delight for your family.

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1. Begin with Museums That Feel Like Play

If you want children to fall in love with museums, don’t start with the serious ones. Begin with places that invite running, touching, building, and experimenting—children’s museums, science centers. Look for specialty museums like the Museum of Illusions or the Musical Instruments Museum

These spaces quietly teach → a museum is a place where you engage.

To this day, if I say “Let’s go to the Dino Museum,” my children light up.

2. Observe Through Drawing

Once children feel at home in museums, invite them to look more closely.

My favorite way? Drawing.

Bring simple sketchbooks. Kids love to doodle what they see → trees, faces, strange shapes, bright colors. Anyone who’s ever taken children outside to draw flowers or clouds knows how natural this is to them (see picture).

Observation is a joyful skill.

It grows through happy practice. When they sketch, they’re not “studying”—they’re playing, noticing, and remembering in their own way.

3. Step Inside the Painting

Next, help kids learn how to really look at a painting by stepping inside it.

Landscapes are the easiest place to start. Ask gentle, imaginative questions about their senses:

“What does it smell like here?”
“Is the wind warm or cool on your face?”
“Would that tree bark feel rough or smooth?”
“What would those strawberries taste like?”

Then move deeper by placing themselves in the scene:

“Would you walk down that path or climb the mountain?”
“What’s hiding behind the barn?”
“Would you want to play inside this painting—or that one?”

These questions turn a flat image into a living world to encounter.

4. Go Deeper by Learning How Art Is Made

One of the most magical things my mother ever showed me was Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne (see picture) — delicate leaves and flowing hair carved from solid marble.

It felt impossible, like pure magic. I can’t take my children to see it in person yet, but we’ve studied it from afar — and much more than that.

We watched how sculptors bring stone to life: videos of stone being pulled from the Earth, specialized chisels striking rock, rough blocks transformed into faces and hands. I actually wrote a whole post on this experience so you can do the same with your children: Teach Inductive Reasoning, History, Literature, Geology, & Art with Bernini’s Greatest Sculpture

Because my children have seen the effort it took to make Bernini’s Apollo, they are entranced by sculpture now.

They know these aren’t toys—they’re hours (sometimes years) of human care and skill made visible.

When children understand how art is born, they see it as something extraordinary and precious.

5. Learn the Artist’s Story

A painting is lovely on its own, but its story can make it unforgettable.

When my mother introduced me to Caravaggio, I thought his work was nice. Then she told me he was the first to use real, everyday people as models for sacred figures like Mary and Jesus — and the consequences he faced for it.

Suddenly his paintings weren’t just pretty; they were bold, brave—acts of vision.

A painting’s story turns it into something far greater than art—it becomes a window into the past and a builder of character.

6. Enter the Great Conversation

Art isn’t static—much like literature, it’s part of a conversation.

Knowing the Greek Myth of Apollo and Daphne changes the way you look at the sculpture. Daphne is fleeing. She desires escape so much she turns herself into a tree—forever.

Look at the sculpture again, do you see something different now?

Classic western art uses classic stories as its muse—the Bible, Ancient Myths, Folktales, and Shakespeare → the stories I wrote about in The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else.

When children recognize those threads in not just in literature but in art, paintings stop being “just a picture” and become part of a bigger, living dialog with their ancestors.

Invite children into the world of museums.

Build a warm, welcoming relationship with art—through play, looking, wondering, and questions.

Once children feel at home there—they will ask to return.

🌺Because a museum isn’t a place you conquer; It’s a lifelong friend you return to over and over.

For my beloved ClarifiEd Companions,

I’ve put together a “Step Inside the Painting” question guide you can print and tuck into your bag for your next museum visit.

I’ve also turned the questions into cut-out cards, so it can become a joyful game to play at the museum.

I’ve also included my favorite beginner artist book and a few free online resources that have helped our family learn about artists’ lives and the stories behind their work.

May these tools make your family’s next museum adventure richer, warmer, and above all inviting♥️

Become a Companion

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These stories weren’t just for entertainment they passed down the history and values of our culture.

When I read my children history, I’m not just teaching them facts about kings, knights, and revolutions. I’m teaching them about freedom, bravery, and sacrifice.

We treat history as an impartial retelling of agreed-upon facts.

It isn’t.

History is a story; and stories always have a point of view.

Black Beauty argues for humane treatment of animals.
Henry V wrestles with leadership and the moral weight of power.
Charlotte’s Web reminds us that appearances mislead—and that loyalty matters.

Great authors are never neutral & neither are history curricula.

Every history curriculum makes choices.

What to include.
What to leave out.
What to linger over or pass by quickly.

Like the stories we love, history passes down a culture’s values. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that…

There is no such thing as an unbiased history text.

Every curriculum seeks to impart a particular worldview. And that view may not align with your values.

That’s not a problem.

It’s an opportunity.

Because in our homes, we get to teach something more valuable than facts. We get to teach our children how to read carefully, think critically, and seek truth.

This seems daunting, but it begins with two simple questions.

1. Is this true?

2. How would you know?

introduced these to me. He’s worth a follow.

Is this true?

One of the most powerful things I learned in graduate school was to question everything.

We were given peer-reviewed research papers—written, critiqued, and published by people with FAR more training than us. Then, we were asked a version of “Is this true?” I spent my formative years as a scientist tearing apart the work of experts.

I was learning to read critically, but I was also learning something far more powerful → never blindly accept what is written no matter the source.

How would you know?

But it’s not enough to read critically. You must be able to determine what is real—and what is false.

How would you know — instructs our children to gather evidence.

A common tactic in history curricula is what I call mind-reading.

Recently, we read about a tribe that relocated because they “didn’t like” a neighboring group. The text confidently explained the inner thoughts of a group of people from 150 years ago in a remote region of Africa.

I paused and asked my kids, “Is this true? How would we know?”

Together, we brainstormed what evidence might support that claim—letters they might have written, oral histories passed down, accounts from multiple observers, records of conflict or trade.

In the end, we concluded that all we knew was the tribe moved.

We didn’t know why—and we wouldn’t until we had more evidence.

Moments like these are where real learning happens.

I don’t think of history as a subject where I impart to my children everything that happened in the world. I think of it as an opportunity to learn about humanity—what drives people to explore distant lands, move across continents, and fight for independence.

Through our conversations, we learn to challenge what’s come before and imagine a better future, while still grappling honestly with how hard that work can be.

It sounds ambitious. But you don’t need a PhD or a perfect curriculum to begin.

✨It starts with two questions—and the decision to raise children who can think for themselves.

If this way of teaching resonates with you, I’d love to go deeper with you.

Those two questions—Is this true? and How would you know?—are just the beginning. Over a decade of studying neuroscience, psychology, and persuasion, I’ve identified seven narrative tactics that quietly manipulate our thinking.

I break these 7 tactics down with simple, easy questions so kids can learn to think clearly and spot hidden assumptions.

I even made a PDF to print so you can have these questions by your side while learning or reading history.

✨Every story can be a chance to practice wisdom.

Let’s go!

This part is a gift to the beloved who generously support my work♥️

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✨Seven Tactics Manipulating Our Children’s Thinking

(And the Questions That Take Back Control)

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And everything changed.

Once one person shattered the barrier, dozens followed. The impossible became possible.

Witnessing greatness shapes the way we perceive reality - and what can be achieved.

It’s an essential part of my children’s education - let me show you why.

Last year my kids took up the piano. They worked hard and got the technique and notes down. This year, I pushed them to go beyond the mechanical—to feel the music.

You see great artists don’t just hit the notes. They emote something. They’re fully present in this grand, beautiful experience. They make us feel. I tried to explain. I demonstrated best I could. But my kids didn’t really get it.

Then we took them to see Jake Shimabukuro at a small venue in the Musical Instrument Museum. (His viral “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” performance gives a taste of his artistry — and honestly he’s gotten better since then)

Watching a world-class artist become one with an instrument is like witnessing magic. Something shifted inside my children.

Their playing hasn’t been the same since. It’s more melodic, more alive, more beautiful—and yes, more powerful.

Our kids need to witness greatness—not just hear about it, not just read about it, but see it with their own eyes and feel it in their bones.

🌺Because sometimes you have to see something is possible before your soul dares to reach for it.

But, how do we place greatness in our children’s path in a way that feels natural—not forced, or like we’re trying to manufacture a prodigy?

I made a list — but my goal is to take overwhelming things and make them simple.

So, I pared down the exhaustive list (and it was huge) to a set of core things designed to enhance your child’s imagination, ingenuity, and spirit.

Because we want children who can…

• Dream beyond what exists

• Build what matters, and

• Feel at home in the world.

✨These are easy things you can weave into your home.

Free resources with all!

This part is a gift to those who generously support my work.♥️

PS: Classic Books & Poetry belong on this list → but I write about those all the time (Full Reading List). Today, I’m going to share some unusual, unorthodox, but truly inspiring greatness to show your kids that perhaps you’ve never considered.

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So, it’s not surprising that I got asked all the time:

“How did you fit it all in?”

My answer is always the same.

I didn’t. Choices had to be made, and I had to stop outsourcing them.

The most overwhelmed people I know aren’t doing “too much.” They’re chasing someone else’s dream of what their life should look like.

They’re letting external voices—neighbors, social media, well-meaning parents—steer the ship instead of taking the wheel themselves.

But how do we take control?

All the time management gurus will happily sell you their planners, goal sheets, and routines. The newer ones talk about managing your energy instead of your minutes. I’m not here to tell you those things are bad—I’ll even share my own system for organizing your family’s day in a minute.

But they miss a deeper truth:

It’s not about managing time.
It’s about managing your values.

If you want to be less overwhelmed and more in control, you’ve got to live a life fully centered around your values.

Let’s start with an important truth.

You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything

You have finite energy. You can expend it trying to go everywhere (and get nowhere) or funnel your energy in the directions that matter most.

How do you decide? Start with this question.

Is it Urgent or Important?

One problem I had in my early years as a mom was mistaking things that were urgent for important. A phone call, text, news, or social media notifications are urgent — but most of them are unimportant. Most of us know this already. But the following things also feel urgent.

Making Valentine’s/Christmas/cupcakes for your kids’ class
Volunteering for all your kids’ classes and co-ops
Attending every birthday you are invited to
Cleaning the house — right this minute!

Decisions must be made on importance not urgency.

For some of you volunteering might be important. I’m not here to tell you what is and is not important to your family. I’m only telling you that by choosing to do these things are you choosing NOT to do something else. Getting clear on what’s important to YOU should define which things you spend your time on.

Because if you don’t define what’s important, urgent things will decide it for you.

Family time is one of the most important things you can do — But you can always do it tomorrow… or the day after that…

Important things won’t scream to be done, but they are the core of a life well lived.

Let Family Values Define What’s Important

Every family’s values will look a little different (that’s a beautiful thing).

Some of ours are Family, Education, and Health. Every decision I make comes down to our values.

I know it sounds easy. It’s not.

You will have to say no to things you WANT to do too. Family first for me – means I don’t do mom nights out. I don’t do in-person book clubs. We don’t meet with friends on Sundays. We don’t travel without our kids.

They’ll be time for all of that later; My kids are my everything now.

Your values might look different than mine! Hanging with your girlfriends might refresh you and give you needed rest. Writing this newsletter is like rest to me and helps me become a better homeschool mom and goes on the important list.

There are a million ways to live a good and beautiful life. Get crystal clear on your values and live them.

Aligning Your Life to Your Values Makes Everything Easier

When my babies were little, I “had it all” on paper: a career everyone envied, two beautiful children… and a constant knot of exhaustion and guilt as those children spent their days in daycare while I chased tenure.

Pulling them home to homeschool—even while still working full-time—lifted a weight I didn’t even realize I was carrying. My days were still full, but suddenly I felt whole.

Later, as my children grew and their educational needs deepened, I felt that familiar pull of misalignment again. So I made the hardest choice of all: I left the job and poured myself fully into my children and our home.

It wasn’t easy—it wasn’t just saying no to my job it was saying no to income and the life we were living then.

But I have never felt more aligned in my life. Never.

These days, I still full-time homeschool. I cook every meal. I run a science club in our living room. I write a bestselling Substack. I exercise consistently. And yes—I still sleep eight hours a night.

My days are full. Busy, even.

But I rarely feel overwhelmed anymore. It’s different now.

Living a life aligned with your values will help you manage your day but it’ll do something even more important.

It’ll help you be content in all that busy.

🌺And that, my friends, is really “having it all.”

Today’s paid bonus is one of the deepest, most significant I’ve ever created.

I walk you through a seven-step framework for managing your time by aligning your life with your family’s values. It includes questions to ask, charts to fill out, worksheets to work through, and the systems that turn good intentions into sustainable daily life. It’s based on extensive research on the topic compiled with my personal experience.

I’ll also share my own daily flows—and how they’ve shifted across seasons, from working full-time in academia to homeschooling and running our home now.

If you feel like you’re drifting in a sea of overwhelm and want a life that feels aligned, grounded, and meaningful, this is for you. ♥️

I want less overwhelm, more peace

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When my oldest came home from school, she hated writing. Anytime we sat down to write—anything at all—she cried.

So for a long while, we didn’t write. I gave her space. I let it settle.

But that couldn’t last forever.

I set out to change her relationship with writing. At 6, she thought of writing as one big test - that she always failed. Wrong letters, wrong order, always critiqued. Writing blistered.

She needed to think of words differently. The goal was simple at first. Be Willing. Willing to come to the page. Willing to play with words. Willing to try.

I never could have predicted what would come. That same child who only ever wrote through tears, today is writing a novel.

What follows is our story. It didn’t unfold neatly. I stumbled. I misstepped. But this collection of ideas are the ones that, together, changed everything.

✨May they help your child find their voice too.

Start with Patience, Not Pressure

The first thing I did was stop pushing. I let it rest. (OK this wasn’t the first thing I tried. But I did do it eventually, and it was absolutely necessary)

Instead, I focused on encouraging writing during her natural play.

“Does your store need a shopping list?”
“Does your restaurant need a sign?”

I helped her spell anything she asked for. I got one of those letter boards so she could see the letters without asking me.

Writing became play. Optional. Low-stakes.

Resist the Urge to Correct

During this phase, I didn’t correct her. It was hard to resist, but my job was to celebrate that she was writing.

For the record, I did correct my youngest at the same age. I fixed her grammar and spelling all along the way.

But my oldest had a bad relationship with writing. My only goal was willingness and joy—everything else could wait.

Find a Door

The doorway to more serious writing came from an unexpected place.

Poetry.

Poetry gets to break the rules. Grammar, capitalization, even spelling is thrown to the wind. But meaning still lives.

We started with shape poems—words curved into hearts, spirals, animals. They were the first things she ever wrote that she truly loved (example below).

Poetry stayed with us for years—she still writes it into her pieces.

We added haikus next. A haiku follows the pattern 5, 7, 5 syllables. Generally around a single topic. They don’t have to rhyme, they just have to be the right number of syllables. These were like tiny, rhythmic puzzles for her.

“How do you describe a tree in seven syllables?”
“What word means the same as pretty but is only one beat?”

It felt like a game. Underneath, it was teaching precision, rhythm, & rhyme—and I see this early training all over her writing today.

Make Words Friends Again

We immersed her in other’s writing. We read constantly. We didn’t just read anything. We read the greats. Hemingway. Shakespeare. Orwell. Irving. Stevenson. Dickens. Again and again.

She didn’t have to produce her own words to belong to them. She just had to live among them long enough for fear to fade.

Let Art and Nature Draw the Words Out

Once she was regularly writing, we deepened the work but again not in the “normal” way. We let beauty draw the words out of her.

I placed painting, landscapes, sculpture, photographs, and the natural world outside our home in front of her and asked her to write about it. Not stories, not paragraphs, just simple sentences.

What does it smell like there?
Is the air sticky or sharp?
What does the mountain remind you of?
Not just blue—but blue like what?

Writing became a practice of appreciating beauty around us—a way of slowly and carefully noticing the world.

Watch for the Moment It Clicks

One day she was asked to describe a man in a boat. I was hoping for adjectives. Perhaps something like: The old man sat in the gloomy boat.

Instead, she wrote:

“The old man smelled of salt and sea.”

I’ll remember that moment forever. In a million years, I’d never have written something so sweet, simple, and elegant.

Then, she just kept writing like that—placing you inside scenes, pulling these incredible words out of the air.

From here, I had new goal → Help her find her voice.

Easier said than done.

Borrow a Voice, Then Find Her Own

Some children write easily, but my daughter needed a muse.

So we studied other’s great writing together. We broke down stories into pieces. What makes this story compelling? (I’ll tell you how we did this - and you can too - later)

She learned to outline, identify key moments, and rewrite them—sometimes in her own voice, sometimes mimicking the unique cadence of another’s voice. We once rewrote Song of the Vineyard from the King James Bible. She typed the following (sorry no cute kid handwriting, she typed this lesson).

Notice how the language is ‘old-fashioned.’ It’s not perfect (she was 10, friends). Also, note that the first sentence rhymes - this is what poetry training leads to!

And now I will tell a tale that has been told many a time of someone I love, who is very divine. He whom I love tended to his vineyard. He made a wall around it, planted the best of vines in it, and cleared a space for it. And when he asked for grapes it brang forth wild grapes. Now, the one whom I love went to ask for judgment, “What more can I do? I asked for grace and it brang forth wild disobedience! But I will tell you what I shall do. I shall tear down the wall and it shall be trampled on, I will pull down the vines and they shall wither and shrivel, I also will command the clouds give no rain.” So take heed for this could happen to you. ~My then 10 year old

As her confidence grew, we played with words more boldly to make them her own.

We reordered stories, shifted perspectives, changed endings, moved locations, made passages longer or leaner (resources coming). Other people’s writing became raw material—something she could reshape into her own.

Make Room for Their Stories

All along, I nudged her toward her own ideas.

I bought her notebooks. I listened as she told stories out loud. I encouraged her imagination without pushing her to pin it to the page.

Let One Big Project Gather It All

Last Spring, we held a curiosity fair. I asked what she loved most.

“History,” she said.

After a beat, “and writing.”

Writing! Friends, she said writing!

What if, I asked, we combined them?

And just like that—my child who hated writing, started a historical fiction novel.

She now writes an hour a day. She continues to work on her novel, but is also producing original, competition-level short stories. I brought in a writing instructor to help her navigate her growing ambitions.

I don’t know whether she’ll ever win awards. I don’t know if she’ll make a living as a writer.

But I do know this: she loves writing now.

And that joy, that freedom, that willingness to meet the page—is a gift no one can take from her.

I hope some of these ideas inspire you to think differently about helping your child find their voice.

If you’d like to walk our exact path—including the specific poems, games, books, resources, and curriculum we’ve used (plus how we gently layered in grammar and spelling)—including FREE or DIY options. I’ve put together all those details together for paid subscribers in this week’s bonus below.

I Want Joyful Writing for My Child

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This episode is special friends. Kim began homeschooling back in 2002, not because she had a perfect plan or abundant resources, but because her family was facing profound hardship and she wanted to keep her children close while everything else felt uncertain. What followed was a long, gritty journey—driving a public school bus to make ends meet, turning field trips into the backbone of learning, and choosing, again and again, to keep going when quitting would have been understandable.

This conversation is full of hard-won wisdom:

• Why emotional health has to come first—especially in seasons of illness or divorce.

• How thriving yourself as a parent quietly gives your children permission to thrive too.

• And what it really means to be rigidly flexible in homeschool life.

But more than anything, Kim offers something many parents need to hear: you don’t have to be cheerful in hard seasons. You just have to keep moving. Sometimes progress is small. Sometimes all you can do is breathe and put one foot in front of the other. That still counts.

If you’re in a difficult chapter—emotionally, financially, or relationally—this episode is for you. Not because it offers shortcuts, but because it offers hope and some beautiful advice.

Connect with at her Substack Commas and Goings.

✨ClarifiEd is for parents who are serious about raising thinkers, leaders, and lifelong learners. We support you through courses, workshops, this podcast, and weekly essays going deep into how children learn best.

If you’d like to join our phenomenal community of thousands of parents who are giving their kids not just a great education—but a truly remarkable life, subscribe below!

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Disclaimer: These stories are shared without commentary or endorsement. I don’t necessarily agree with every method or approach—my goal is to present real families and their experiences. For my personal advice and approach, head to ClarifiEd.life.