Category Archives: Education

My daughter spends her Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with my wife. Today, she spent a lot of that time picking the last of the season’s vegetables from our garden, preparing them for dinner, and then cooking them together. My daughter snapped green beans, cut tomatoes, chopped up mushrooms, and helped prepare onions. When it wasContinue reading “What’s Cooking?”

Back in January, my daughter and I wrote and recorded a song. It was about her. Today, she wanted to listen to the song and was interested in writing a new one. I let her pick the topic (our cats), write down some ideas for lyrics, and then jam with me as I played someContinue reading “New Song”

My daughter’s artistic impulses produced two big drawings today. One was a tribute to the book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! My daughter chose a animated version of the book on DVD as her library selection this morning, and she watched it approximately 752 times. This evening, she came to the dinner tableContinue reading “Two Pictures”

My daughter has an ear infection, but it hasn’t caused her to lose her sense of humor. Today, she told me a joke she learned from a cartoon. Q. How do we know the ocean is friendly? A. Because it waves! Not bad! Later, in the car, she was playing “I spy” with her mom,Continue reading “Two Jokes”

My daughter loves the two books she currently has checked out from the school library. One is about a sumo-wrestler’s cat. The other is about a little cow named Raisin. She has asked me to scan the books because she has to return them soon. This is what the opening pages of the cow bookContinue reading “Library Books”

When my daughter turned six last month, I made a video compilation of great moments from our daughter’s last year. I’ve been sending it to friends for the past month, and the video has been a blessing to them. Our daughter is so full of life that even short clips of her dancing, singing, andContinue reading “Blessings”

My daughter wants some money to buy a new Barbie. She heard that chores get repaid for money. Thus, this list… Today, I made this stipulation: there has to be some chores she does no matter what as part of the family. Incentivizing basic decorum is a recipe for disaster. We’ll see how we navigateContinue reading “Chores”

My wife put up a barn sign in our kitchen last week. This is what it says. It’s true. My wife and daughter DO dance in the kitchen. Tonight, they’ve rocked out to “Eye of the Tiger” and “It’s The End of the World” and Sly’s “Thank You” and “Shake Your Groove Thing.” My daughterContinue reading ““We Dance…””

So here we go. I was anticipating more posts like this, but we’re seven weeks into the semester before this first one. Here’s a song my daughter sings each week at school. The song contains truth… …but leaves out the punchline. Who are you loved by? Who created you to be unique? Who do youContinue reading “You-Nique”

My daughter loves Fridays because she gets to go to music class. She was regaling me at 7:15am with a song about kangaroos and wallabies, one she learned last week in music class and hoped to sing later in the day (spoiler: she did). This evening, she’s mixing songs she learned with ones she’s written.Continue reading “Songwriting”