About

About me

I’ll start by telling you what I’m not. I am not a teacher or a homeschooling mom. In a nutshell, I’m a devoted wife, loving mother of two boys (a preschooler and a fourth grader), and copywriter living in the Midwest.

I was raised by two teachers and even before I was school age, I asked my Mom to give me homework like my brothers were doing. While most people have childhood memories of trips to the lake and playing sports, I can still remember how it feels to check out so many books from my hometown library, I had to tuck the stack under my chin to balance them all. I was a geek.

And still am.

As a parent, I hope to keep my children’s excitement over learning alive as long as humanly possible. My parents did that for me. (I figure I should pay it forward.)


How this blog came to be

My oldest son’s birthday was just one week before he started kindergarten. Sure, we labored over whether to hold him back, but in the end, we enrolled him. Like most other kids at the beginning of the year, he was easily distracted and while school excited him, he had trouble staying on task. Thankfully, he matured.

However, it became clear to me that he’d need a little extra help at home to reinforce the lessons learned in the classroom. And so one afterschool activity became another … and another … and another, until it became routine for him to greet me at the school bus stop with the question, “What are we doing today, Mom?”

About the activities

My son goes to public school in an amazing school system and has had teachers who are some of the most patient and innovative people I’ve been blessed to know. I plan and orchestrate the activities we do afterschool, not because he’s getting a substandard education, but because:

1. I want my child to LOVE learning.
2. I see it as an opportunity to bond with my son.
3. Not every challenge he faces in school can be taught in the way that he learns.
4. I believe that parents are just as responsible for their child’s education as teachers are.
5. I want my son to know that school is important (and not just because his father and I told him so).
6. I want to encourage his interests, curiosity, and natural gifts.
7. And I want to help him succeed in learning the things that he struggles with.

Do I think parents are bad if they don’t do what I’m doing? No. There are lots of ways to accomplish all the things noted above. My way is not the right way for every parent or every child. But it works for us and so I’m thrilled that blogging has enabled me to share the ideas and the activities we do with caregivers, parents, grandparents, school teachers, and homeschoolers.

Whether you’re looking for a way to pass the time on a snow day, would like to build your own at-home afterschool curriculum, or want to help little Johnny or Jane learn to blend sounds into words, I hope you – but mostly, your child – will find these activities fun.

Contact me

Have great ideas of your own you want to share? Questions to ask?
E-mail me at deceptivelyeducational (at) gmail.com