Fostering curiosity in kids (and their parents) since 2011

Posts by Shala Howell

Educational Resources for Parents – Category Overview

An ever-expanding list of educational resources for parents to use with kids while our schools are closed. You may not be in a place to use these right now. That’s ok. We are all doing the best we can in this (hopefully) once-in-a-century moment in world history. When/if you are ready, here’s an overview of what you’ll find here.

Ginger tabby wrapped in a festively striped scarf.

Waiting in place

We are on Day Six of The Howells All Being Home At Once, and Day Two of Santa Clara County Residents All Huddled Up Together in Their Separate Spaces. Today’s installment includes our revised education plan, Tuesday’s pandemic project, and other tidbits from our attempt to shelter in place.

an orange cat pokes the tip of his nose out of a grey fabric gift bag

My daughter’s school is closed for a month. What now?

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few days on the phone with various parents trying to figure out what a reasonable plan for my daughter’s education during our area’s COVID-19 outbreak might look like. I’ve also spent several hours scanning the web to see what our online options are. Here’s what I think we might do.

cast iron pan filled with homemade biscuits

“Why do my biscuits taste like metal?”

A few years ago, my husband began making biscuits on Saturday mornings. Although not all of his efforts have been equally delicious, we love starch in nearly all of its forms, so we happily ate the not-so-great batches to make room on the table for the even better batches to come. With one exception. The one and only batch of biscuits so horrible no amount of bacon could save them tasted like fluffy metal. How did that happen?

Yellow crocuses pushing up from a wintry brown soil.

What is a Victory Garden and do I need one to survive 2020?

Recently I’ve realized that the only thing worse for my mental health than Political Twitter is Coronavirus Twitter. To cheer myself up, I’ve started reading post-apocalyptic dystopian novels. I haven’t read that many yet, but I have read enough to notice that the just-in-time food supply rarely survives the first few chapters. That made me wonder… what if my best strategy for surviving an apocalypse is not merely to stockpile food, but to learn how to grow it?