Back in February, my 11 year old son John launched his eponymous podcast on iTunes – The Johncast. And as of this post, he has now published 24 episodes of “The podcast for cool and smart kids…your oasis from homework, vegetables, and your parents!” This idea came out of nowhere and that alone is a powerful lesson, i.e. leave a lot of blank space in your calendar for edu-serendipity! Well, I have to admit, it didn’t totally come out of nowhere in the sense that about 12 months ago I started my broadcast career with my own weekly AM radio show. I had to quit it this past March because it was ..read more

On Saturday Inez and I flew from Fort Myers, FL to Las Vegas (via Charlotte). When we arrived at the car rental place we were terrified to see 100 people in line ahead of us! Inez tried to scramble to another line-less agency but they wanted $2,400 to rent a car for the week. Well, our car at home isn’t even worth that much. Plus the line looked like it was moving, albeit slowly. An hour later we got through and fortunately landed a cool Jeep (with Hawaii license plates). We started the 160 mile drive to Zion along I-15 and once we got out of Vegas it started to become very scenic. We stoppe ..read more

Our 10.71 year old son John continues to make great music on the piano. Here’s his latest – a very, very fast song that he’s been working on for several months. WARNING – you may get dizzy watching his fingers fly! We still don’t even have a piano! There he was playing at his grandmother’s house. John practices for an hour a day and normally has a weekly hour-long lesson. That’s it! Inez and I didn’t teach him anything and we spent a good portion of last year in London WITHOUT a teacher. Nonetheless, we plodded on. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for your kids to actually practi ..read more

Last year, while abroad in London, we did manage to play in a few chess tournaments. But the chess scene over there, well, was not nearly as developed at what we have in the NYC-area. Basically we were spoiled over here. In New York, there are tournaments that kids and adults can play in essentially every single weekend. They are run ultra-professionally and we can pretty much cherrypick the ones we want to play in. Nevertheless, we still played a fair share of chess online and John kept up his lessons with his teacher, National Master Robert Guevara, over Skype. Then this past summer John ..read more

We may be back from London, but true to my post-Euro resolution….we are still traveling! Last week the kids and I drove all the way down (14 hours) from our home on Long Island, New York to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Why? Because a client hired me to come manually set-up and launch his homeschool. My kids came with me for several reasons. 1) I knew it would be a fun trip for the kids 2) Inez, my wife, has been a little busy with her job 3) Travel is very educational and an intentional part of their “curriculum” 4) John and Christine are actually integral members of my staff! On Tuesdays we nor ..read more

First visit – Riding Pachyderms in Chiang Mai, Thailand for context if you haven’t already. Wednesday We flew 1 hr 40 min from Chiang Mai at nearly the top of Thailand, 754 miles south to almost the bottom, just above Malaysia. Phuket is beach destination. After 15 months of un-tropical London….we were very much looking forward to relaxing on the sand and by the pool for the next 5 days….and absorbing the sun! Again we were privately shuttled from the airport to our oceanside hotel – The Centara Grand. That afternoon the kids hung out by the pool and I joined them a bit later for a little ho ..read more

Bangkok was to be our last stop before returning to our long lost home in New York….and it’d be brief too. If you haven’t read the first two Thailand posts, here they are: Riding Pachyderms in Chiang Mai, Thailand Relaxing in Phuket, Thailand And here’s my photo GALLERY for Bangkok – in case you want a preview. Monday So we had just under 2.5 days to sprint through this massive (8 million people!), bustling metropolis. We were staying at the Anantara – which was AWESOME (5 stars?). A riverside hotel with tropical themes and all the amenities. Right away we dashed off in a cab to Bangkok’s Ch ..read more

Recall we came to London 14 months ago because I read a provocative book – The New Global Student. And what an amazing time we’ve had here! The movers packed our stuff and sent it off to an air crate yesterday. Our kids had their best “mate” Sean over in the afternoon. They went out to lunch, the park, went to the Science Museum and I believe even got Inez to buy them “rides” there – something we’d normally never pay for but at the moment we are trying to liquidate all our local currency. I took the 49 Bus up to the library with a pile of books to return….and also brought my camera for some ..read more

We left London, for good, at 9 am on Saturday April 4th. See my post – Leaving London – if you haven’t already. A massive cleaning crew descended on our flat as did our airport-bound taxi. I quickly ran to the South Ken Tube station one last time to get rebates on our Oysters (public transit debit cards). It was all a little chaotic, and sad. This was our HOME for nearly 15 months. We were flying direct to Bangkok at noon – a nearly 12 hour flight! I was somewhat nervous about how the kids (and I) would do seeing how we were all wide awake. (We’d lose 6 hours on the time change too.) Unfortu ..read more