Support MIT's OpenCourseWare

"Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required."

I hope you will enjoy exploring MIT's OpenCourseWare website, an on-line library of course materials and lectures for more than 1800 college courses -- provided free of charge to the public, thanks to MIT's commitment to support educational access. Open Courseware is an invaluable contribution which provides one of the best realizations of the promise of the internet. MIT's bold initiative has been followed by similar efforts at other institutions.

There is much to see and learn, on every subject. Here is one of my favorites, a lecture by the engaging Professor Walter Lewin: Newton's Laws. (You don't need a math or science background to enjoy and make use of this one.)

Please also consider supporting this project with a few of your dollars, so that MIT can continue to provide public access to this treasure of thorough, reliable information. Following is an excerpt from a letter by Cecilia d'Oliveira, Executive Director of OpenCourseWare.

We continue to keep OCW vibrant and relevant by constantly adding new MIT courses, updating older ones, creating topic-related views into OCW content (like our environment and energy), and taking an active role in global efforts to enhance curricula using OCW courses as building blocks.

But we face an immediate challenge to the future of OCW. The initial grant funding for OCW has ended. Although we continue to reduce our operating costs aggressively, without major support, we will not be able to achieve our goals to enrich OCW, serve the MIT community, and effect greater change in the world. . . .

MIT pays for roughly half the cost of OCW directly, but your donation is an important piece of our funding puzzle. Your support during our Spring fund raising drive allows us to continue adding and updating materials, making OCW richer and more useful.

Since OCW was established eight years ago, the project has touched the lives of millions around the world. Please help us continue our efforts by making a donation to OCW today. Your contribution of $50, $75, $100 -- or whatever amount is right for you -- directly supports OCWs sustainability and growth.

Please visit http://ocw.mit.edu/donate to make your donation now.

Kitty Hall: Studying Government

During this election cycle, we have temporarily diverted our homeschooling studies from ancient civilizations to the modern era.

Sophia Claire has built up a series of found-object "buildings" and has established a new government in our little kitchen corridor.




No, not City Hall, says Sophia: Kitty Hall, where duly elected kitties make rules and follow them.

Clinical Symptoms of Homeschooling

Six-year-old Sophia Claire had brought along a book bag filled with good things to read, when she accompanied me to my dental appointment. Kindly making conversation, the hygienist asked S.C. to name some of her "favorite story books."

Sophia paused to think before responding, "Well, the most interesting book I've read recently is a biography of Marie Curie which explains how she discovered radium."

Reacting with only a barely perceptible, merry twinkling of eyes, the hygienist smiled nonchalantly, "Oh! So, are you homeschoolers?"

Planning Parenthood ... or, Getting to Know Us

"Children are still getting to know their parents. I'm only 5 years old, and so I'm still getting to know you and Daddy. ...I'd like to observe you more, so that I'll know if I can trust you with my babies someday."


Every morning, 5-year-old Sophia Claire wakes as a wise woman, as if freshly roused from a collective dream, draped in a mist of musings from ancient grandmothers. Perhaps she, too, will be a grandmother one day. 'Til then --

Musings -- or, perhaps more appropriately, mewsings -- on our present-day experiences as a homeschooling family will be included here on these pages.



Perhaps I should mention -- Sophia Claire's alternative (pretend) self is a kitten. After all, Sophia Claire's adopted sisters, twin domestic short-haired calico kittens, share her birthday as adopted ones sometimes do. Which is to say, we don't know their real birthday, since they were rescued from a shelter, thanks to the caring people of AARF Atlanta.