Essays by Alanna Gallo
From the Other Side
Essays from a former teacher on what school is actually doing to kids, and what you can do about it at home. A new essay every week.
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IMACS Math Review: How It’s Going for Two Kids Who Are Ahead in Math
Disclosure: IMACS is a brand partner. They’re covering tuition for my two youngest this fall in exchange for me telling you how…
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Conversations about school, screens and the childhood we’re trying to give our kids, for the car, the walk or the dishes.
On YouTube
@thealannagallo
Short, straight-talking videos on the same ideas as the essays, plus a look at what our homeschool week actually looks like.
Latest essays
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CrunchLabs Build Box Review: What Almost a Year of Boxes Looked Like in Our House
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. My…
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Happsy Mattress Review: Six Years and Six Mattresses Later
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every…
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After-School Restraint Collapse: Why Your Kid Falls Apart the Minute They Get Home
I heard some version of the same thing from parents over and over in eleven years of teaching. Their kid was doing…
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When Your Kid Doesn’t Want to Go to School (and the Stomach Aches Start)
It was always the same kids. A few students who needed the bathroom, and then needed it again, and then needed to…
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Why Do Kids Hate School? What a Former Teacher Saw From the Front of the Room
Sometimes there’s nothing hidden underneath it. Parents go looking for the secret reason, the bully, the teacher, the diagnosis, and sometimes the…
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Hating School Isn’t Hating Learning: How to Bring Back a Love of Learning
Most kids who say they hate learning have never actually been asked to learn anything they cared about. They’ve been asked to…
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How to Start Homeschooling (Even in the Middle of the Year)
The first thing almost every family does when they decide to homeschool is buy curriculum. I’ve helped a lot of families pull…
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Deschooling Is for the Parent Too
People say it to me all the time. “Well, you were a teacher, so homeschooling must be easy for you.” And I…
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What Is a Microschool? A Homeschooling Parent’s Guide to Finding (or Starting) One
My son takes a few classes a week at a local secular microschool, and finding it took real work. Microschools aren’t rare…
One essay a week, in your inbox.
On what’s actually happening to childhood, and what you can do about it in your own house. No spam, and you can leave whenever you like.
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