A Short Summary of Serendipity

Parents never know when a little serendipity will enrich their families. As my husband points out in my favorite of his blog posts Small Things (his blog tagline is: Maximizing the serendipity around you) it's so important to be open to the small experiences of life. And I would add that in doing so, parents often find we reach our larger goals and dreams.

For example, last August I needed a website designer. So I emailed my friend Susan Danzinger of the Daily Lit (a fabulous tool for free e-reading for Busy Parents.) Susan suggested that I speak her friend Debbie Stier at Perfect Score Project, a site I've since followed with avid attention. (What parent doesn't wonder if it's truly possible to get a perfect score on the SAT's? )  And as a former teacher, Debbie's personal quest for the perfect SAT score fascinated me. So I began reading about why Debbie found Kahn Academy SAT training more helpful than some of the older, classic SAT preparatory institutes.

A few months later, when my daughter began preparing to take the ISEE exam she confronted some areas of math she needed to review. And in order to help her, so I need to do my math homework (quickly!) So I began clicking around the Kahn Academy videos. My husband and I had been familiar this site for a few years but we hadn't used it.

I was blown away by the brilliant simplicity of Kahn math videos. So often, I’ve wanted to help my children with their math but just needed a quick review for myself. Kahn Academy has provides that and it offers the snippets of other content parents often need to help their children study or just to learn more about a topic of interest.

Now we have one more Learning Tool in our home that could lead us to other places. (I'm considering learning more about Black Holes.) By opening ourselves to these smaller experiences, to the serendipity of various interactions, my family will travel and grow without leaving our home.