From Jefferson to Disney: Happiness as America’s Greatest Legacy and Export
How Jefferson’s ‘pursuit of happiness’ runs from the Declaration of Independence to Walt Disney’s Florida — an idea we traced with five kids across America.
Staff Quarters: How Innovation Has Changed Our Lives and Living Space
How luxury once needed a village of staff — Jekyll Island’s Indian Mound Cottage, where a Rockefeller’s ‘cottage’ gave nearly half its floors to the servants.
St. Augustine, Florida: What It Means to Be First in America
St. Augustine, Florida with five kids — the Spanish fort, the old streets, and what being first in America really means.
Seeing the Invisible: Productive Capacity and Value Creation
Newport’s Gilded Age mansions with five kids — the sheer scale of the houses, the Cliff Walk, and the harder question of where all that wealth came from.
Capitalism and Competition: What is Fair?
Jekyll Island, Georgia — the club where roughly one-sixth of the world’s wealth once wintered, the quiet beach, and a family conversation about what is fair.
Reconstruction’s Dawn: Early Progress and the Challenges Ahead
Beaufort and the Sea Islands, where Reconstruction began — how freedpeople started reclaiming the land, and how we explained that chapter to young children.
Choosing Gratitude: Lessons from the Pilgrims
Plymouth with five kids — the Rock, the cramped lower deck of the Mayflower II, and the fuller, harder story behind the one we tell each Thanksgiving.
From Ruins to Reconciliation: Building Unity in a Divided Nation
The fort where the Civil War began — the boat out, the walk around, and talking about division and repair with children.
Lifting Each Other Up: The Wright Brothers’ Perseverance and Sibling Collaboration
Where the Wright brothers first flew — the dunes at Kill Devil Hills, the marked flight distances, and two siblings who persisted.
Teaching Empathy Through History: How to Use Travel to Build Compassionate Kids
Bringing history alive for kids isn’t dates and battles — it’s imagining daily life, from Washington’s rooms at Mount Vernon to the people who worked them.
Living History: A Choice of What to Preserve
Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown with five kids — the tradespeople, the reenactments, and which history gets preserved.
The Car Fridge: Keeping Beer Cold and Nuggets… Sort of Frozen
The car fridge that keeps a road trip running — cold craft beer from home, the half-open lactose-free milk, and however many chicken nuggets we can Tetris in.
Today’s Compromise, Tomorrow’s Struggle: From Independence to Emancipation to Civil Rights
Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell with five kids — the compromises struck in Philadelphia, and the unfinished struggles they left behind.
The First Presidents: Farmers and Lawyers
Monticello and Montpelier with five kids — the Virginia homes of the first presidents, farmers and lawyers both, and the enslaved households behind the columns.
Portable Pull-Up Bar: The Essential Gym for Our Gymnastics Crew
The portable pull-up bar that keeps our gymnastics crew training on the road — how a doorway gym travels with five kids and still earns its space in the car.
Amazon Basics Dog Crate: The Essential Multi-Use Travel Companion
Why the Amazon Basics dog crate is our most-used piece of travel gear — how one folding crate keeps a Welsh Springer Spaniel settled across a hundred stops.
The History We Choose to Remember: Convict Colonies Forgotten and Remembered
Two nations, two convict pasts — why Australia preserves its convict history at Tasmania’s Port Arthur while America’s is largely forgotten, with kids.
Homeschooling on the Road: Lessons from Beginners
A beginner’s year homeschooling five kids ages 2 to 11 while traveling — the flexibility, the patience, and the structure that kept the oldest three on track.
From Craftsman to Artist: Colonial Villages to Today
Old Sturbridge Village with five kids — an 1830s New England town brought to life, the blacksmith and the mills, and how everyday craft work turned into art.
Poetry and Politics: How Literature Can Supercharge Mere Humans
How literature can supercharge mere humans — teaching poetry and politics to five kids on the road, and why the right words outlast the people who wrote them.