Hi all. I’m Catherine Cromar. I studied Chemical Engineering as an undergraduate at UC San Diego, and Materials Engineering in graduate school at UC Irvine. I have done extensive coursework in quantum mechanics and nuclear chemistry, and was an intern at Argonne National Lab. My education taught me to research very complex topics, distill them down to their fundamentals, and apply them as needed.

I am currently working on a book titled How to Help Your Child with School. This book is a way for me to help other parents teach their own kids, empowering them with knowledge of how kids learn. I jokingly consider How to Help Your Child with School to be my PhD dissertation (if parenthood were something you could get a doctorate in).

As a stay-at-home mom of six kids, when I am not sitting at the table helping with homework, I study German and French, paint watercolors, or pull out my chemistry textbooks just for fun.

I also spend a large portion of my free time reading nonfiction: books on education of course, but also on energy, linguistics, cognitive science, and big history, among other topics.

Having spent the past fifteen years helping my six kids with reading, math, and all things elementary school, I have abundant experience in how to help kids with school. I generally get along with my kids’ teachers and learn a lot from them, which I then apply to homeschooling when one of my kids needs it—or when a pandemic arises. I have also worked as a tutor, developed math questions for state standardized tests, and have been a soccer coach and cubmaster.