My older son is working behind the scenes in Pages Alive Theater‘s production of Much Ado About Nothing. He has a natural talent for comedy, but I can tell he is craving another go at tragedy.
His first speaking part was as a messenger in Macbeth and the Scottish play has been on his mind as he thinks more about theater.
Here he recreates the opening scene with automatons as witches in opposition to the martial dress of Macbeth and Banquo.
Alternate visions and interpretations are always encouraged in our learning lifestyle and Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth served as an inspiration for this build.
My younger son partnered with a friend to build after I proposed an adaptation of Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
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An unschool friend has started a podcast where he interviews musicians in the punk and hardcore scenes. He’s taking his loves of live music and content creation to a new level with a very listenable show.
As music fans who aren’t all that knowledgeable about these genres, my boys and I have really enjoyed the first few episodes. It is most exciting to watch Gabe evolve as an interviewer and host.
I hope we can spread the word about his show and get him a few more listeners and watchers.
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 8:31-39 RSV
An internet disagreement went well. That might be enough of a story to hit Publish right now and be done with it. However, it got more interesting as my conversation partner direct messaged me because his next thoughts might be construed as pagan or occult and he didn’t want the potential backlash.
There’s a narrowness to allowable Christian discourse that doesn’t help our messy search for truth. Certain precepts are not to be questioned and wisdom from non-Christian religious teachings is all but outlawed.
In this video, Jonathan Pageau addresses some of the knee-jerk reactions that Christians have to symbols they don’t understand.
My understanding is that God uses all things to His good. I also understand that symbols can be powerful and one shouldn’t be lackadaisical when engaging with them. The answer is to intentionally focus on God. If you stay in His love, you will receive wisdom and remain in a good place.
Learning is fun for me, I play with ideas and try to remain aware that I might be wrong about everything. That keeps Ego in check and prepares me to change course when truth is revealed.
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Westen has been training in the adult program at Elevated Studios for a few weeks.
He was rewarded for his hard work with what will be his final youth belt. He’s gone without earning a youth belt for a long time. Once he realized that it meant little towards his eventual adult promotions, he stopped completing the tests for stripes and belts. He no longer needed the outward signal of his experience, he showed it in his performance and mentoring of newer students.
I’m so proud of this little guy, he’s undaunted by his size and he is a force in the adult program.
Two years ago we started Allschoolers. Every homeschool group in Delaware had stopped meeting in accordance with government dictates and a small number of families insisted that our children needed to be outside with friends. We consisted of more than just homeschoolers. “Virtual, “crisis,” and “temporary” public and private schoolers joined us from the start. We chose the name “Allschoolers” to ensure that what we were providing was available to all families who felt the same needs.
I was poking around some of the admin tools on Facebook today and I’d like to share some of the exciting and illuminating statistics I found.
We’re nearly at 800 members! Most all them are Delaware residents and represent an entire family that participates in our meets.
I do not know how Facebook defines “active,” but we are regularly reaching hundreds of families with our posts and an increasing number of members are sharing events, pictures, and insights. Only one of the top posts was written by an administrator, another encouragement for me as I hope to steward a community full of leaders. Three of the top posts are turning into new in-person events arranged by members.
I didn’t have to cherry pick stats, every metric demonstrates an engaged, growing, and local community.
I’ve joked about being in the 1% of home educators as a dad at the head of our educational helm and it is great to see that I’m in more of the 5-6% range! These dads are super active and an important part of our group. Our focus is always on inclusion and being a place where dads step up and participate isn’t terribly common in homeschooling circles (anectodally speaking, that is).
“Diversity” can be a loaded term, but for our little state, it seems like we are attracting people from all over. It’s exciting to meet new people and learn about all the different approaches to home education that families are employing.
I was a naysayer from the start of this project, but it did seem worth a shot when everything had changed for the worse. I’m so glad that I was so wrong. We’ve created something special and each new member brings an important piece to our community.
I haven’t listened to Colion Noir before, but in this conversation with Joe Rogan he lays out some important statistics about gun violence in the United States.
The Zerbeys are having a stripped-down, analog week.
Today we visited the Little Libraries in our neighborhood and topped them off with books from our collection. We were successful in unloading an entire crate and only came home with two new finds.
