Category: Z3 Adventures

Posted on

On the Loose

The learning lifestyle happens everyday. Sometimes it has its greatest power when there are no plans at all.

This morning we grabbed some friends and headed to Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin, Delaware.

During hours of hiking and playing, we learned about spotted lantern flys, Willys-Overland Motor, sycamore bark, archeology, jewel weed, stinging nettle, and much more. We climbed, threw off clothing, dug for treasure, and took our time to observe spotted lantern flies at work on a tree and a redtail hawk hunting in the tall grass.

Once you get in the rhythm of unschooling, you realize more and more what you have accomplished at the end of a day.

God bless, I appreciate and thank you,

Jason

Posted on

Learning Through Adventure and Challenge

We have a rainy day ahead of us as we prepare to attend a camping weekend filled with yoga and music.

We’ve enjoyed fair weather camping through much of the Lockdown and this weekend offers several challenges: potentially dangerous storms, new territory, and our first COVID-rules festival.

The most useful learning happens as you stretch into the unknown. I know that we will broaden our world, our skills, and our knowledge through this weekend.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason

Posted on

Peony is a Funny Word

We got a tip that differently colored peonies smelled differently, so we found out for ourselves!
—
My beautiful girlfriend and I took the boys to Winterthur to explore. We spent a lot of time with our faces in flowers. Sweet, sour, musky, stanky, subtle, strong…they were all unique. Westen joked that we were pollinators and I’m still sneezing.
—
The later time slot and iffy forecast gave us near-exclusive access to the gardens. We spotted a fox, bluebirds, swifts, a toad, koi, the reddest cardinal, crane fly or dragonfly molts, a blue heron, dining vultures, and the wonder we always experience at Winterthur.

God bless, thank you, I appreciate you,

Jason

Posted on

The World of The Stray

I read Betsy Wyeth’s The Stray to my sons years ago. Westen couldn’t read when he posed for this picture, but it became a treasure map for us as we explored #MyBrandywine. —-

Betsy’s story didn’t treat children as fragile eggs to spare from the rough and tumble of her anthropomorphic world and Jaime’s illustrations were alive with the characters of Chadds Ford.

—-

Betsy was no small part of our burgeoning love of museums, explorations, and narrative.

—-

Thank you, Betsy, may you rest in peace.

—-

Thank you, Brandywine River Museum of Art, for being home to beauty and wonder.

Posted on

Getting Around Delaware

This April we hiked Roberts Farm in Odessa; Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Smyrna; Alapocas and Bellevue State Parks, Russell Peterson Wildlife Refuge, and Banning Park in Wilmington, with countless little walks around this and that neighborhood.

We hiked with old friends and new. We discovered new things in old places. We found out that we’re not the only ones who think the world has gone belly-up mad.

God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason

Posted on

The Adventure Lifestyle

Westen wasn’t six months old when he went on his first camping trip. On his second birthday he got his very own sleeping bag.

Nine years later and that bag has kept him cozy in campgrounds from Michigan to Georgia, music festivals from Maryland to New York, sleepovers with homeless families at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, sleepless nights with friends, and a wedding in Pennsylvania.

As we prepare to celebrate his eleventh birthday, cancelled camping trips and music festivals dot the calendar. I don’t know when or where the next overnight adventure will be, but I know we’ll be ready.

Posted on

Three Days Is Plenty, Thank You Very Much

I don’t know how you humans do it. We hardly left our property for three days and it tore at our minds and emotions. Easter holiday, rain storms, lots of Lego, and a Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone audiobook conspired to keep us inside, but they weren’t enough to keep us sane.

A small errand got us out after solving a dead battery (even our transportation had gone mad with inaction). We bought some junk food (unheard of in our recent immuno-boosting frenzy) and aimed to play in the sun. We trolled neighborhood schools and public parks for a secluded playground to enjoy out of sight of snitches. We ended up with a beautiful patch of green, bags of chips and pretzels, and all the sunshine we could absorb. My sons rolled down hills, climbed trees, and abused dandelions. All in pajamas and sandals. We wrestled and I wondered just how many days I had left before these two will be overpowering me at will.

We found some new spots to explore in adjacent neighborhoods and picked up a pizza to watch the Lego Masters finale at my girlfriend’s place. After a week without TV (post coming on that), it was a fine way to return to the boob tube.

Adventure is a call that we ignore at our peril. Even if just a bike ride down a new avenue, our spirits crave the unknown. I learned today that I must be intentional in feeding that craving in isolating times.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason

Posted on

Grasping or Letting Go?

Finite is easier to grasp than infinite. Fear is easier than Love. Infinite will not be grasped, only glimpsed. The more I work on loving, the greater the project becomes. Love doesn’t know boundaries, it doesn’t know limits, finites, or fear.
–
I’ve spent the last few days on finites. I’ve felt fear over an empty calendar, the loss of seemingly critical support groups, the backlash against a hug or small gathering…
–
This morning the sky was full of pretty things, a cotton candy sunrise, a crescent moon, a planet (maybe), a star, and all the life that comes with a late winter day.
–
I remembered this phrase, “We will gain more than we have lost.” It came to me in one of those tongues of the Holy Spirit, some piece of me that is often quiet.
–
I wrote it down on a square of plywood two years ago and imagine it has been burned to ash, an invisible molecule of carbon on the wind.
–
A new life calls, a new adventure dawns.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason

Temple

Posted on

Rare Disease Day at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children

Home educators are hyper diverse. Each family has its own reasons for choosing to take full ownership of their child(ren)’s education. Within multi-child homes, there are varieties of reasons for choosing the lifestyle, or not choosing it as some siblings attend brick-and-mortar schools. Temporally, the reasons may change as children and family dynamics grow.

My personal journey evolved from not knowing the words “unschooling” or “deschooling” to being a cheerleader of these approaches.

Illness can be one of the saddest reasons a family chooses to home educate. Not only do these families bear the burden of a child with compromised health, but they often take on the responsibility of educating that child. It was a world I hardly knew about before joining the home ed community.

Rare diseases are an extra burden as families have to navigate uncharted territories, at home and in health care.

Today will be a learning experience for us. We will learn humility. We will learn about pain. We will learn about how blessed we are for the health we have. We will learn hope. We will learn about the strength of children and families and the human soul.

The most important learning is uncomfortable. It must kill old beliefs and renew them like the Phoenix from the ashes.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason

Posted on

Z3 Adventures: 3 Dog Garage

I’m not a “car guy” in the classic sense. I love attending everything from drag racing on the beach or asphalt to monster trucks and NASCAR races, but I don’t know makes, models, and history.

That’s why it was such a thrill to be among experts at 3 Dog Garage today. Many of the cars on display have raced and some currently still do. There’s an energy in a building full of beautiful machines and art with hardly a dividing line between the two.

With polite requests, my sons were allowed to sit in a few of these gorgeous beasts.

The neon sign came from a restaurant in California and was a stunning highlight of the third floor gallery.

I was impressed by Ross Myers’ library and dreamed of having something similar one day.

Myers’ first car became his national award winner, “First Love.” It’s accented by this powerful symbol of love throughout the design.

I’m intent on finding the artist responsible for the pop art pieces featuring Audrey Hepburn, Elvis, Steve McQueen, and Marilyn Monroe. They are fun, inventive, and hold lots of exciting surprises.

On par, we were nearly the last group out of the museum. It’s a rare treat to visit this special place and we squeezed all we could out of it.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason