Tag: home education

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Library Programs for Home Educators in Delaware

As the home education community grows, more organizations are reaching out to provide enrichment opportunities. This is obviously great news for those looking to educate their children outside of the school setting, but it also strengthens the broader community. When there are more places to gather for fun and learning, families are more likely to put down their devices and engage with their neighbors. We become better equipped to communicate with one another, constructively share grievances, and solve problems.

I applaud local libraries for creating programs geared toward the home-education community.

Brandywine Hundred Library

Homeschooling 101 and Homeschooling 101 Science Fun
Wednesday, October 17th, 6:30 – 8:00 pm: I am very excited about this pair of events for parents and children. A panel of home-educating parents will present information and answer questions about the process in Delaware. Topics will range from the details of Delaware’s laws and regulations and curriculum options to the wide variety of educational philosophies that are being implemented. This will be great for those who are curious as well as those who have already decided to take this journey. Home education is constantly changing and there is always something new to learn, no matter where you are on the path.

And, in true homeschool fashion, you won’t need a babysitter for children ages 5-12. Science activities will be available and children of all educational stripes will get to interact in a separate space during the program.

Art School for Homeschoolers
Tuesdays, October 2nd, November 13th, and December 4th, 1:30 – 2:30 pm: Exercise your imagination, creativity, and fine motor skills using various art media. Ages 5-12.

Book Club for Homeschoolers
Tuesdays, October 16th and November 20th, 1:30 – 2:30 pm: Dive deeper into a book through activities and discussion. Stop at the Youth Reference Desk for the current title. Registration is suggested. Ages 8-12.

Hour of Code with Minecraft for Homeshoolers
Friday, December 7th, 1:30 – 2:30 pm: Learn beginning programming and logical problem-solving with Minecraft. Ages 8-11.

Dover Public Library

Elements Home School Co-Op Teen Meet-up
New teen homeschool group: Beginning Friday, September 21st, Elements will host a weekly teen game/activity group for area homeschoolers. Teens will be meeting in the Teen Loft at the Dover Public Library each Friday from 1:00 – 3:00 pm. Come play games and socialize with other area homeschoolers ( DE, MD, VA, NJ, PA). Drop-ins are welcome, ages 14 (or 8th grade) and up.

Frankford Public Library

Homeschool Show and Tell
Tuesdays, September 25th and October 30th, 2:00 – 3:00 pm: Bring in an item from home and practice your public speaking skills by sharing it with the crowd. Instruction provided. All ages are welcome to participate.

Laurel Public Library

Elementary Homeschool Art Class
Note: This program is currently full, but worth keeping an eye on for future iterations.
Art classes will meet every 1st and 3rd Tuesday from October 2nd – April 16th, except January which will be the 2nd and 4th Tuesday due to the New Years holiday (no classes in December). There is a limit of 12 students per class and you must be able to commit to the entire series as each class builds upon the next. Open to students in elementary grades. Registration is required.

Middle/High School Homeschool Art Class
Note: This program is currently full, but worth keeping an eye on for future iterations.
Art classes will meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from October 9th – April 23rd, except January which will be the 3rd and 5th Tuesday due to the New Years holiday (no classes in December). There is a limit of 12 students per class and you must be able to commit to the entire series as each class builds upon the next. Open to students in middle and high school. Registration is required. 

Homeschool Book Club
Thursday October 11th, 1:00 – 2:00 pm: Enjoy a new book that will include discussions and a fun activity. Open to students in 1st – 8th grade. Registration is required.

See you at a library,
Jason

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Legoland’s Home School Weeks

Legoland Discovery Center at Plymouth Meeting Mall is a must for any Lego Maniac. Home educators have the benefit of being able to visit attractions like this during quieter hours. In the coming weeks (September 10 – 14 and 17 – 21), Legoland will host their Home School Weeks, providing discounted admission and Educational Workshops at no extra cost.

Legoland offers hours of building, playing, learning, entertaining, and downright fun. The variety of activities (laser dodging, challenge building, race car construction, reflex games, padded play zone, 4-D movie theater, free building, and more) offer children the chance to exercise their energy between sit-down build sessions. 

What-A-Great-Experience Education Workshop


Go with friends or make some there as collaborative building can lead to simple masterpieces like this.

And don’t forget to bring your minifigures for trading! They don’t have to have the 5 components discussed in the Minifigure Swap Monday post, but I still like to take figures that are in good shape as other children may be interested. This is how it works: Every employee has at least one Lego minifigure on his or her name tag and must trade with anyone who asks. It may seem weird to get close enough to see what is there, but they’re used to it. I enjoy this especially as the children get to interact with the employees and often end up in fun conversations. And every once in a while, there’s an enthusiastic trader who has a secret stash of figures they may be willing to trade. Don’t just take your construction worker because you have ten of them, you may want to bring something a little fancier in case you get a chance to find something special.

You will come away with some cool new little guys and there is no limit, so fill those pockets.

Check out the schedule for workshops and plan your trip. Don’t forget some type of home education documentation. They’re not strict, but it’s a good idea to be prepared.

God bless,
Jason

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Lighting Fires

This has been a big week. I skated along the edge of disaster and took on three new responsibilities that mean a lot to me and provide me the opportunity to create value for others. I can’t rate them as each is aligned with my passions.

The invitation to write for Macaroni Kid Wilmington-Newark-New Castle gives me a tangible way to share and promote many of the enriching experiences our area has to offer. Nothing in my life is expressly separate from our grief journey, but this will be much more than the story of us “moving on.”

As a volunteer Community Outreach Moderator for Homeschool Delaware I’ll be able to create formal relationships with many of the local educational resource providers that we already know and love. I’ll also get to form new relationships and build connections between the home-education community and the wider world. There are many local resources not being exploited during the school day. I believe that home education is for all; not necessarily full time, but as a lifestyle outside of school. By facilitating more programs directed at smaller groups of children with broader age ranges, I believe we can benefit families of all educational stripes.

I’m also back in a managing role with Classics II, the over-30, co-recreational soccer team that has meant so much to me in the last ten years. My late wife was my co-manager, accountant, cheerleader, roster adviser, inspiration to stay fit and play hard (she wasn’t easily impressed, it was my greatest joy when she was), and confidant. A couple great friends and teammates have stepped up to help me lead the team again. 

spanish time GIF

There are FOUR new responsibilities! I’m coaching a FIRST Lego League Jr. team. I’m not quite an AFOL (okay, maybe I am), but my sons are insane for the bricks and programming, so this is the best game in town. We finally received all the materials and will start sharing that journey here as well.

So yeah, I could use some of your prayers. 

God bless,
Jason

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Who Is Delaware Dad?








Who is Delaware Dad?

When our second son was born seven years ago my wife and I decided that I would leave my job as a proofreader and editor to take care of our boys. Exploring our world with these wide-eyed wonders quickly became my calling. We visited museums, zoos, parks, and any place that would admit us. I saw the unexpected connections the boys made between our expeditions, read aloud sessions, and play time. “Unexpected” would be a good title for the rest of the story. We watched how they learned and decided to try home education. We analyzed the trials and tribulations, looked at the results, and fell in love with the lifestyle. Smaller in material ways, but seemingly boundless in love and learning.

We became libertarians, then Christians. We put God, family, love, and learning at the center of our universe and it seemed to be working out.

Then my wife, Mary, got the flu. She was healthy and strong by any standard. She went to her doctor, we went to urgent care, we went to the emergency department, we went back to the emergency department. She was gone six days later.

Delaware Dad was born shortly before Mary’s passing. I wanted to share our experiences with home education, my love of Delaware and the tri-state area, and help other families find their own adventures. I am so excited and grateful to be able to write for Macaroni Kid. We haven’t stopped exploring, learning, and loving.

God has given us an unexpected life. One that I believe is worth sharing and can help others. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook to share your local favorites, educational opportunities, and any questions you may have about our grief journey. I look forward to bringing the best Delaware has to offer to you and your family.

God bless,
Jason Zerbey

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#3Zs Road Trip Day One

Excited and up early to get too many things finalized to leave home!

I put Matt McWilliams and Tom Woods in my ear and start the coffee maker, in the dark. I’m totally inspired by this home educating, libertarian dad who is supporting his family. Okay, he’s not flying solo, but this makes me think I’ve got a chance to make this insane life work for me and my sons. I’m listening very closely as the coffee urn reaches its maximum capacity, and the brewer keeps doing its work regardless.

So it seems life won’t be perfect.

Not a problem. I’ve had too many people inspire me and too many reasons to forge a meaningful life.

God bless,
Jason

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The Learning is Out There

When we started on this educational journey, we only knew the words “home school.” We got desks set up and slowly began to transform part of our house into a school room. We didn’t recognize it right away, but major problems were there from the start. We weren’t being rigid, but we were looking at education as a mere “part” of our lives. Even worse, narrowing it to a physical area of our home. “School” was the other problem. We were trying to replicate an environment of learning that hadn’t been satisfactory for ourselves. Every time we left the house to go to a museum, park, arboretum, music venue, or even the store, our children’s curiosity led us down unexpected paths of enrichment. We were slow to learn from these experiences that the excitement of life and knowledge was out in the community. Engaging with new ideas and experts in their own environments.

Photo credit unknown

Photo credit unknown

 

 

 

 

 

 

These engagements often produce much more than expected. They cascade into different disciplines and new places of wonder. From the first time I spotted our older boy’s “birthday painting” (Howard Pyle’s The Fight on Lexington Common taught us when the American War for Independence began), Delaware Art Museum has been a frequent source of these moments. After having the pleasure of meeting Brian Selznick at the opening of the From Houdini to Hugo exhibit, we had a chance conversation with a security guard who had become familiar with the boys. He introduced us to the work of filmmaker Georges Méliès, the inspiration behind Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. As we sought out his films at the library, we learned about early film, World War I, and how onscreen special effects were born from Méliès’s live stage act. I also learned about who was behind some of the fantastical science fiction film clips that had charged my imagination as a child. Our boys grew a love for silent films and we returned many times to that gallery to explore early paleontology, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the art of historical storytelling.

A few years later we would read Selznick’s Wonderstruck, about a boy who just lost his mother, and that same security guard would attend Mary’s memorial service. Delaware Art Museum has been central to our educational life, a life that doesn’t keep attendance Monday through Friday, but a life that is with us always and everywhere. It’s a life where learning and community are interlocked and essential to one another.

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/G1fb75f2WN8?rel=0″ title=”Mister Rogers – Human beings learn best and most from other human beings” description=”Mister Rogers – Human beings learn best and most from other human beings” /]

God bless,
Jason

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Stand On It

Whether it was monster trucks, dragsters, stock cars, motocross, four wheeling, or getting to work on time, Mary liked it fast and loud. Little did I know when I started dating this pretty hippy gal that she would take me to my first NASCAR race and accompany me to countless drag races and motor sports events.

Mary was a sensitive, conscientious, and graceful woman who could get down there on the fence with her boys and feel the rubber flying off funny car tires, dotting our skin and clothes with black. She could stand at the edge of a gravel parking lot and watch Bigfoot launch into the air and smash cars twenty feet away. She could sit under the summer sun at Dover International Speedway for hours on end rooting for, and against, the drivers. She was meant to be the mom to two gasoline fume loving boys.

Those boys still tease me about not driving as fast as Mom. My younger says, “Yeah, she had a metal foot.”
“That’s lead foot, Son.”
“Nah, I like ‘metal.'”
Metal foot it is.

Mary enjoyed so many things in life. From the quietest of museum galleries to the loudest of cars. She showed our boys that life was to be lived. Experiences became the core of our home education philosophy. Expose a child to all the wonderful creations of God and man and let that child find his own loves and passions. The boys are a lot like Mary, up for anything and ready to take the lead on an adventure.

I fear they’ll also drive like her.

God bless,
Jason

Photo credit unknown.

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Home?

Green heron, blue heron, swifts, geese and goslings, robins, flies, dogs big and small, friends, mallards, sparrows, and innumerable creatures we couldn’t name. The only thing that was odd not to see was a green-winged macaw named Rudy. We didn’t plan an adventure at Brandywine Park in Wilmington, but we got it.

This is why “home” education is an inadequate term. I couldn’t have identified half of those birds five years ago. I probably wouldn’t have even spotted some of them if I hadn’t shifted my perception of what education meant. It’s holistic for us. We sit down by a river for lunch and three mallards put on a courtship battle at our feet. We’ve got a day’s worth of lessons right there. Art in the surprisingly blue feathers of the female, Drama in the males’ struggle, Biology, Ecology…the boys’ questions turn to Sociology and Psychology. Forget lessons, a curriculum has waddled upon us!

Much of the base knowledge has come from books and learning in the home, but the excitement and application is there in the unexpectedness. And most of our birding knowledge has come from time in the field with experts of varying degrees. The green heron is a great example. We were at Ashland Nature Center and asked a naturalist about the interesting bird that was fishing along the Red Clay Creek. She told us it was a green heron, but there was disagreement among the Zerbeys so we did our follow-up research. Sure enough, this bird we hadn’t heard of, and is hardly green, was introduced to our world.

The journey for the right words continues…

God bless,
Jason

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Zerbey World

Mary and I didn’t discuss our children’s education until we had two of them. It seems absurd now that we spent so little time thinking about how we were guiding their development from the earliest stages to what was next.

I left my job as a proofreader/editor to care for our boys when the second was born and childcare expenses (+ gas + tolls + time away from family) became more than we would tolerate.

Over the next few months I made a Halloween costume, saw live music during lunch time, visited museums, and got to tell Mary a thousand stories about our days.

I didn’t regret it for one second. It was the first time that I felt like I was doing what I was born to do. Mary saw it too. We stopped talking about finding freelance work or what am I going to do “next”? We had to invent “next,” or so we thought.

We narrowed our focus to kindergarten and started with our own experiences, except for my first crush (I’ll never forget our student teacher, Ms. Austin), I had no idea what happened in that year.

Hold on. I remember the following summer. I did the math on my age difference with Ms. Austin and resolved I had the patience if she could find it. I also convinced my mom to help me write a letter to her. The first math and writing lessons I ever cared about were created by my own initiative. Ms. Austin wrote back, let me down easy, and showed me the power of knowledge. It wasn’t success that got me excited, but it was a taste of the adult world. I engaged with an adult outside the school system and took my chance like an equal.

That’s what I want for my boys. Not to subvert and battle the system like I had to, but to live outside of it. Not just taste the adult world, but live in it.

God bless,
Jason

 

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Don’t Read Shakespeare

It started about here.

Our son was less than a month old when I read Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days to him. Okay, he slept through most of it and failed the quiz, but I was too excited to withhold my love for literature. Bonus: Mary never got tired of giggling at my pronunciation of “Passepartout.”

Eight years later we reread the same cheap translation (sorry, Jules), mapped Phileas Fogg’s circumnavigation of the globe, and that little boy was on stage in a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

I dreaded reading at the primary level and I wanted to spare my children the years of easy readers and dumbed-down everything. But you can’t go from ABCs to Robert Louis Stevenson overnight, right?

Why not? Stevenson’s Treasure Island was my first experiment. We had seen the N.C. Wyeth paintings at Brandywine River Museum of Art many times and what boy doesn’t love a pirate adventure? We picked up the Scribner Storybook Classic edition at our library (Wyeth galore), and trucked through the skeleton of the story directly. Next, we got the audio book, grabbed the unabridged edition, and alternated between reading at home and listening to the story in the car. We’ve gone through Wells’s “The Time Machine” and Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” in much the same manner. Graphic novels are another great tool we employ.

I was going to work my way back in time towards Shakespeare and Chaucer, but a hitch arose. Delaware Shakespeare was bringing “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” to the people, for free! Sure, our elder son had seen “Twelfth Night” when he was three months old and had delivered a line at the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing. Even his younger brother knew that Shakespeare was not just a really cool Lego figure. But Pericles! I’d hardly heard of it and had little time to prep them. I went to Wikipedia and Sparknotes and had small hope of relating this convoluted story line to the boys. Fortunately, Edith Nesbit came to the rescue with her Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (audio available for free at Librivox). We sat in the parking lot of the senior center and finished up listening to and discussing Nesbit’s retelling and I prayed that these 5- and 7-year-old boys could stay engaged for the full production.

I wasn’t as quick to come to tears then as I am now, but it was the kind of home education win that seemed to be years away. It was nothing short of beautiful as they sat front row and disappeared into the Prince of Tyre’s tumultuous world.

Reading Shakespeare isn’t for everyone. In fact, no child needs to read it in the original (controversies over that word aside). Watching Shakespeare? Experiencing it? Those are for everyone. Delaware Shakespeare’s Community Tours have reached out to the uninitiated in the elderly, imprisoned, homeless, mentally ill, and under-served populations of Delaware and Philadelphia in meaningful ways. We’ve witnessed the magic of Shakespeare touch people who never thought they could penetrate the language. A good production will move you and you may not even know why.

You don’t have a personal passion for literature, or any subject, to encourage appreciation and *gasp* teach it! I look to children as mentors when it comes to curiosity. I try to model my approach to knowledge with the same creative and naive perspective that they naturally embody. We were all that way once, when did we lose it?

God bless,

Jason

p.s. – Maybe we’ll see you at Lantern Theater’s production of The Tempest.