patricia zaballos

Hello! I’m Patricia, a writer and former elementary school teacher, forever obsessed with how people learn. Those notions hit overdrive in 1996 when I made the somewhat radical decision–for the time–to homeschool with my three now-grown kids. My essays have appeared in Salon, Literary Mama, Life Learning Magazine, Mothering Magazine and elsewhere. For a few fun years I wrote a column for home/school/life magazine and a guide for parents, Workshops Work! A Parent’s Guide to Facilitating Writer’s Workshops for Kids.

My free newsletter, Welcome to the Wonder Farm, centers on changes in childhood and how to maintain independence and creativity for kids. Please subscribe!

Though I’d been a teacher, my kids quickly upended everything I believed about learning, teaching me to trust them and to follow their leads. Before writing my newsletter, for sixteen years I wrote about child-led learning and helping kids retain their creativity on my blog, Wonder Farm. Many posts focus on helping kids love writing, including the still viral-ish How Do Kids REALLY Learn to Write? On the child-led learning page I share my family’s story and have organized some highlights. Maybe you’d like to get lost in the archives.

I’m currently at work on a manuscript, a mashup of personal stories and cultural history exploring how much independence and creativity kids have lost in the past three decades–and how as a mother I pushed back against that culture while also, unwittingly, letting it shape me.

My husband and I are now empty-nesting in this house with the long kitchen table that we built 27 years ago, here among the redwoods in Oakland, CA.

Come find me on TikTok and Instagram where I yammer on about changes in childhood and how we parents and teachers can push back.