short bio:
Patricia Zaballos is a former public elementary school teacher who homeschooled with her three children for twenty years. Her essays have appeared in Salon, Mothering Magazine, Literary Mama, Life Learning Magazine, Natural Life Magazine, and elsewhere, and for several years she wrote a column for Home/School/Life Magazine. In 2018 Patricia was accepted into Kate Moses’ year-long book development project, Bookgardan, and has continued to work under Kate’s mentorship. In 2018 and 2019, she was a writer-in-residence at Craigardan, a multi-disciplinary residency program for artists in the Adirondacks. Patricia was accepted into StoryStudio Chicago’s Essay Collection in a Year program in 2020, studying with Megan Stielstra. She is at work on a memoir of her family’s homeschooling life.
long, first-person, let’s-get-to-know-each-other bio:
I am a writer, a knitter, a beekeeper. A greedy reader of essays and memoir. An aspiring photographer. I’ve known my husband since we were eleven, but we didn’t date until our last year of college, when I chased him down because I know what I like. I love little in life more than gathering around a table to eat, drink and talk. If I like you, I will cook for you. And if I really like you, when I laugh at your jokes I will sometimes snort.
My writing has appeared in Salon, Literary Mama, Life Learning Magazine, Mothering Magazine and elsewhere, and for a few years I was a columnist for home/school/life magazine. Links to my work are here. I’ve been a writer-in-residence at Craigardan in upstate New York, working with the writer Kate Moses, and am currently studying with Megan Stielstra in StoryStudio Chicago’s Essay Collection in a Year program. I’ve also written a book for parents called Workshops Work! A Parent’s Guide to Facilitating Writer’s Workshops for Kids. I’m at work on a memoir of my family’s homeschooling life.
For twenty years, I homeschooled my three kids. I’ve written many, many posts here on the topics of homeschooling and raising creative kids, with a particular focus on helping kids love writing. If you’re interested in those posts, head over to the homeschooling tab, where I share our homeschooling story and have tried to organize my work for you.
If you wonder why the heck I call this place a Wonder Farm, the story is here.
Please talk to me! I love it when you readers leave comments. That conversation is what keeps me here. I’ve learned so much from you. Writing with a reader in mind is such an important skill for a writer, yet it can be a hard one to learn, as you sit at your desk alone, typing away. You, dear Wonder Farm readers, have written back to me from the beginning, and worked your way into my heart and thoughts so that I can’t possibly write without thinking of you. I thank you for that.