Last year we went to the Not Back to School picnic and met oodles of lovely families with neat kids from all over Vancouver. Several parents of littler ones gravitated together, mostly nursing babies as our 3- and 4 year olds ran from one end of the field to the other and painted each other head to toe with face paints.
This year, the picnic seemed more important, being that so many of Esmé’s peers are kindergarten-aged. I ended up in more conversations about homeschool logistics than breastfeeding. There was less random running around and more focused play, be it with older kids or younger. We’re so thankful to connect with this community that we’re growing into and finding our footing in. Finding families whose approach to life-learning and unschooling echo ours. Finding folks to hang out with, younger and older.
I love gatherings of homeschooling families. I love the unfettered kid-ness of the children as they chase each other around, and how they accept each other no matter age or clothing or hairstyle, how they’re drawn together across ages into little pods around shared interests, be it circus arts, sandcastles, tag, or Magic the Gathering. I love that the parents get each other without prefacing everything with caveats or philosophical preambles. I love that for as many different ways there are to homeschool or unschool or alternatively school, there are families of every style, makeup and energy. And I very much love how generous the homeschool community is with sharing ideas, resources and knowledge, especially as we are at the beginning end of our journey through the years.
