How We "School" Part 2

This is really more about how we found community. When Lil'Bug was a little over a year old I sought out homeschool groups online and park days to attend. I attended these with another mom who had a slightly older child, still not of official schooling age.

I am so very glad I did search because of what I learned. Some of the groups showed disdain and suggested that I go find a toddlers moms group. I tried those, but most of the kids were heading to public school and while I have no problem with that, I also needed others to talk to about our choice.

Our choice is different even to the traditional school at home community. We unschool.
Finding unschooling community is really important. I found another great local support group, and they were inclusive, but the majority were school at home and there was a lot of unspoken disdain towards unschooling. Especially when it was time to talk curriculum. Perhaps it was just me feeling left out or uncomfortable, but when failings of various methods became topic, I couldn't help but join in with statements about children learning naturally vs forced useless subjects; the negative feelings swelling up in ME ultimately led me to back away. I wasn't adding anything good, just salt to the pot. With the unschoolers, learning naturally is a priority and a goal worthy of working towards.

Then I found it, a park day hosted by unschoolers. That has made all the difference. Why?

1) Other moms to chat with
2) Other kids to play with
3) No age segregation, the 3 year olds are welcome to play with the older kids and vice versa
4) Sunshine

I could go on and on.....Lil'Bug asks to go every week. The games they invent there come home with us. She climbs trees and explores and buries treasure and trains as a Kung Fu Master Princess Warrior and and and.....

A couple weeks ago the only kids there were unschooler boys over the age of 11. They welcomed her into a game of Frisbee, helped her with her fighting moves, and discussed with her the merits of root beer. The next week the only kids were all under 7 and the wild game involved dragging tree limbs to build a house in the woods.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I sit down with the other moms. My doubts are eased when the kids strike up a conversation with the group, adults and kids, about kayaking or peaches or politics....these always unschooled kids are not wild, strange, unsocialized recluses but rather articulate, civilized, and engaging young people. Compared to them I am the strange, unsocialized recluse.

I get asked the question by others all the time, you know, THE question about unschooling: how do you know it works? Part of what fuels my confidence is this weekly burst of exposure to other families and the large range of children thriving in this method, really, this lifestyle.

More than that, I feel at ease when breastfeeding or talking about cloth diapers or chatting about local foods and my aversion to corn syrup and oil. Or bees. I had a 45 minute conversation about bees recently. I have all these interests and once a week I can sit down with IRL moms and no one gives me a hard time when I say I aspire to be a sheep farmer or I want to dye my hair purple again.

I look forward to Thursday afternoons almost as much as Lil'Bug.