Not Back to School Party

We had a great time hanging out at Rock Creek again today! This time with three other unschooling families, celebrating our freedom with sand, water, marshmallows and happy kids.:) After 5 hours of play and swimming, Jalen was STILL not ready to leave. I ended up getting wet to retrieve my wee man....after staying mostly dry all day.

Took the boys over to John's for a bit of gaming while Sierra and I went downtown for Music on the Square. Had more fun browsing the shops tonight than listening to music.

I meant to blog about something that happened last week too;
Jalen and I were picking up some groceries at the discount store. He had gotten tired of wearing shoes (as usual) and took them off. As were were crammed into the tiny aisle with an elderly customer, he started getting a bit loud. I got down on his level and talked to him for a minute, then offered to carry him. He was tired, and just melted into my arms. I rubbed his back and talked to him about the food we were buying.

The elderly customer passed us, then came back a minute later and said "It's so nice to see how you interact with your child, so many parents are just awful to their children"
I was pretty surprised. Mostly I get dirty looks when out with my Jalen man, as he really isn't particularly concerned about societal conventions yet and has some pretty extreme difficulties at times. I told her how nice it was to hear that and how important gentle parenting is to us. She agreed and we chatted for a bit longer before parting ways.

That doesn't happen often. I once got into a serious fight with my sil, who was upset that I hugged Sierra when she was having a melt-down, rather than spank her. According to her, I was "training" Sierra to act that way.

Huh?? Treating someone awful when they're already feeling awful is supposed to HELP them? Boy, I wonder what that would look like if Markus smacked me for having a melt-down? Jail-time most likely. But it's ok to hit a kid that's having a rough time? I still scratch my head when I think back to that night. Baffling to me.

I wish she could meet Sierra now. I haven't spoken to my sil in all these years (her choice) but I'd love for her to know these amazing people that I call my children. Sierra is a sweet, kind and very well-balanced individual that gets along with most everyone. None of the dire predictions came true. 'Course, none of the dire predictions I've been given about homeschooling, vegetarianism or non-vaccination have come true either.

Oh, and my child that likes an occasional coffee is 6'3"...so much for that whole "stunting" myth.:) Off to poke a few more holes in peoples beliefs.....