Unschoolers Take Over the Water Park

Today the girls and I headed to Breezy Picnic Grounds and Waterslides to meet up with some other unschooling families for a day of fun!  When we left the house it was rather warm and sunny and by the time we arrived (at the aptly named Breezy) it was significantly cooler.  We got settled, said our "hellos" and headed right over to the waterslides.  The girls had not been on waterslides before so they were not sure what to expect.  We quickly made it to the top and Grace decided that she was cool with going on her own so that Em could ride with me.  Em and I headed down first so we could be down there when Grace arrived.  No sooner did we get started on the journey down than did it become apparent that she absolutely adored waterslides!  As soon as we landed in the pool at the bottom she asked to go back up!  Grace arrived in the pool shortly after us, and was as proud of herself for going on her own as we were proud of her.  After the waterslides, we did a little swimming in the lake, had our lunch and visited with our friends.  The only way this day could have been any more fabulous is if it had been a warm, blue sky kinda day.  As we headed to the car Emma decried that: "Waterslides are awesome!" and Grace said:"We need to come back again and bring Daddy with us!"  Agreed!

A big thank you to Debra for letting me use the above picture. I realized on the way home that between all the water fun and chatting hat I didn't take any photos of this most wonderful adventure!  I was so grateful to arrive home and see this great photo posted on our Facebook group (and if you look  closely you'll see Em and I are in this picture too)!  Thanks, Debra!  I really appreciate it! 

Unschoolers Rock The Campground in Instagram (mostly)

And that pretty much sums up our trip!  Grace loved getting to celebrate her birthday with her friends while we were all camping together.  It truly was a great way for her to spend the last couple of days being five (and a great way to get ready to turn six)!  We're looking forward to rockin' the campground next summer already!

"Free To Be You And Me"

There's a land that I see,  where the children are free

And I say it ain't far to this land from where we are

Take my hand, come with me, where the children are free

Come with me, take my hand, and we'll live....

In a land where the river runs free, 

In a land through the green country, 

In a land to a shining sea, 

And you and me are free to be you and me.  

Every boy in this land grows to be his own man, 

In this land every girl grows to be her own woman, 

Take my hand, come with me, where the children are free,

Come with me, take my hand and we'll run..

To a land where the river runs free, 

To a land through the green country, 

To a land to a shining sea, 

To a land where the horses run free, 

To a land where the children run free, 

And you and me, 

Are free to be, 

You and Me.

For anyone that grew up watching Marlo Thomas and Friends "Free to Be You and Me" the lyrics of this song should be all too familiar.  Dave and I bought this CD when I was pregnant with Grace. I remembered watching it on TV and I am pretty sure we wore out the record that we had that we used to play over and over and over again on our Fisher-Price record player.  A couple of months ago we got the DVD of it on Netflix and it's message resonated deeply still and captivated the girls.  We have been listening to the CD in the car ever since.  

This past weekend as we headed to our very first Unschoolers Rock the Campground the girls asked to put the CD on.  The timing of it could not have been more perfect as the mail theme song was playing as we pulled into the campground.  Little did we know how fitting the theme song would be for this most amazing of weekends.  

The weekend brought with it the chance to connect with members of our tribe.  With people that we don't get to see nearly as much as we'd like to.  And it also brought with it a chance to meet people that we have only met via blogs (and Facebook).  And of course, there were some that we had never met too.  It was such an amazing weekend.  Watching 40 families live in harmony together and the bonds that we strengthened and established was just incredible.  There was a sense of peace.  Of joy.  Of love.  Of acceptance.  Of understanding.  And all the while, "Free To Be You and Me" played in the back of my mind.  

I just couldn't help but wish that this time would never end. I couldn't help but wish that all children had the chance to live this way, to experience this amazing life.  I couldn't help but notice how this group of 40 families contained some of the most amazing Papas I have ever seen/met.  The amount of love that they openly showered on their families was beyond words.  Watching as Fathers kissed their kids and told them how much they loved them was something that just struck such a chord with me, In a day and age where it seems that Dads are all too often shown as less than involved it was so refreshing to see so many hands-on Dads in one spot.  I loved watching as little kids and big kids played together in harmony (Zombie Nerf Wars, anyone?) and I watched as my girls ran and played with their friends with such freedom, joy and happiness that my heart just about burst. 

We were not able to be there for the entire time but the few days that we were able to be there we'll carry with us forever.  We are already looking forward to Rockin' the Campground next summer (and with any luck we'll get to be there the entire time).  Oh, how I wish we could make that unschoolers commune we've all been chatting about a reality, but until that time comes (or until next summer roles around and we can rock the campground together again) we'll be happy attending as many gatherings and going on as many adventures with our tribe as possible!  We are truly blessed to be part of such an amazing community of families!  Thank you Heart Rockin' Family for bringing us all together.  Ya'll are the bees knees!  

Gathering

This is only a fraction of the stuff that we'll be taking with us to our first Unschoolers Rock the Campground this weekend!  We can't wait to get there and spend some time basking in the amazingness that is our tribe!  We have been looking forward to this for months and cannot believe that the long awaited weekend is finally upon us!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

Yesterday we spent the day at a lovely lake with some fabulous unschooling families!  What could be a better way to start the week than with swimming, chatting, digging, laughing and boating?  Well, maybe ending the week doing the same things at Unschoolers Rock the Campground!