Fourth and final full day of the Texas Unschoolers Conference 2015

This morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (and ready for cacao!), James and I went to a funshop put on by Chocology owner Linda Johnson (and her daughter, Madeline). This was the first seminar/class/what-have-you that we've attended where there have been children! At 9 AM, even! (Daphne was still asleep; she had waited for the wi-fi to come back on last night.)

Linda briefly went into what chocolate is and where it's grown, but then quickly got to the tasting. She imports and resells chocolate from Belgium, so we were given a piece (called "couverture" by people who care about that kind of thing) of white, milk, and dark chocolates.

It was interesting to me that the milk and dark chocolates appeared identical (there is actually more color difference in this picture than when I held them in my hand), so I thought maybe I'd gotten two of the same kind. But no. The chocolates were smooth and had the perfect "snap" (white "chocolate" doesn't, though) and amazing. American chocolate can try, but we can't do it.

Next, we were given samples of Fat Ass Fudge, recently obtained by Chocology and featured at some point in the past on Shark Tank. At the risk of offending my father and his Christmas offering, this is the best fudge I've ever eaten. So smooth. So "bedicious."

Dark chocolate with nuts, white chocolate, and cappuccino. Yursss.

Linda and her daughter are on a very long road trip, a "Giving Back Tour," which you can follow here at their blog. This is literally where the rubber hits the road, educationally-speaking. I was about to get on a soapbox, but am choosing to avoid digression.

Finally, Linda had a challenge: she'd hidden gummies in chocolate pudding, and whoever found 5 got fudge. One dad got into the act (James probably would have, but he'd taken Mal outside so I could finish the event, since Mal had decided to be fussy and noisy; I have a great husband!), and watching the kids' different strategies was a lot of fun.

After that, we came back to the cabin, regrouped a little, and headed over to "coffee chat," which was a discussion about talking about sex and establishing bodily autonomy with your child from an early age. It was very good; mostly, I did the right stuff with Daphne (even though it hurt my Mema's feelings when I defended Daphne's right not to physically greet her :( ) but the refresher is always good. She recommended a couple of books and I'm going to order the first soon. For younger kids, there's It's Not the Stork! and then for older kids, It's Perfectly Normal.

One of my favorite things about this talk was the introduction, where Amy mentioned that, regarding cookies, we don't keep cookies away from our kids until they're 10, then kind of say, "They have flour in them" if they ask a question, then give them a book when they're 12 and tell them not to make cookies until they feel like they're ready. Just starting the conversation from a young age helps. I use the word "penis" with Mal, but do still call his scrotum "junk" sometimes. I probably won't stop that. I think it's important for kids to learn slang.

James was going to go to Jack in the Box to get us lunch so that I wouldn't have to get Mal into the car seat, but then we realized it's so close, we decided to walk. Hot, muggy, sunny, but a good time together.

Outside of the fence line, we scavenged about 50 Nerf bullets, only about 6 of which were marked. Score!

We got to the restaurant, ordered our food (for Daphne, an ultimate cheeseburger with ketchup as the only sauce; "So no cheese?" Um... no. Why would we order a cheeseless cheeseburger? "So, cheese... and do you want mayo?" NO, JUST KETCHUP!), and Mal was so good, sitting in the stroller and chewing with intensity on one of the Max Nerf bullets. But ten minutes later, we didn't have our food... and they weren't busy. At fifteen minutes, I remarked that we should have gotten the food to go. James posited that our special order had messed things up. After 20 minutes, he went and told the cashier we'd like the things to go... and found out that they'd totally cleared our order out of the system and never would have made it. *sigh*

But it worked out, because we got to eat as a family. And Daphne's burger did have mayo on it.

Mal was tired but resisting sleep, so I took him swimming. I tried to fashion a pool noodle I bought in the park office as the "boat" device we used in swim classes, but a) it's been too long and he FREAKED out and b) he needs a sturdier noodle 'cause dude is a hoss. But he laughed and enjoyed the pool for about half an hour, then started zoning out.

We came back to the cabin for him to nap, then went over to the swap meet and market. We ended up buying a pound and a half of "scratch and dent" fudge (it was just the label; I mean, who cares? but yay for a discount!) from Linda, and I got a DK animal encyclopedia for Mal. It's perfect in that it's a small format (thick but not unwieldy), but of course he just wanted to eat it, so we'll save it for later. If he's anything like Daphne was, he'll be buried in that book for hours one day. (I know, so far he's *nothing* like her, but he does seem to appreciate animals.)

There was a cookout at 6:30, and I met another lady from Austin. Her son is 12, and I don't think Daphne met him, but maybe we can reconnect at home.

At 8 was a showing of "Class Dismissed," which I wanted so much to see... but after only one brief and one hour-long nap today, Mal was DONE. I started packing up in the cabin, but he was sobbing by 7:45, so we came upstairs to play a while in the dark and help him unwind, then he was out by 8:30. We will leave in the morning after a final "good-bye" (to which Daphne wants to go) and should be home in time for lunch, but able to miss rush hour traffic.

It's been a great long weekend!