Third Day of #TexUns15

This morning, Mal woke up super early. He had been fussy all night, and drinking all night, and I was just exhausted by morning. We'd also managed to kick/roll the fitted sheet off of the mattress, so we were lying on the waterproof mattress cover which is fabric, but also plastic and hot. James hung out with Mal for a few minutes so I could wash my face and get dressed, then Mal came downstairs with me.

It rained heavily during the night, and I had the front door open. Mal loved the sweet morning smell and the sopping floor boards on the porch. We went out there for him to eat some breakfast, and by then James was up, having apparently been awakened by the dealing with the boy first thing in the morning.

After James' breakfast, Mal was already threatening to get fussy, so I decided to take him over to the young 'uns childcare area,where there are tons of toys, so he could play and make all of the noise he wanted without bothering his still-sleeping sister.

At the chilcare center, I met Nadja, who is a recent Austin resident. We have RV living in common, and it was nice to have someone to talk to while Mal burnt off some energy and James tried to catch up on emails (job stuff... but also the connection here in the park is spotty, and it takes about a million hours to do anything).

Mal was sleepy but overstimulated when I got back; he fell asleep, but only for about ten minutes. After the mini-nap, James and I took Mal to the swimming pool to work off some energy. He giggled and had a big time the whole 45 minutes or so we were there (which is double the time he could hack in swimming classes).

We had lunch and I woke Daphne up in time for the Nerf Gun Battle.

Here's a sort of funny thing:

In Peter Gray's book “Free to Learn,” he talks about games his generation of children invented when they were left to play on their own. He says something about how they'll talk and discuss and hammer out rules and plans for two hours before they start playing. This is what we witnessed, arriving at the Nerf battle site. Two kind of leader kids seemed to take over, finalizing details between them (when you get hit, this is what happens; no head shots; etc.). Kids kept arriving, and they kept shuttling them into one team or another. About 15 minutes into the process (which was ridiculous; I kept trying to get Daphne just to open fire on people), an adult showed up with flags so they could do it “capture the flag”-style... and he had the rules for them. He also chose two captains and when their team-selection slowed down, he divided out the rest of the kids. It was probably more expedient than what they were doing, but it was also extremely ironic, given the whole “kids need time to play that isn't directed by adults” world view that is espoused by a lot of us (and one of our keynote speakers).

That said, there were several adults involved in the Nerf Gun Battle. But they were playing as fellow team members, not as authorities, and the kids accepted them as peers. Actually, the grown-ups might have gotten a wee more intense than the kids. Daphne and James ended up being on different teams, and she pretty much killed him a lot.

Click below for full album.

From April 2015!

I wasn't playing because I was wearing Mal, who was on the verge of a nap. He fell asleep for about an hour, waking up right as James and I sat down for the “Unschooling Teens” talk by Sue Peterson. Fortunately, he was happy to crawl around on the floor, playing with stuff out of my purse, pretty much the whole time.

I will say that there are several things I've heard so far that have given me a lot to think about. In this session, during the Q/A, especially, I was convicted to check my motives about sending Daphne to things like coding camps. *sigh* I really hate being convicted.

When James and I got back to the cabin, Daphne was already gone for the cosplay funshop. James had a snack and headed over to the unschooling dads' roundtable, while Mal and I just hung out and watched TV and got snacks ready for tonight. D dropped in when the seminar was over, dropped off a foam sword she'd made, and disappeared to a friend's cabin.

James, Mal, and I went to dinner but didn't see Daphne until hours later. We didn't stay for the “sock hop” because dinner was so raucous, we were already burnt out from the noise. Now the internet appears to be down for the count, so this post and all of the pictures are going to have to wait until tomorrow. Think I'll go downstairs and talk to D about her afternoon.