Unschoolers Have Friends Too

Hey guys! Me here. It’s been…a month…or…something…of this COVID isolation. We are mostly doing just fine, aside from the difficulties of having entered a stasis vortex where time has no meaning. Sometimes I do hide under my covers and watch an entire movie instead of eating breakfast, but most of the time I follow the same basic routine I already had going before the entire province (world?) shut down.

I’m grateful for that: the fact that I and the rest of my family already had a lifestyle going that involved everyone, including both parents, spending their whole days at home. I know it’s been much more of an adjustment for other families.

But I also thought this would be a good opportunity to highlight the fact that unschoolers are affected by this too. Unschooling does not mean being strange, isolated hermits (necessarily. Like, you do you). In fact, we typically take a much more holistic approach to socialization than children in school would encounter. My children find friends their own ages, but we also try to simply engage naturally in our local community, and since my children have an extra six hours a day to do it, the opportunities to interact with people of all ages in all sorts of situations come up more often.

Anyway, I’ve compiled a list of things we are missing while we wait out this pandemic at home, and note that I’ve kept my focus to things that specifically affect the children. Obviously I have an out of control social life, but that’s a subject for another blog. Here’s some things we [currently] no longer do:

• weekly trips to the library
• monthly Toonie Tuesdays at the pool, often with friends
• weekly classes: piano; swim lessons; lifeguard club
• classes with homeschool friends: History Alive!(monthly); acrobatics (biweekly); gym class (biweekly)
• playdates (obviously)
• the playground across the street (where they would sometimes make new friends)
• random homeschool gatherings: skating, park meet ups, tumble time, field trips
• errands within the community
• trips to provincial parks (there are three surrounding our city. Weep with me)
• visits with extended family (including cousins) and friends in other towns
• fun trips with homeschooling friends who live two hours away
• the week-long homeschool drama camp! It came one week too late and had to be postponed.

So yes, we’re aces at this at-home lifestyle. Essentially, we just do our “home day” routine every day! But as you can see, that routine wasn’t every day. We sometimes feel a little stir crazy and miss our friends and activities! We are just trying to focus on the opportunities this slow down offers: opportunities to work on projects, play board games, and hide under the covers watching entire movies.

Solidarity, friends! I hope you’re maintaining your sanity in whatever temporary conditions you find yourself while our communities weather this unprecedented event!