It's Park Time At Last!

The seasons are out of whack this year. We had winter for what felt like forever and now we have summer.  I don't mind as I adore the heat, but it is odd to have near 80 degree temps in the early part of May.  It meant that after supper we decamped to the park for a fun night of play.  The measure of my kids growth is in park experiences and the modes of transportation used to get to the park.  There were rebozo  years where one or the other of the littles were tied on me and the other was holding my hand.  There were the wagon years, where I pulled both of them in the wagon with a plethora of toys.  Last year was the scooter year where both of them could manage that but not a bike.  This year--no training wheels--and the two of them fly up the block to the park with me trotting behind. (I seriously need to get my own bike out!)

But aside from measuring my family growth in park years, I love the free flowing nature of play there.  I also love that my children are far from being socially stunted by their homeschooling.  Tonight I watched as they welcomed a 14 year old diifferently abled young man into their play.  Our games (tonights was kickball) are always pretty free flowing. The rules change as the game evolves and I think that is good.  Everyone has a say in how that happens, but it is good to be adaptable. And that also made it easy to welcome the new friend into the game.  His mother watched and looked a bit surprised. She said he typically plays with a couple of 3rd graders in the neighborhood but that they "get sick of him."  When we left, my kids thanked him for playing with them and his face lit  up.  I think the best thing for me was that I don't think my kids thought anything about it.  It was just playing with another kid.  And that is what I want for them. To see to the essence of people and have relationships that have that purity  to them.