Bags for the People

We participated in a Bags for the People workshop with some other homeschoolers at the Mulberry Street Library a few weeks ago. I love this location for homeschool meet-ups because the familiarity is wooing P into a groove that jump-starts his social juices without the typical two hour transition. The dynamic duo that run this small company were so great with the kids, helping them with the sewing machines while still staying out of their way and giving them full creative license. P picked from the used fabrics and quickly designed his bags but then ambled over to play with a couple of boys while the machines were whirring with other workshop-ees.



It was positively adorable to see them, sitting on the wall, stage whispering. One of the boys was older and attempting to display his knowledge. P isn't privy to this sort of game, where you pretend to know more than you actually do and challenge others by name dropping anything resembling anything labeled "big boy." So when they took turns asking each other "which do you like better, Holeymoley Man or Jumping Crazy Villian," it was amazing to see the shift that slowly occurred. At first, the older boy would often pretend to know about some superhero or something, which was pretty cute in and of itself. P would easily answer "I don't know what "x" is" (he has no sense that a lack of knowing is shameful and I freakin LOVE that) and the older boy would blanche but often be caught, because he didn't either :) Then P's other buddy, another 5 year old, stopped copping the "oh, yeah, um, him" bit and started admitting his cluelessness too. After a few more times around the circle, even the oldest boys started confessing when he didn't know what something was instead of playing tough -and you could see the competitive tension drain and the laughing begin. It became very sweet and simple, each of them tossing out things they thought were cool and reveling in their agreement. Or, when they landed on something one or another hadn't heard of, they'd just shrug, smile and move on. I'm not dissing the thought of competition here, but jeez it was fabulous to see a bunch of little boys put away their pissing contest in preference for honesty and fun :)