Magic

We had a successful "Gathering of kids to play Magic" meeting at the public library. This has been several months in the making.

When the Scientist first got his hands on a Magic deck, put together by a sweet and generous friend, he was eager to bring it to his little school where many children play Magic more or less all day long. Sadly, that was the same week that the kids at the school voted in the "no outside possessions" rule, a reaction to a string of thefts that had occurred there this year. The teachers told me they thought the rule stunk but the kids are in charge in a free school. The Scientist was crushed.

When school let out a few weeks later, I suggested that we schedule a gaming day at the library and invite the whole school, so kids could still get their fix over the summer. We did, but no one came. The Scientist was slightly less crushed.

We rescheduled it for a few weeks later and this time we advertised it better, sending notice to the homeschool group and my Facebook friends list as well as the Free School parents. The library donated a bunch of starter packs for us to hand out. We decided to add Dungeons & Dragons to the list of activities that could happen at this meeting.

It worked. Kind of. It worked enough.

The homeschooled boy we knew from down the block, with whom we have Albany Bike Rescue and a few friends in common, came to play D&D. We suspected he would. It was the first time the boys had a chance to really play and spend a chunk of time together. They seem to have hit it off.

Another family showed up, too, folks we had never met. Coincidentally, they homeschool, too, and they are of the same liberal religious persuasion, also. Oh and their kids are the same age as the Scientist and the Storyteller.

So for a little while the three of us parents stood around talking homeschooling, pleased I think at our accidental support group meeting. The boys played for a couple of hours, delightfully coming to a consensus that it had gotten boring just five minutes before the library schedule had us kicked out.

I am glad it ended up so small and cozy. We're going to do it again, but this time at my apartment.