Tune In, Drop Out, Homeschool

It was Friday evening, an hour before showtime, and the art deco theater in San Luis Obispo, California, already had a line of well-dressed women circling the block, bound for the Wild + Free conference. They’d come from far and wide for a special weekend—hundreds of homeschooling “mamas” gathering “for two days of insight, inspiration, encouragement, and community,” as the website promised.

Pauline Cook had traveled all the way from Central Washington. Before she became a mother, she had not heard of homeschooling. Now, over a decade later, with two teens and a twelve-year-old, she’s a pro. There are as many ways to homeschool as there are families doing it—and there are families joining homeschool folds every day—but Pauline refers to her particular flavor as “Gospel-powered life school.” This was her third Wild + Free conference. She’d attended her first five years earlier in search of resources. But she’d been surprised to find that Wild + Free wasn’t just a place to share ideas—it was really a convening rooted in shared purpose.