The local homeschooling community will be holding the Wild and Free Handmade Market on Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Knox Hall.

Carol Brucks, one of the organizers, said every year the market offers a wide variety and no two years are the same.

"The wild and free handmade market is a highlight for our homeschooling community," she shared. "It is an awesome opportunity for our kids to let their individuality and creativity shine throughout the year. They worked hard for months and months at a time, just kind of planning, crafting, baking, making all kinds of wares, showing off their talents, and then they get a chance to sell them."

She said the event originally had them selling only to their friends and family, as it started off quite small, but it has been growing throughout the community.

"We have lots of community members who support it every year, and they come in to see all the talents of these local kids and it gives these children a chance to learn real life skills, such as counting money, sticking to budgets, understanding the value of their time versus the items that they're offering to sell." 

"It's just been growing and growing every year and we're getting to the point where we almost don't fit in the Knox Hall anymore," she added. 

Each year there are new examples of what the kids have been learning. 

"The kids just come up with brand new ideas all the time. We've had everything from beautiful macrame wall hangings to baking," noted Brucks. "I know this year, one girl is working with copper, and she's creating these beautiful art pieces that she's going to be selling. The kids have also been getting older, so they're getting a lot more talented in their skills. There's even woodworking, and artwork. It's it's incredible."

She said at last year's event some families had published books together with their children and sold those. 

"It's anything and everything you can imagine."

Brucks said the purpose is to allow the homeschoolers ot shine. 

"They're doing whatever handmade items they possibly can," she commented. "It's a lot of work, but they put in the time and effort and they definitely reap the benefits of that afterwards."

With free admission, she said they just want people to come to check it out and maybe even help the students learn to barter and trade, and work with prices. 

"The kids get a chance to really understand the value of items, as well, and what people are willing to pay for something, because if it's overpriced and nobody buying it, they, in that moment, can choose to change the price right away. Kids walk around with their products and, 'okay, I really want to buy such and such over here, but I don't have any cash. But I do have items that I made, so maybe we can trade'. It gets to be a really neat afternoon." 

The event will be held during regular school hours, and admission is free.

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