A market... by the children, for the children. The Wild and Free Southern Saskatchewan Homeschool Group held a Handmade Market at Knox Hall today.

"It's actually one of the highlights of our homeschool community's year, it's a great opportunity for our kids to just kind of let their individuality shine," said co-organizer Carol Brucks. 

"A lot of [the homeschoolers] work really hard, sometimes for months ahead of time, just dreaming, and planning, crafting, baking, making all sorts of wares that they are so proud to sell to their friends and family," she noted.

This is the third year of the event, but the second at Knox Hall. Among other items, kids sold scrunchies, plants, candles, goodies, cards, bookmarks, snap bracelets, coasters, essential oils sprays, and artwork. Click the audio file here to hear them tell all about what they made.

"It definitely was a big deal," said co-organizer Andrea Sawatsky. "The kids, I think, worked harder than ever to create things that they would want to sell or that people would want to buy. You'd go to a table and the kids would tell you all about their items, so it was really good practice for them, just talking with adults, talking with the public. I thought that was really great."

William making cinnamon buns for his first ever Wild + Free Market (photo courtesy of Elizabeth Livingstone).

"We started out with the simple idea of kids selling and trading things amongst themselves, but it just grew into this wonderful event, and it's drawn a lot of people, extended family and friends," explained Brucks.

"A lot of the people in the homeschooling community that are a part of the market come from all over southern Saskatchewan, so we have people coming in from Ogema and Pangman. I'm from Wilcox myself, people drive all the way from Regina to check out the items that these talented youth come up with and it's quite a fun little market to check out."

Brucks said that, in addition to being the creators of the products, the homeschoolers also learn about various aspects of commerce.

"They're just extremely talented youth and they come up with some of the most incredible items to have at these markets. The atmosphere is a really friendly market. It's an excellent place to practice some real life skills for these kids, things like counting money, sticking to a budget, entrepreneurship, bartering and trading, that kind of thing."

The kids also shared with Discover Weyburn what they learned from this year's event:

The market was held today from 11:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at Knox Fellowship Hall.

True to trade show format, the homeschoolers set out their wares on tables for their market last year (photo courtesy of Carol Bruck).

One young homeschooler proud of her handmade goods at last year's market (photo courtesy of Carol Bruck).

The Sawatsky homeschoolers last year (photo courtesy of Andrea Sawatsky).

The Sawatsky family also submitted the following photos of their process making their unique and interesting products: