Glad to hear you had the chance to lead a fun activity.
That's an interesting aspect of homeschooling (or almost "unschooling"): the ability to have novel and stimulating experiences.
Routine is good but so is novelty. (just like "exercise is good but so is relaxation and recovery"). I suspect school gets a little too mundane, to the point that it trains young people to lack the ability to react appropriately to novel situations.
Novel situations are processed in a specific part of the brain--supposedly somewhere on the right temporal lobe, but ultimately it doesn't matter too much except to be aware that there are parts of the brain dedicated to processing novel situations. If we fail to use them--guess what, they atrophy.
Mixed age groups involve another interesting phenomenon: older kids are role models to younger kids, but paradoxically, being a role model to younger kids tends to reinforce more mature behaviors.
Age-peer groups tend to self-reinforce juvenile behaviors. It's one of several causes of the delayed maturity that has shown up worldwide--people who never quite grow up.
