Unschooling Diversity-Would You Like To Be More Welcoming?(Erika Davis-Pitre) This talk is about how to be welcoming to families from a wide varieties of backgrounds that exist in the unschooling community. It is also a time for families of diverse backgrounds to come together and make connections with other families. Come with your questions, concerns and solutions to opening up your family's unschooling experiences to folks from different backgrounds/experiences. All are welcome.
Nightime Circle (Jennifer Johnson) Bring your knitting, your mug (for tea or hot chocolate), your in-arms babies if you need to, your pillow, blanket and your deepest struggles about parenting and this unschooling life. We will utilize a circle model of questioning in which participants both present situations they are dealing with and offer assistance to others. The model allows for a safe container in which to give voice to deep important material while encouraging everyone to bring their own wisdom to the surface. One person briefly shares about a struggle and communicates the core of their stuckness, the group takes it in and in turn goes round the circle asking the original person one question designed to help the person move more deeply into (or out of if that is what is needed) their struggle. The original person does not have to answer the question at that time and can choose to just file the question for reflection later. There is no advice giving, just an offering of questions. A wonderful way to be a part of a new community as well as a chance to identify with others at the conference on a deeper level.
Where's
the Line? Unschooling vs. Unparenting(Kelly Lovejoy) - Sometimes parents have a hard time finding the line between unschooling and
unparenting. We'll discuss personal and public boundaries, being coercive and
being a doormat, and most of all: how to work *with* your child to keep the
peace.
Raising Your Spirited Child (Meg Walker) - The bookRaising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy
Kurcinka had a huge impact on our family. We read it when our eldest child was
3--he's now 18 and heading off to college soon. In this session, we will talk
about how Kurcinka's ideas mesh with unschooling. We will also talk about other
books and ideas that complement her work, with lots of practical suggestions for
parenting and unschooling "with spirit."
Unschooling Your Teens-Is it what you expected? (Erika Davis-Pitre) This talk is for all families who either have teens, will have teens soon and/or have the pleasure of looking back on their children's teenaged years. It will be a chance to ask questions, share insights, and find support among other parents of unschooling teens. In past talks that I have hosted, both parents and teens were welcomed and encouraged to attend.
Unspeaking(Faith Void) - Creating Genuine dialog instead of Talking at
your children
Learning Connections (Sandra Dodd) - Where does learning happen, and how? Each person of any age is creating an ever-expanding, personal, internal model of the universe. Unschooling can provide time, space and opportunity for wonderful things to unfold.
Unschooling: How to Screw Up (Sandra Dodd) - When my boys were little they took a swim class. In the car on the way home one day they recited in unison a long set of rules, including: "Always swim in a storm. Never swim with a buddy. Always run by the pool..." They did this with merry enthusiasm. I knew they understood the rules, because they recited the entire set, in opposite terms. This can be done with unschooling! More easily than listing what to do might be to look at a list of what NOT to do. And it's more amusing, too.
Why Unschool? The Lasting Benefits(Kelly Lovejoy) - We know that we unschool for *today*. But what are the lasting benefits? What
would a world filled with unschoolers look like? What kind of long term impact
will unschooling have?
Looking in the Living room Window (Linda Velwest) What does unschooling look like in
your family on a daily, weekly monthly, yearly basis? What do you do all day?
How do you celebrate yourselves? How do you handle difficulties? Let’s share
the diversity that is practical unschooling.
Tapping Tune-Ups(Deborah Donndelinger) Last year at the conference we introduced EFT (Emotional
Freedom Techniques), also known as tapping, a gentle and wonderful way to easily
clear excess and stuck emotions. It can even help with physical issues. This
year I'll be available between sessions to tap with folks one-on-one if they
find themselves needing a little extra support. When we are talking about our
children, our hopes, our fears, our challenges, it's very heart expansive but it
also can bring up some emotion that can feel limiting. Heck, just traveling
away from home with our children can be a bit stressful at times and finding
time to rebalance ourselves with tapping or other techniques can feel so
good.
