Well hello, friend!
If you missed the summit then let’s see what I can remember or conjure up from it, starting with a compilation of leftover links.
Ones I haven’t looked at yet that were shared in the closing circle (zoom meeting):
- https://www.self-directed.org
- https://www.self-directed.org/tipping-points/
- https://www.self-directed.org/tp/education-is-a-political-act/
- https://weareborntolearn.org
The closing circle also brought up the hot topic of why so many more women were showing up for the summit than men.
This keynote was made freely available after the summit: Tending Grief and Centering Joy.
I created a WhatsApp group to chat with other parent educators from the summit. It’s named for the first workshop I attended at the summit: Mindful Deschooling. Tools & practices to bring more ease to your days with Esther Jones. Happy to send you an invite link. There’s currently about 10 of us in that carryover chat group.
I was struck by finding an opportunity that felt like professional development for what I’m now managing on a daily basis. The chat, questions and contributions, as well as the speaker (one of the event organizers) really sparked a sense of belonging.
There is an event Facebook group for this year’s event that will soon be archived. In that group, one person asked about putting together a list of resources for the home ed community served by one library system. This infographic by Dan Moeller popped into the thread:
The event was organized in a way that made it easy to attend. You could show up to one zoom group call and then when it ended, you could roll over with many of the attendees into the next call.
I spent most of my summit time in the live zooms (roundtables, workshops, closing circle). Themes included:
- What Does it Mean to Decolonise Unschooling?
- But what if…? Navigating fear, doubt, and trust
- WORKSHOP
Setting Up a Flying Squad
With Bria Bloom & Alexander Khost - How to Create the Community We and Our Children Need
I really liked the workshop about navigating fear, doubt and trust because it included a facilitated group exercise in which we selected objects in the room around us that represented 1. Fear, then 2. Our Children, then 3. Our Thriving (Most Regulated) Self. We then put those objects “in conversation” with each other.
The decolonizing workshop caused me to validate my belief in the importance of doing family history research and caused me to consider bringing that into our home ed experience.
Flying squads is a model for taking kids out in groups to unschool together. It reminded me of these facilitation techniques for creative learning.
The “How to Create the Community We and Our Children Need” roundtable caused me to reach out to you! 🫶🏻
The conference gave me the language “home ed” which feels most true to our current approach; as opposed to what feel like slightly more specific or weighty terms, e.g. “homeschooling” and “unschooling”.
After recharging from the live group formats, I would fill in the gap time with the video interviews while they were available. Speaker videos whose speakers/institutions would be worth looking up, for me, included:
- Peter Gray (A Vision for the Future of Education) ⚡️ a Boston College professor with overall great ideas about education. He said something about screen and technology use that really made the whole thing a non-issue for me. He basically explained how it’s normal for kids to play and in different cultures throughout time kids are always seeking out toy versions (or the real thing) of what the adults are doing. Is it any wonder our kids love screens?!
- The Summerhill School (Freedom v. License) ⛓️💥 these guys have a beautiful, operational philosophy that underpins a long-operating school. I wonder if it has been replicated in the states?
- Unschooling and the Awkwardness of Being with Báyò Akómoláfé
- Breathwork, Balance & Unschooling an Entrepreneurial Life with Emma Johnston 💰 Emma walked us through her journey into breathwork coaching and then talked about how she turned that into a business while unschooling her 5 (yes 5!) kiddos.
- Creativity, Unschooling, and Life With Sir Ken Robinson with his daughter, Kate Robinson 🎤 this talk caused me to look up some of his TED talk philosophy and it was inspiring!
I attended one networking session, which was rewarding if a little too fast-paced (we jumped between room assignments, talking organically about our home ed journeys). I was able to connect with folks who are now a cornerstone of the WhatsApp chat group that I impulse-formed.
Wrapped things up with a rewatch of the ROUNDTABLE: Reflections From Parents of Grown Unschoolers (which I partially attended live but then abandoned to talk with Isham Park friends on a beautiful spring evening). I walked away with a feeling of: anything’s possible! And a few more mantras to boot.
I’ll leave you with this one.
INDEED!
Big Hug,
Sam
