Being so new to unschooling we were a little bit nervous about coming to the conference and weren't sure what to expect. It turned out, however to be such a wonderfully eye-opening experience. It was truly a pleasure meeting you all, and we all loved just being there and soaking in the energy of peace and joy. We learnt so much from the conference, and have had so many things to talk about, to think about and to try over the last few weeks.
We are so grateful for all of the work that you do to help families like ours, and we sincerely thank you for showing us that there is another way. Each of the moments that we choose the kinder option, or choose to move towards that more positive relationship, are so empowering, just realizing that it is a choice!
Of Adelaide, 2014:
This family was moving far away, shortly after the symposium, and the mom wrote:
I am pleasantly surprised to find that the stress of moving has not caused me to become a more anxious or controlling mother, which I thought might happen!
I guess many unschooling principles now underpin my thoughts and therefore my behaviour. A nice realisation for me- seeing unschooling reach into parts of my life that I had not considered. How cool is that!
I also credit attending your ALL not long before our move. Strangely, I left with so many questions and concerns. I think the symposium stirred up some internal work, a deschooling hump, which helped a great deal.
I still do have feelings of overwhelm at times and I remind myself to breathe (I actually have a visual pop up in my mind- I must check your website, I am sure my visual is from your site). Part of my overwhelmed moments is this thought- "huh, breathing, like that is gonna work! I need bigger help than that!". But it does help. It creates a buffer, I can step away from spinning thoughts, my mind calms and I can be present again, back in the moment.
Just yesterday my son (7 years old) was upset and I was sitting with him. He really wanted to talk and he said "breathe...", then sighed out deeply and breathed in a few times. Seeing him do that was amazing. Sandra, I felt so deeply grateful that you share your ideas. That you have your ideas!
Of the Gold Coast symposium, 2014:
We attended one of the Australian gatherings and can say without doubt thatseeing and listening to Sandra in person (instead of on the computer from the other side of the world which can feel quite remote) and meeting other unschooling families and making some friends who we are now in contact with has been absolutely invaluable to getting close to what radical unschooling means, and we are pretty new to this way of life. We drove for two days to get there because we live on the edge of outback Queensland which is far from, well, everywhere, and was totally worth the money and time away from work. We can now carry that experience with us now. Its so much better to have had that personal contact. Highly recommend getting along to an ALLive event!
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