ALLive in Maine site is up

Registrations can now be made for the September 26-27 event in Maine. Keith and I will be visiting Laurie Wolfrum's family and some other parts of New England for a week, culminating in two days of presentations and discussions, and the details are here:

ALLive in Maine

My topics, HSC 2014, Santa Clara, California

Perspective

Where were you before (intellectually, emotionally, philosophically)? Where are you now? Where might you be next year, or in five years?

Connections

Cognition and retrieval systems—the mysteries of our minds, and the benefits of the unfolding future, explored a bit.

Personal knowledge is a web inside us of images, ideas, feelings, memories, fantasies and experience. Learning happens when we take in something new and connect it to what we already knew. There are ways to enable that in yourself and to facilitate it in your children.

There is a web outside us, too, of people, ideas and information.

Seven Years of Learning Nothing (workshop)

Attendees who have participated in "Learn Nothing Day" can share with those who have never heard of it, and Sandra will explain the history of the event.

I will be on a panel of unschoolers, too.

December in New Mexico: Top of the Mountain

We are going up here:



The symposium will be at the Ramada Albuquerque, same as the last two times. But we will have an outing at no extra cost for anyone who wants to ride the tram up the mountain and look back down!

Hema Bharadwaj, who was in Albuquerque a few years ago, will be one of our speakers in 2014. To see more about her first visit, here are some old notes and photos. Her name is pronounced like "HEYmah".
http://sandradodd.com/festival/
http://monkeyplatterfestival.blogspot.com

Her children are older now, and you can read a bit about them here. She will be coming to Albuquerque without her family this time.
http://thebharadwajshine.blogspot.com

(Hema is not always as colorful as in the photo—not to look at, anyway, but inside she is!!)

A recommendation (a testimonial!)

Kirsty Harriman wrote this recently, on Always Learning:

We attended one of the Australian gatherings and can say without doubt that seeing 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!

Minnesota, Maine, New Mexico. Those are the only three planned.
I'm getting old. Don't wait too long.

Sandra

Minnesota, California, Maine, New Mexico!

I'm back from Australia, and back from Texas. Fun events, rich experiences, exhausting.

Home is very comfortable and I would like to relax and eat familiar food and do as close to 'nothing' as I can for a while.

Next stop: Rochester, Minnesota! End of May, early June.
http://speakingsandradodd.blogspot.com.au/p/minnesota-2014.html

Australia, Texas, Minnesota and beyond

Tomorrow I leave for five weeks in Australia. I'll stay with Schuyler's family a while, visit unschoolers in Cairns, and then do a circuit of Always Learning Live events, in Adelaide, Melbourne and the Gold Coast (back to Schuyler's for that).

We're taking registrations even at the site for those. http://alliveaustralia.blogspot.com


Four days after I return, I'll be in Austin with Kirby, on our way to the Texas Unschoolers Campout Conference. http://www.texasunschoolers.com/2014-conference


Registration is open for Minnesota ALLive, in Rochester, May 29-June 1
http://minnesotaallive2014.blogspot.com

In late April I will open registration for September's activities in Maine, and the end-of-the-year Albuquerque symposium.

Thanks for reading!

2014 looks like...

I have six big plans for 2014. Links are above.

Australia (three events) in March, a visit with Schuyler and her family, and meeting unschoolers I've known on discussions for years.

Texas in April, with my oldest, Kirby and maybe his roomie/partner/girlfriend will get to meet unschoolers and hear more about it; he's hoping.

May/early June, Rochester Minnesota with Alex Polikowsky, and Pam Laricchia will be there.

End of July, early August, the HSC conference in a new city. After years of Sacramento, the converence is moving to Santa Clara, in the soutern Bay area, silicon valley.

In September, Keith and I are going to spend a week and a half in Maine with Laurie Wolfrun, and there will be several activities related to that, including a side trip to New Hamshire for a potluck and discussion.

In December, Keith and I will host another Albuquerque Always Learning Live event at the same wonderful Radisson hotel at I-40 and Eubank in Albuquerque. 2014's theme is "Top of the Mountain."

This makes it a busy year. I hope to be home most of the summer to work on my yard, and to keep up my website, discussions, and Just Add Light and Stir, my favorite project.

SUPPORTING WITHOUT ATTENDING For those who can't attend any of these 2014 events, but who are glad for the advances in unschooling that such gatherings invariably bring to families even beyond those who attend, financial assistance would be accepted! Either register for an event even if you don't think you'll make it, or perhaps donate to my PayPal account, where site fees, transportation, name tags and printing are handled. If PayPal spooks you, my address is Sandra Dodd 2905 Tahiti Ct. NE Albuquerque NM 87112                       And I LOVE Christmas cards!!