Annual Unschooling Gathering
Sometimes a quick trip way from the everyday is a little cure for what ails you. Even the ailments you didn’t know you had! Especially in the gray days of Winter and the too long month of Feburary.
This is the second year that we have gone to the Unschoolers Winter Waterpark Gathering (UWWG) held at Kalahari waterpark. I am not sure of the number of attendees but families came from all over the US and Canada. Again a good time was had by all. It is always so nice to be around so many like minded people. And it serves as such a great reminder to me to really accept, trust and love my children unconditionally. It doesn’t matter what other people are doing, how they are homeschooling / unschooling or how we look or how they percieve us. What matters most is that I stay true to what is good for my family and reevaluating what works for us and what doesn’t work.
It is reaffirming to hear other families that have worried about the unschooling path they have chosen and have grown kids who are happy and successful. With happiness really being the ultimate success. Not all kids are college material, some will end up in a trade, some with a job, others have the entrpreneurial spirit. And some will go on to higher education. But taking away societies assumptions and expectations and living for what makes better sense for your family is not always an easy road to follow. It certainly helps to be around like minded people. We are really lucky that here in Columbus not only is there a large homeschooling community but a large unschooling community also.
I attended a couple of discussions on unschooling led by some veteran unschoolers and a raw food demo. Bethany is a 17 year old who has found medical healing through her raw food diet. Her story was very inspiring and again re-affirming that a raw food diet is so healthy. Check out her story here.
But I found so much inspiration from her Mom’s discussion of living through her families crisis while homeschooling and realizing what was important in their lives and what wasn’t. Together,finding their way to a real life, hands on education and not one through school books was so wonderful to hear.
Our kids showed off some of their break dancing moves at the talent show.
There as lots of hanging out with both old and new friends!
And a rockin dance the last night of the conference.
I can’t wait until next year!!
Tags: Columbus, family, Food, friends, homeschool, homeschooling, homeschooling community, RAW, raw food, raw food diet, ultimate success, unschool, unschooling
Poor Jake! I hope he’s doing ok with that arm!
It looks like you had a fun time at the convention.
Here is a link that tells you all about unschooling
http://www.unschooling.com/library/faq/definitions.shtml
We follow our kids interests and rhythms and not the time line or curriculum of any school. We spend lots of time learning through hands on life experiences, playing, games, reading etc…My older son is doing an on line school this year but this is only the second year he has done any formal education. Let me know if you have any questions-unschooling is just one of the many things I LOVE to talk about!
Kristen