Vernal Equinox Potluck Party

Join us as we welcome Spring on Saturday March 20, 2010 from 3-7+ pm at our house. It is a potluck, which means we all get to sample lots of yummy (homemade! local food!) dishes that everybody brings. We will provide dishes which show off the delicious pork sausage and salad greens from our local farmer friends. I am sure there will be fresh bread made with our home-ground whole grain flour too.

If you have a favorite or unique game/activity that you'd like to share with us, please do so. We are always looking to experience new things. Who knows, you might spark a new passion for someone at the party!

Many years ago, I understand it was commonplace to bring your own basket with dishes, cups, and cutlery when you went places. I believe they are called picnic baskets ;-) We want to revive this tradition, so please pack up a basket with dishes your family loves to eat off and join us for the feast!

Whether you are a homeschooler, yoga lover, locavore, cyclist, life learner, or none of these - we look forward to celebrating the coming of Spring with you. Do RSVP please so we know to expect you!

MUGS

Yesterday we enjoyed a fun day with our unschooling friends. We played lasertag and went to the Air and Space Museum Annex by Dulles Airport. We decided to have a monthly get together and rotate where we go and what we do. Want more info? Head over the the MidAtlantic Unschooler GatheringS page.

Places That Fit Me

I am in search of a place that fits me and my current needs. They are not well defined, but I think I'll know it when I see it. So far, I know I am in search of a large-ish town or a small-ish city where there are: a university, a green community, a variety of cultural activities, sustainable farms, a favorable homeschooling culture, and people who strive for friends and community. So far on the list is:

Ithaca, NY
Santa Fe, NM
Asheville, NC
Charlottesville, VA
Serenbe, GA
Brunswick, Portland, and Belfast, ME
Portland, OR
Burlington, VT
Corvallis, OR
Boulder, CO
Tri-Cities area, TN

Durham, NC ?
Morgantown, WV ?
Kingston, RI ?
New Brunswick, NJ ?
Plymouth, NH ?
Princeton, NJ ?
Radford, VA ?
Storrs, CT ?
Fort Collins, CO ?
Logan, UT ?
Boone, NC ?
Chapel Hill, NC ?
Moscow, Idaho ?

Ecovillages

New Slow Parenting Group

One of my friends posted this link to facebook and I wanted to share it with you. The article is entitled: The Backlash Against Overparenting from Time magazine. I love this article. Especially the last quote about leaving the kids alone.

If you like this article and agree with pretty much everything it says, please join me in a new Slow Parenting group. We can decide the specifics of our group gatherings, but I expect them to involve lots of time for kids to play what they choose together, homemade food, and pleasurable adult conversation time.

Teens and How We Treat Them

I love, love, love this article about teens and society. Read it! Think about what life was like when you grew up and what life is like for today's teens. I hope you will agree that life for 21st century teens is not great.

Idea of Compacting

I just read about a cool thing that a group of San Franciscans did a few years back. The initiated a Compact with each other. The agreed to basically not buy anything new (with exceptions of course) for 12 months. Check out the guidelines. Care to try it with me? I am really liking the idea. Of course, I do have a list of things I am searching for used already and it really frustrated my dear son. Not sure what to do about that ...

Where oh where is my Tribe?

This month's blog carnival is about unschooling tribes. I am not sure how many people count as a tribe. I have tribe components. People that my family and I love to be with, enjoy doing things with, and don't think we are totally wacko. People that see us Shine. Unfortunately, these wonderful people are spread out (from 10 minutes away to North Carolina - soon to be Washington State) so http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI have not seen more than one family at a time. Also, many of my tribe components are too busy to see us more than every few weeks which feels very untribe-like. I crave more. More people. More getting together. More fun. More tribe.

So what am I doing about that? Well, surrounding ourselves with mainstream people or mainstream homeschoolers is not an option. They really think we are off the deep end. I have actually been told from some of these people that they do not want their kids around mine. Reason being seems to be totally their problem: my kids are allowed to do things their kids are not and they don't want to explain the whys of that to their kids. Just wait till their kids are teenagers!

So connecting with unschoolers is my goal then. Here's my plan:

(1) I took my family to the Live and Learn Conference. Now I have a tribe member in my own home - Dear Husband :-) And we met tons of cool people from all over the country. I really hope to be ablet o visit some of these folks or host them at our place in the future.

(2) I organize Unschooler Hangouts in the DC/Baltimore metro area. I tell people on SMHN, marylandorganiclearning, and MidAtlanticRadicalUnschoolers email lists about the Hangouts. We have met several new families this way. Getting together the second time seems to be harder...

(3) I am trying to cultivate the relationships I already have. Daughter has one friend who attends school and I am working hard to maintain this relationship for her. I am trying to stay connected with my friends even when our kids do not enjoy each others company. Son is the hardest one since not many local people can see what a fabulous, shiny, person he is.

(4) I have a large virtual tribe at the Radical Unschoolers Network which is really cool and really makes me feel good.

I have tons of ideas of cool things to do with a tribe, but I still need that physical, local tribe in order to take my ideas and make them flourish.