Twenty to thirty families, so far

I think we will have one to three adults from twenty to thirty families, about a dozen little kids and a dozen or more teens. That's a rough guess. Some people asked. :-)

Because there was no tiered registration-cost schedule, some people have made hotel reservations and gotten airline tickets and still not yet registered for the conference. I don't mind, but it means I don't have a count. We have enough to pay for speakers' travel, and not quite enough rooms rented yet to get the conference rooms comped, but they'll be discounted.

Gratuitous photo of Holly and some mannequins at Sears:

Deb Lewis has a plan

Deb will speak on how be develop the courage and confidence it takes to unschool.

Here was her initial description, and I loved the enthusiastic flow of her writing here:

I want to talk about how unschooling parents probably can’t expect the understanding and support of extended family and friends but how being honest can give them courage and credibility.
And I intend to make these points:
That being honest doesn’t mean being unkind.
Honesty has far reaching benefits.
That our culture has certain (wrong) ideas about children that make unschooling seem crazy to the mainstream population.
And that emerging science about babies and children seems to suggest radical unschoolers are right. (There’s some research by Alison Gopnik and some from MIT I’ll use as supporting evidence for this claim.)

I know it doesn’t sound like it all connects but it really does.

I think it will be a good segue to the grown unschoolers.

It's been added to the schedule.

If anyone reading here isn't yet familiar with Deb's style and ideas, please read here: SandraDodd.com/deblewis.

Holly and Luke, not so recently

This is what two of the unschoolers who will be there looked like one night at Jill's house in 2010. It's Luke Davidson and Holly Dodd, hanging out with computers and a time-lapse camera designed to help people watch plants grow.

New presentation for the program

Because the Daniel family is coming from London, I'm adding a talk at 9:00 Saturday morning.

How I learn, by Adam Daniel (with some help from his mum)

By Saturday morning you will have met Adam (and Julie and James), and I'm sure you'll be willing to get up a bit early that day to hear Adam and Julie.

I'll add this to the schedule, and create a bio page for Adam, who is six, loves Star Wars, and skis well. In July, the Daniels hosted a wonderful one-day conference in London, and Adam helped with the site procurement, organization and announcements.

I lifted these recent photos from facebook:

Found this on facebook

Heather Booth did this:

The logo art link to the upper left (if you're reading this on the blog) should be clickable links so you can print out various sizes, but it's not right now. You could use "open image in new window."

Here's the link to the biggest one: http://sandradodd.com/all/ALL.jpg

Joyce's presentation

Joyce has decided on a topic:

Unschooling Takeaway
Why we naturally learn by breaking big ideas down into sound bites. And why it can lead to some very goofy ideas about unschooling.

Joyce will have handouts, and I'm sure it will be as fun as the presentation she did at SUSS, in Santa Fe, which resulted in comical and embarrassing artwork by participants.

Joyce's daughter Kathryn/Kat has decided to be in Albuquerque, too, so that makes (of speakers' kids): one of Joyce's, one of Pam's (also speaking), two of mine and two of Jill's.

gratuitious picture of a room,
though I've heard there are new bedspreads


Don't forget to make room reservations, and to name the gathering so you get a discount and I get credit toward the cost of the meeting rooms. I LOVE that we can make reservations by e-mail! reservations links and info

Pets, and rooms

If you have a travelling dog, or a friend who might have come but didn't want to put her dog in a kennel, the hotel will allow pets for $10 extra. That's $10 extra per stay, not per night.

A fourth of the rooms open onto the inside where there's a lawn (and the pool, which will be closed for winter). That's where dogs can frolic. It's very fenced.

A fourth of the rooms open onto the outside of the hotel, and people can park right outside their rooms that way, motel-style. The other half of the rooms are on the second floor. So if you really want one of those kinds of rooms, maybe request it when you check in.

There are stairs, not an elevator, but there are only two floors.