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Debbie Baxter
"How To Start, Grow and
Manage a Successful Homeschool Co-Op" Thursday 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Debbie has homeschooled her 14 yr old son for the past 9 years. She is one of the founders of the Eastside Homeschool Co-op in Cleveland, Ohio. Debbie has managed the administration of the co-op for the past 7 years. The co-op currently has membership of roughply 45 families and 100 children. They meet weekly and offer an array of parent-led classes. She is also moderator of the Lake County Homeschool yahoo group.
Debbie will lead a discussion on "How To Start, Grow and Manage a Successful Homeschool Co-op". If you're interested in starting any size co-op and want to know how to organize, streamline and manage that event, this discussion is for you. If you're involved with co-ops, please join us and share your experiences.
Debra Bures
"Redefining Education" Thursday 5:30 - 6:45 pm
(picture coming soon....)
Debra has been on this path for 15 years, growing and changing with the needs of her family. She and her husband have 2 children, one of whom is currently a college student in NYC. Debra has been a homeschool advocate for many years and had co-coordinated the Ohio Home Educators' Network.
She and her husband own a pottery studio and art gallery, Elements Gallery, in Peninsula, Ohio. She loves to explore creativity and share the process with others at her blog FromSkilledHands (http://www.fromskilledhands.com). The Bures family lives in a century home on 22 acres, along with 3 dogs, 3 cats, and assorted chickens in northeastern Ohio.
Debra will be helping lead an Open Forum Panel Discussion with Mary Nix and Barbara Herzberger entitle: Redefining Education - Most of us are products of mainstream, traditional education. Using a panel discussion fomat, they'll explore how we can take a "leap of faith" to trust our children and ourselves. And support each other as we embark on this journey of deschooling ourselves and thinking globally.
Sydney Forsythe
"Transitioning from Public Schooling
to Unschooling" Wednesday 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Sydney is the mom of a special needs child. Their last day of public school was November 1, 2007 and they haven’t looked back!
Most of her friends would describe her as a bundle of nutty fun, and some of the wonderful children in her life refer to her as ‘the sweet lady’. I suppose that makes her similar to a Snickers Bar!
Sydney lives in Lake Orion Michigan. Her favorite way to spend a day would be shopping a great sale with her son, and then going home to play and laugh together while they make lunch. Her favorite author is Janet Evanovich – for her uncanny gift to ease your troubles out of your mind with intrigue and completely wonderful characters, and laughter. She also loves to quilt and paint and learn new crafty things in general, but most of all she loves to spend time with her family and friends.
Sydney will be leading a presentation on "Transitioning from Public Schooling to Unschooling". She hopes her ‘presentation’ will help others in some small way and ease their transition to learning at home! Learning is a LIFESTYLE!
Bethany Hagensen
"Raw Foods Demo and Discussion" Wednesday, 1:00 - 2:15 pm
Bethany is 17. She sings, is rather crafty/artsy and is passionate about the environment and human rights issues. She is looking into post high school education in Massage Therapy.
Bethany will be leading a Discussion and Demonstration on: "Raw Foods and How it Affects One's Health and Behavior". She had a rather lengthy illness, from which she recovered this year, due mostly to raw foods, massage, chiropractic, etc. Her family are now raw foodist. Bethany, along with her mom, will be sharing their experiences and demonstrating how to prepare some tasty raw foods.
Check out Bethany's short You-Tube documentary of her tearfully inspiring story : http://www.bethanysstory.com/
Jody Hagensen
" When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade" Thursday 4:00 - 5:15 pm
Jody has been home/unschooling since the birth of her oldest daughter, who will be 25 in January. She's married to the father of all 6 of her children, who range in age from 8 years to 25. Her oldest two are married and were both homeschooled through highschool. Jody is also a Bradly natural childbirth educator and doula
Her family is an eclectic bunch with quite varied interests . They are vegetarians and about 70% raw foodist (except for her youngest, who says "Bring on the bacon!"). They love animals, having currently 2 cats and 2 dogs. (their past history with animals has included bunnies, guinea pigs, gerbils, chickens and ducks). They live in western Pennsylvania, 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh, and about 5 miles from the Ohio line.
Jody will be leading a discussion on: " When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade". She hopes to encourage families as they go through tough times, not to lose sight of the reasons they are homeschooling. Her family have learned through some tough times, to appreciate one another a little more. She has homeschooled through some major illnesses, moving cross country, family deaths and hospitalizations (which caused her family to chosse to put some of the kids in school for part of that time, but they came home later and they all learned alot from that experience).
Also, just transitioning with our children from childhood to the teen and young adult years can be quite daunting. So, she would like to address those transitional times as well. Not that the way she did things was perfect or a formula for anyone else, but she feels it helps to hear how others have approached similar issues. We each need to find our own path. She hopes to encourage parents to not lose heart in the midst of difficulty, and to see all of life as a flowing, organic experience that we learn from minute by minute.
Barbara Herzberger
"Unschooling a Large Family" Thursday 1:00 - 2:15 pm
"Redefining Education" Thursday 5:30 - 6:45 pm
Barbara lives in Sheffield Ohio, a western suburb of Cleveland, and is the mother of seven children. As a family, they began educating their children at home since 1987. Over the past twenty years, they have experimented with various styles of homeschooling, but always gravitated to the unschooling methods that originally inspired them --from the writings of John Hold and the GWS newsletters.
Currently the Herzberger’s have “graduated” four of their children to go on to college, apprenticeships, parenthood, careers- continuing to be life learners. Two of Barbara’s grandchildren are also living and learning at home with their mother Anna, continuing the unschooling tradition into the next generation.
Barbara enjoys encouraging mothers in unconditional parenting and alternative education, particularly unschooling. She also enjoys speaking at conferences and facilitating discussions on alternative parenting and education. Additionally, Barbara serves women in labor, birth and postpartum as a Doula, is an aspiring artist, lover of nature and enjoys long walks with her children and dogs.
Barbara will be helping lead two discussion forums. She and Laurie Riesenburg will be leading a round table open forum entitle: “Unschooling a Large Family”. Being the mom of 7, with 3 still at home, Barbara has plenty of interesting experiences to share with us on unschooling in large families. Whether you have one or a dozen kids, all are welcomed to join them, in this insightful forum discussion.
Barbara will also be helping lead a Panel Discussion Forum with Mary Nix and Debra Bures entitled: “Redefining Education" - Most of us are products of mainstream, traditional education. Using a panel discussion fomat, they'll explore how we can take a "leap of faith" to trust our children and ourselves. And support each other as we embark on this journey of deschooling ourselves and thinking globally.
Ana Herzberger - Grandt
"Unschooling High / Special Needs Children" Tuesday 2:30 - 3:45 pm
Ana is a second generation unschooler; having been unschooled her whole life and now unschooling her two children, currently 7 and 5. She is also a single mom who's navigated her way to being home with her kids while working full time. They live in Lakewood, OH. (a suburb of Cleveland).
Ana will be leading a discussion entitled:"Unschooling High / Special Needs Children". Ana's oldest child is on the autism spectrum and has sensory processing disorder. Her discussion will focus on the uniqueperspective, challenges, benefits and of course, joy and fulfillment that comes from parenting, living and learning with high and special needs people.
Kathy Joyce
"Preparing College Transcripts
and Scholarships" Tuesday 1:00 - 2:15 pm
Kathy has been homeschooling for 18 years. Her two boys, Jeff & Scott, are now in college. Her daughter, Tara, is in 11th grade. She started homeschooling after reading some of John Holt's writings and Homeschooling for Excellence, by David & Micki Colfax. Jeff was in first grade at the time. Kathy states, “ I've loved unschooling, it's helped make our family so close. All the time we've had together is priceless.”
Kathy’s been married for 36 years. Her husband is a physician - they got married the summer before he started medical school. They’ve moved a lot – having lived in Michigan, Illinois, England, Florida, Vancouver, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan again, Kentucky, Florida again, Oklahoma, Washington, and now Michigan again. Kathy enjoys reading, gardening, computers, woodworking, traveling, and tennis, among a myriad of other things.
Kathy will be leading a discussion on: "Preparing College Transcripts and Scholarships." She’ll bring some sample transcripts from students who have been accepted to various colleges. Her boys have both received scholarships, so she’ll talk about what they did, as well as experiences of others, who are in college now.
Kelly Lovejoy
"Radical Unschooling: It's More than Academics"
Tuesday 4:15 - 5:15 pm
"Morning Coffee with Kelly / Ask Kelly... Anything"
Wednesday 10:30 - 11:45 am
Kelly and her military husband, Ben, had a very traditional life in Columbia, SC until the day they decided to take their older son, Cameron (now 21), out of private school at the end of sixth grade. They took a sharp left turn into unschooling and plunged headlong into this lifestyle. One of her first steps as a new unschooling mom was to invite a bunch of unschoolers to her town for the first Live and Learn Unschooling Conference. Eight years later, she is thri lled to see so many unschooling gatherings, like this Waterpark Party, popping up all over the country. The Live and Learn Conference and now these other gatherings have made SUCH a difference in the lives of all the Lovejoys! They've met some of their best friends EVER through unschooling!
The Lovejoys are: Ben, Kelly, Cameron (21), and Duncan (almost 13). We love traveling, cooking (and eating!), gardening, video games, cycling, crafts, playing games, watching movies, throwing parties, laughing, music, and loving up our beagle (SodaPop) and cats (Esmee and Finn).
Kelly has offerred to lead 2 discussions! The first is, "Radical Unschooling: It's More than Academics". - In order for unschooling to work at its best, Kelly believes unschooling needs to include the *whole life*, not just academics. Wise decisions about eating, bedtimes, chores, and medical issues *can* be made by children who are empowered enough to make them. Come discuss ways to "let go" and trust the children---and to be OK with the decisions they make!
Kelly will also be leading a "Morning Coffee with Kelly / Ask Kelly... Anything" She knows folks have a lot of questions about unschooling; and after reading and writing about unschooling for nine years, she's heard most of them! <g> It could be anything from recording learning, learning-takes, peaceful partnerships, sex & drugs, transitioning out, or finding passions. But if you haven't seen your question answered in a forum anywhere, feel free to ask it. She may not give the answer you're looking for, but we can at least toss some ideas around! <G>
Amy Makice
"Nationwide Radio Podcast Live from UWWG Featuring Ruth Radney on Unschooling - with Audience and Call-in Participation" Hosted by Lisa Stroyan and Amy Makice Wednesday 11:45 - 1:00 pm
Amy (pictured above right) is a parent educator and licensed psychotherapist, specializing in parenting challenges. Her training includes Relational-Cultural Therapy, Positive Discipline and play therapy. Her consultations, presentations, and workshops incorporate current research on children’s development as well as concrete techniques for bringing families together.
Her and Lisa established Parenting for Humanity, which provides quality parent education, resources, and support of empathic, respecitful, non-punitive parenting. They strongly believe in the humanity of children and feel they should be treated with respect and compassion.
Amy is the mother of two sons, in Bloomington Indiada, where she is quite active in her community. Her volunteer work includes advocacy for individuals with severe mental illness, facilitating Parenting Linked in Understanding and Support groups, and serving on the board of her local community band.
Amy also a host a weekly radio Podacast on BlogTalkRadio and will be broadcasting with Lisa Stroyan, LIVE from the Kalahari during our 2009 UWWG!!! Ruth Radney will be joining them to talk about what unschooling is all about and dispell some of the myths, along with participation from our audience and call-ins from around the country. So, be sure to tell all your friends and family to join in the radio podtcast. It will be available thereafter on their website, for anyone to listen and download. Here's their website for further info: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/parenting/2009/02/04/Unschooling-Live-at-UWWG
Mary Nix
"Redefining Education" Thursday 5:30 - 6:15 pm
Mary is an editor, writer and online general manager for HEM (Home Education Magazine). She also has a monthly column in HEM where she featured our 1st UWWG in their Sept. 08 issue! Mary also helps monitor the HEM Unschooling yahoo boards.
Mary lives in north eastern ohio and enjoys traveling, long walks, exploring new places, reading and spending time with her family and friends.
Mary will be helping lead an Open Forum Panel Discussion with Debra Bures and Barbara Herzberger entitle: "Redefining Education" - Most of us are products of mainstream, traditional education. Using a panel discussion fomat, they'll explore how we can take a "leap of faith" to trust our children and ourselves. And support each other as we embark on this journey of deschooling ourselves and thinking globally.
T.J. Phillips
"SSUDS (Secret Society of Unschooling Dads) Discussion"
Tuesday 6:00 - 7:15 pm
T.J. lives in Vermont with his swissarmy wife, Heather, and their 3 boys, Skylar (10), Milo (4), and Phoenix (6mo.). They have been unschooling for 3 years and living radically for ....a log time.
T.J. will be leading a SSUDS (Secret Society of Unschooling Dads" discussion session. This is a 'dads only' session for uninhibited discussion of questions, concerns and shairings of their unscholing/homeschooling journeys. Cool conversation, new ideas and friendships are sure to result from this special session.
T.J. will also be leading a SSUDs gathering Monday night after the Carnival. They'll be gathering in the Resort's Kahunaville bar for a more casual gathering of menfolk .
Ruth Radney
"Go with the Flow!" Tuesday 10:30 - 11:45
"Nationwide Radio Podcast Live from the UWWG Featuring Ruth on Unschooling - with Audience and Call-in Participation" Wednesday 11:45 - 1:00 pm
Ruth is an experienced home educator, learning resources consultant and writer. She has two daughters, Kylia, age 18, and Kari, age 14, both of whom have been unschooled their entire lives. Ruth offers enrichment classes for unschoolers of all ages, based on the premise that learning that is fun, inspires more learning (and more fun!) She writes a monthly newsletter, "Inspire the Desire" for homeschool families in northeast Ohio, and is currently working on a book about lifelong learning.
Ruth will be leading a discussion entitled: “Go with the Flow!” - Aaah, the life of the relaxed unschooler. What? You're not relaxed? You're not sure that your children are really learning all they should know? You're not sure they're really self-motivated enough to do this? Join us at this inspiring and idea-filled discussion! You will discover how you can find inspiration and learning by "going with the flow," and a way to channel that "flow" to best meet the needs of your child(ren). This discussion will be filled with inspiring stories, interesting and helpful resources, encouragement, inspiration and fun! It will include a question and answer period, opportunities to stretch your mind and your body, and enough humor to make the time pass quickly.
Ruth will also be featured in a nationwide radio podcast, LIVE from our UWWG, Wednesday Feb. 4, at noon. Lisa Stroyan and Amy Makice host a weekly Radio Podcast. They'll be attending our UWWG and have offered to broadcasting their weekly show from the Kalahari. Ruth will be joining them to talk about what unschooling is all about and dispell some of the myths. along with particiapation from our audience and call-ins from around the country. So, be sure to tell all your friends and family to join in the radio podcast. It will be available thereafter on the Podcast website, for anyone to listen and download. Here's their website for further info: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/parenting/2009/02/04/Unschooling-Live-at-UWWG
Laura Riesenberg
“Unschooling a Large Family”
Thursday 1:00 - 2:15 pm
Laura Riesenberg lives in Loveland Ohio ( a town about 20 miles north of Cincinnati) with her husband, Jay, and children - Brett (18), Hannah (turning 17 in Feb.), Emily (14), Grant (12), Jacob (10), Cade (8), Sophia (6), William (4) and Luke (21 months at the time of UWWG). Yes, that makes 9 - 6 boys and 3 girls!
They began homeschooling in 2001, after pulling their oldest 3 out of school after 4th, 3rd and 1st grades. The younger 6 have never been to school. They quickly fell into unschooling, although Laura's not sure if it was her lack of organization or the exhaustion from her 7th pregnancy, that made it so easy for her to put aside the textbooks and follow their passions!
Passions in their home include: competitive dance, baseball, basketball, football, scrapbooking, rubber stamping, photography, video games (PS3 and nintendo DS), 4-H, girl scouts, playing at the park, and computers (I'm sure I'm forgetting something!). They also try to volunteer at least once a month with some local charity (usually Ronald McDonald House) .
They are extremely active in their local homeschooling group, but find many local families don't take advantage of all the opportunities that are available, because they are slaves to their "school at home" schedules. She feels fortunate to have a few unschooling families that they can interact with almost all the time, as it helps make them feel like they aren't sure oddballs!
Laura will be co-leading a Round Table Open Forum with Barbara Herzberger, "Unschooling a Large Family". Being a mom of 9 children (and her husband being the youngest of 10), Laura has plenty of interesting experiences to share with us, on unschooling a large family. Whether you have one or a dozen kids, all are welcomed to join them, in this insightful forum discussion.
Lisa Stroyan
"Exploring Empathic Parenting"
Thursday 10:30 - 11:45 am
"Nationwide Radio Podcast Live from our UWWG Featuring Ruth Radney on Unschooling - with Audience and Call-in Participation" Hosted by Lisa Stroyan and Amy Makice Wednesday 11:45 - 1pm
Lisa Stroyan is a parenting coach, speaker, internet radio host and writer. She is also a mother, eclectic homeschooler, artist, and crafter looking for life balance and conscious parenting. Lisa lives in Fort Collins, CO, with her husband and 11 year old son.
Lisa coaches parents over the phone, leads classes and workshops, speaks to groups across the country, and co-hosts a free weekly internet radio show and podcast. Lisa makes a difference in families' lives by empowering parents to create positive, respectful, and empathic relationships with their children, based on each family's individual values.
Lisa believes there is no "right" answer for everyone. Most of us strongly believe in respecting each child's own unique learning style and personality, and celebrating those differences. How can we apply this same acceptance, non-judgement, and flexibility to parenting - not just to our children, but more importantly, to ourselves? Working from a conviction that there are a wide variety of ways to parent effectively, and that we must each find our own, unique path based on our own values, personalities, and life circumstances.
Lisa will be facilitating a discussion entitle: Exploring Empathic Parenting". Her discussion will explore some of the key aspects we often want to incorporate into our parenting and how to find the parenting style that's right for ourselves. Are you looking for more mindfulness in your parenting? More collaboration and mutual respect? More ease, flow, and even structure? Perhaps you would like to be less conditional or more playful? Or, do you wish you could be clearer and firmer about your needs, and want to make self-care more of a priority? Come with an open heart and a willingness to let go of judgement - most particularly toward yourself.
Lisa also a host a weekly radio Podacast on BlogTalkRadio and will be broadcasting with Amy Makice, LIVE from the Kalahari during our 2009 UWWG!!! Ruth Radney will be joining them to talk about what unschooling is all about and dispell some of the myths, along with participation from our audience and call-ins from around the country. So, be sure to tell all your friends and family to join in the radio podcast. It will be available thereafter on the Podcast website, for anyone to listen and download. Here's their website for further info: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/parenting/2009/02/04/Unschooling-Live-at-UWWG
You can reach Lisa on the web at: www.empathic-parenting.com . Her writing about parenting can be found at http://www.empathic-parenting.com/blog, her radio show can be found at http://www.parentingforhumanity.com/blog/blogtalkradio and her personal blog on everything from crafts to technology is http:/www.stroyan.net/lisasblog .
Jessie Voigts
" Parents With Disabilities / Unschooling Our Children" Wednesday 4:00 - 5:15 pm
Jessie lives on a lake in central Michigan with her husband, Ed, and always unschooled daughter, Lillie (6). Jessie is a nature photographer and has a PhD in International Education. She and her family publish a travel site for global educators, www.WanderingEducators.com , where all 3 of them enjoy writing and creating the site.
Their family interests also include traveling, learning, swimming, soccer, basketball, games, piano, music, reading, kayaking, sailing, ice skating, cooking and exploring global traditions and cuisines.
Jessie will be putting her photographic talents to good use at our UWWG. She's volunteered again this year, to be our UWWG photographer. She's also volunteered to compile our 2009 UWWG directory!
Jessie will be leading a discussion entitled: "Parents With Disabilities - Unschooling Our Children". Further description to come.
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