Babysitting opportunity

Melissa Yatzeck hasn't sent a bio yet, but I'll add a link below to one from about a year and a half ago. Add that much age to each child, if you would like to consider this:

My husband and I would be very appreciative if we could find some teens to help keep an eye on our children, just during the speaker sessions. Our seven year old, Mary, is very social and independent and will probably quickly make new friends and find things to play with them; she won't require close supervision. My four year old, Joey, is a little shy at first, but warms up after a little while. Mary and Joey both love Minecraft and we will be bringing along two iPads they can use, and possibly a laptop. I know at the last conference there were several kids playing in an adjoining room, and if that is happening again they would likely happily join in on that. Our two year old, Lily, requires close, constant supervision though, and it would be most helpful to find someone willing to play with her during those times. It is also possible she might nap during afternoon sessions. We would be comfortable having someone (or two, or three!) watch the kids either in our hotel room, or in the adjoining room for kids.

(I'm guessing it's possible that a nearly-teen might work for the next-room play, as the parents would be so near.) A year and a half ago, the family looked like the photo here: http://alwayslearninglive.blogspot.com/2011/12/melissa-yatzecks-family.html

Some newer photos of the kids are here: http://alwayslearninglive.blogspot.com/2011/12/melissa-yatzecks-family.html

HOTEL news

Today is the last day to get a hotel room at the group rate, so if you were stalling, DO IT!

Alex has been tirelessly negotiating to get us the best arrangement, and I'm grateful to her for that. Something we were told, though, is not happening as we expected, so... for Thursday night the water park won't be open. I'm sorry.

Those of you who are in the hotel Thursday night, though, should find me, Alex or Jill somewhere in the common area. We will have the name badges and registration sheet, and we will find room to sit and talk or play and meet each other.

Thursday might be a good night to sleep early. It might be the last chance.


Soon!! We'll see you soon.

Chris and Zoe Sanders

Zoe (15) and I (Chris, 48) are thrilled to have the 2013 MN Always Learning Live Symposium hosted so close to our home. We're from West Des Moines, Iowa and it's just a little over a four hour's drive away!

We have attended two Live and Learn Conferences (St. Louis & Albuquerque,) Sandra's 2009 Santa Fe Symposium, the 2010 Life is Good Conference in Vancouver, WA and the 2011 ALL Symposium in Albuquerque. We enjoy these gatherings for stoking our unschooling fires and for the camaraderie of fellow unschoolers. Rick will be on his Annual Brothers Canoe Trip in northeast Iowa and Zach (22) will be attending his classes at University of Iowa in Iowa City. We'll be leaving our new puppy behind to be cared for by trusted family and professionals.

Our family has always homeschooled and we gradually moved from using an eclectic approach to full-on radical unschooling by the time Zach was 12 years old. Now, Zach is a senior in college majoring in History and German and he will be spending an extra year of undergraduate study in Freiburg, Germany beginning in August.

Zoe loves singing, playing video games, drawing, dancing and reading fantasy novels. She's busy most weeks with church choir, church youth group, dance lessons and skypeing with her friends across the continent. She's looking forward to getting a job this summer, traveling to Italy and Germany with her father and me in September and getting her driver's license in November!

I have many irons in the fire at any given time. I work part-time for Pearson VUE as a test administrator, I have provided freelance bookkeeping services to small corporations for the last 22 years and, as a licensed teacher, I help other homeschoolers in Iowa by serving as their supervising teacher. I enjoy reading and doing all things on the internet—keeping up with technology, current events, politics and social networking.

We are fortunate that Rick's commercial photography business can be operated out of our home so that between the two of us, there is almost always a parent home and available to hang out, talk, drive, prepare food and host social events. We're a stay-at-home team! Rick also enjoys bicycle touring (his goal is to ride border-to-border across each state—this summer he'll be riding across Oregon!) playing volleyball, watching football and spending time with his large family of origin.

The schedule is finished

The schedule page had a mysterious corruption, and the format wouldn't be still. Two days of messing around with it on Word and on my webpage to get the html to settle (without retyping the whole thing)... and changing the blog template... and here it is:

http://allunschoolingminnesota2013.blogspot.com/p/schedule_14.html

If you see any errors or formatting problems, please don't tell me until Wednesday, because I'm tired of looking at it.

Thanks!

Deanna & Alexander, joined by Kevin

Hello from Duluth! Living in northern MN, we feel lucky to be able to enjoy both city life and wilderness fun, as both are close by. Alexander (15) has never been to school, and we’ve been on the unschooling path for many years now.

Deanna’s former life included working as a speech/language therapist and a massage/bodywork therapist. Her current life includes exploring with Alexander & husband John, cooking, gardening, knitting, hiking, and a bit of yoga. An information junkie, books and her iPad are often close by.

Alexander has long enjoyed gaming and has met some truly awesome friends on the Unschooling Gamers group. He dove deep into computers & programming this past year, working a 6-week internship at a local computer shop, and amassing components for building his own computer. One of his biggest passions is the Melbourne Shuffle, a dance form that has brought him contacts from a wide variety of places and some cool background on the history & sub-genres of electronica music; he looks forward to meeting up with some other shufflers and dancin’ till dawn at the Anime Detour Con again this year. (Yep, manga and anime have been long-time passions, as well.)

We will be joined by Kevin, a gaming buddy from CA. His bio states: “I’m Scooty McGee, I mean Kevin. I did ballroom dance for two years. I’m also into gaming, and stand up/improv comedy.”

Food Review

Please review the information about food, here: http://allunschoolingminnesota2013.blogspot.com/p/food.html (If you're reading on the blog, it's one of the tabs above).

The lunch break will be nearly two hours long, so people will have time to go to a grocery store or restaurant. We can't have food in the conference center.

Please read again about the restaurant, and where the nearest stores are. I don't want anyone hungry, especially kids. I wish they would just have let us "monkey platter" it. And their conference catering is way too expensive. :-)

Be prepared, and bring some groceries for the room.

More families

Two more families have registered this week, from Montana and Nebraska.  I'll do a new head count soon.

Please send bios and photos, anyone who hasn't, if you're interested in doing so.  Send to Sandra@SandraDodd.com

Thanks!