For online discussion and networking, please visit our new email group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Learning_is_for_Everyone

Thank you.

Learningis4everyone.org

We've created a new online discussion forum.  All are welcome:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Learning_is_for_Everyone/

This is the general discussion, resource sharing and networking list for Learning is for Everyone, a nonprofit education resource organization supporting family choice in learning. Families, students and lifelong learners, and formal and informal educators are welcome! Discussion is guided by our single Rule of Civility, calling for kindness, compassion and understanding by all, for all. *No commercial advertising is permitted*

Hello there,

I think we've given the LIFE Forums the good ol' college try, but while many read, no one posts, and we spend much of our admin time banning and deleting spammers, and creating bizarre ban triggers based on the increasingly bizarre email addresses various pornographic sites seem to enjoy creating.  So, in the interest of the best use of time, resources and bandwidth we're probably going to shut this forum down.

We'll give you till the end of the week -- say, September 14 -- to comment, if you'd like.  And we'll add a Learning is for Everyone General Discussion Yahoo group to our existing collection of email support and networking groups (check out http://www.learningis4everyone.org/content/view/128/41/ ) , and our blog at http://learningis4everyone.blogspot.com

And there's plenty of information and networking resources to keep you busy throughout the rest of our website.

Send thoughts or comments to info@learningis4everyone.org

Thanks!

Terri
LIFE Admin

NOTE - there are separate dates for traditional homeschoolers waterpark days at the Kalahari. Please contact the Kalahari directly for those dates and info.)

The first UWWG (Unschoolers Winter Waterpark Gathering) will be at the
Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio; January 21 - 24 ( Mon - Thurs).
They're giving us super discounted rates that will be good whether you
decide to come for 1 or all 4 nights!

The Kalahari Waterpark Resort is the premier in waterpark resorts in the country. When their addition is completed in December, they'll be the largest indoor waterpark in the USA ( 173,000sq. ft of indoor
waterpark). The Kalahari is like a mini village with 881 rooms, a full
spa, several restaurants, gift shops, a candy shop, live African animals on display, putt-putt, giant game room and more. Their waterpark includes everything from lazy river rides and a wave pool for surfing and boogie boarding, to giant slides and thrilling water coasters. They also have an activities coordinator (kind of like Julie on the "Love-boat") who will work with us to organize activities from crafts to movie nights).

Here's the Kalahari's link to their website: http://www.kalahari
resort.com/ waterpark/ ?locid=2&areaid=16
<http://www.kalahariresort.com/waterpark/?locid=2&areaid=16> ( Check
it out. This place is AWESOME!)



ROOMS:

* We have reserved a large block of rooms for our Unschoolers Jan. 21
– 24, 2008, only.
* All rooms and suites include waterpark passes (note-day passes
alone are $35 /person. So, as you'll see below, we're getting
discounted waterpark passes and basically a free resort room!)
* Suites only, also include putt-putt and $20 worth of free tokens
for the game room

NOTE: All Huts, Combo Suites and Village Suites are together in the
same wing of the resort. A Village Suite actually consists of a hut
attached to a combo suite. Additional waterpark passes can not be
purchased for these rooms beyond the max. occupancy number stated for
them below. (see Kalahari's website for further details)

Huts: 4-max.person hotel style room w/ small frig and microwave, are
$94/night (which = only $25.50 /person) (Special Note – When
making reservation, can request your hut to adjoin with a specific
family who have reserved a combo suite to make a village suite).

Combo Suites: 8- max. person, 3 room suite with full kitchen, dining
area, hot tub are $164/ night ($20.50 / person)

Village Suites: 12 max. persons, 4 room suite with kitchen, dining area,
hot tub are $244 / night ($20.33 /person)

Nomad rooms: 4 person (with a max.of 6 using a sleeper sofa) hotel style
rooms are $108 / night. Rooms include fireplace, mini frig and micro.
4 water passes are included. Up to 2 additional water passes can be
purchased at $20 ea. (The nomad rooms are all in a separate wing between
the main lobby and Village suites / Combo Suites / Huts.)

Reservations must be made before December 22, 2007 to obtain these super
discounted rates, or until the hotel rooms are filled. Reservations
made after this date, will not be guaranteed these discounted rates.

We have set-up yahoo group specifically for the UWWG - Unschoolers
Winter Waterpark Gatherings. This way everyone can discuss on-line
who's coming and find suite mates (as the best deals are the 8 -12
person suites with the kitchens, free tokens and putt-putt).


Here's the website for joining the UWWG Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UWWG/
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UWWG/>

Note - you will need to join the Yahoo group to obtain our "secret
code" for making reservations. The Kalahari Waterpark Resort will be
handling all reservations.

Feel free to pass this info. along to all unschoolers, life learners,
relaxed, eclectic homeschoolers, that you know throughout the country.
( The more the merrier, as the hotel will fill the rooms with other
guests, so better to get more unschoolers filling these rooms).

Hope to see you in January!


Carol Reinhard
Unschooling mom in Sandusky, Ohio
carolfhs79@yhaoo.com <mailto:carolfhs79@yhaoo.com>

We are thrilled to announce...
our 11th International Conference on Rethinking Education.
Labor Day Weekend: thursday, August 30 - Monday, September 3, 2007
Sheraton Grand Hotel in Irving, Texas (just 7 minutes from the DFW airport).
You are enthusiastically invited to attend!

Join hundreds of unschooling families from around the globe as we rethink the meanings of education, learning and parenting. Rethinking Education supports attachment parenting, unconditional love, support for each person's unique journey of life experience, freedom with responsibility, unschooling and you. YOU are the vital ingredient at this conference, as we come together and revel in the magic and mystery of kindred spirits and each other's rich diversity, as we challenge ourselves to trust the extraordinary process of living and learning, the wondrous ability to improve the ways we communicate, discovering new ways of listening to one another, giving full support to our dreams, no matter how wild or ordinary, large or small.


Complete details at http://www.rethinkingeducation.com/

In our blog this month (http://learningis4everyone.blogspot.com) , we're exploring "Citizen Science". The topic caught my eye after an article in Campus Technology (http://campustechnology.com/articles/49118/ ) about "Galazy Zoo". In Galaxy Zoo (http://www.galaxyzoo.org/), " Users log into the site, then are shown images of galaxies (and other cosmic entities). They then enter information about they images they see. What makes it exciting for volunteers (aside from just being able to help out on a major astronomy project) is the fact that most of the images have never been seen by human eyes before. "

This isn't the first time science has turned to the general public to tap into the vast numbers of ordinary curious citizens. The website, Citizen Science (http://www.citizensci.com/) features a wide array of categories with which anyone can assist, from the Great Lakes Worm Watch (!) to phenology (the study of when things happen in nature) to the grand old favorite, birding.

The idea of searching together for answers, sharing our observations and collected data, and collating our various points of views in the hopes of coalescing some conclusions is an engaging and promising one, I think, and a trend that I hope continues and strengthens!

Terri Willingham
Learningis4everyone.org

Interesting little news piece:

    Westerners, such as Americans, are particularly challenged to
understand someone else's point of view because they are part of a culture
that encourages individualism. In contrast, Chinese, who live in a society
that encourages a collectivist attitude among its members, are much more
adept at determining another person's perspective.
Psychological Science
--University of Chicago

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/531360/?sc=dwtp

Here's a question: Folks have been joining this forum by the dozens in the past few weeks, so why doesn't anyone actually use it?!  Certainly folks are reading -- by the hundreds, but conversation remains stilted at best.

This is not a situation unique to this forum, by any means -- other forums report similar issues. So why is that?  Forums are, by nature, quite different from yahoo or similar online discussion groups.  Forums users tend to be more thoughtful readers, and slower to voice their opinions sometimes. But forums offer a very civilized venue for online discourse.

So I we invite you here, now, to *say something!*  Ostensibly, you're all here because you're interested in education, in learning, in the world at large and your place in it.  What's your passion?  What do you do and why do you think it's important?  Scan our topic boards and find one that speaks to you -- and speak back. 

C'mon!  What are you waiting for?  The Education Conversation is going on all around us, and here at Learning is for Everyone it has the potential to take on new and exciting dimensions, bringing together a wide variety of thought and methodology that might be found no where else on the 'net (or off!). 

Here...we'll even give you another talking point:  A big project we've started work on this  year is a youth Citizen Journalism effort. You can read a little about it on the Dateline Tampa website: http://www.datelinetampa.com  As hard as it is for us as adults to speak out sometimes, youth have it even harder.  What? you might be asking.  Teens have trouble talking?  They're IMing, text messaging, blogging, and telling the world more about themselves than ever before!  True.  They talk nonstop -- but is anyone really listening?  And are we catching the important things they have to say, or giving them better venues than My Space and Facebook?

Dateline Tampa hopes to give them an opportunity to say something important, and a place to be taken seriously.  Our youth have opinions and ideas, on everything from the war in Iraq, to the economy and the environment.  We'd like to encourage them to think deeply and critically, and to challenge the adults in their world to do the same.

What are your thoughts?

Theresa Willingham
www.Learningis4everyone.org

Our Small Group Discussion topic this month is drawn from results of studies reported by the Council on Contemporary Families.

Called "Unconventional Wisdom" (http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/subtemplate.php?t=briefingPapers&ext=unconventionalwisdom  ) this motley collection of varied family factoids -- some expected, some probably not -- provides ripe fodder for discussion and understanding. Visit our LIFE Blog at http://learningis4everyone.blogspot.com/ for at look at some of the findings, and to link to the larger report and additional resources.

Among the findings:
*Despite recent horrific events such as the killings in Virginia, most youth trends have been positive over the past 10-15 years. In 2004, violent crime in schools had fallen to less than half of the rate in 1994. The 2004 rate was one-third less than the 1991 peak rate. The high school dropout rate was eight percent in 2004 – down from 11 percent in 2000

*Given the newly expanded lifespan, most people will spend more time caring for their parents than they will care for their children.

*According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.5 million children have one or both parents incarcerated. In the absence of positive intervention, children of incarcerated parents are at extremely high risk for negative personal and social behaviors such as anger, anxiety, physical aggression, substance abuse, sexual promiscuity and the potential for criminal activity. In fact, they are five times more likely than their peers to end up in prison themselves.

*In a 12-year study comparing gay and lesbian couples with heterosexual couples,Dr. John Gottman (University of Washington) and Dr. Robert Levenson (University of California at Berkeley) found that, overall, relationship satisfaction and quality are about the same across all couple types (straight, gay, lesbian). Compared to straight couples, gay and lesbian couples use more affection and humor when they bring up a disagreement, and partners are more positive in how they receive it. Gay and lesbian couples are also more likely to remain positive after a disagreement. Gay and lesbian partners display less belligerence, domineering and fear with each other than straight couples do.

*Contrary to popular opinion, young teens do not use the net as a substitute for real friendships. The majority of young teenagers are in deep conversations on the internet. Families that encourage conversations about their children’s involvement fare better than those who simply ban its use.

*In a nationally representative study of more than 1000 young people in the 3rd through the 12th grades asked : “If you were granted one wish that would change the way that your mother’s/your father’s work affects your life, what would that wish be?” most children wished that their mothers (34%) and their fathers (27.5%) would be less stressed and tired.

What do you think? What's your "contemporary family" like?  What do we share in common? What's different?

Share your thoughts back here or on our blog.

In continued freedom of living and learning,

Terri Willingham
Learning is for Everyone
www.learningis4everyone.org

If you have a grassroots-type homeschool support group, blog or website and are willing to openly share resources and information with others, please consider joining the new Homeschool Empowerment Webring. 

Webring members are committed to empowering home educators to make educated decisions in their own lives by sharing information and resources freely and equally. Member groups are outspoken, highly interested in homeschool activism and willing and able to participate in media outreach.

Visit the HomeEdPower webring at  http://homeedpower.blogspot.com/  to learn more or join.