Stuff Worth Sharing with Unschoolers: a Gathering, a Group, and a Mailing List

This post came about when I was realizing just how many things, events and online groups and other things, that I wanted to let my readers know about. And, well, once you have more than one or two, it seems pretty silly to give each one it's very own post! So here are some things I really think you should check out.

Summer Montreal Unschoolers Gathering (SMUG) 2012 This event, organized primarily by my wonderful mother Debbie, is now in it's third year, and I'm sure will be every bit as fun as it was the last two years! For unschoolers (and friends of unschoolers), unlike many overnight (SMUG is a six day event) unschooling events, this is not a conference, but instead a gathering of like minded people with the express purpose of hanging out and having fun (not that unschooling conferences aren't also a ton of fun)! It also tends to have a very large percentage of young adults in attendance, so if you're a grown unschooler this might be an especially good event to look into (the first year there were also lots of young families, last year less, and this year I'm hoping there will be a nice mix of ages). So yeah, it's cool. You should come. Join the Yahoo! group, and list yourself as "going" on the Facebook event! It's been a little slow in the organizing stage because of a lot of things going on for my mother, but as long as we get enough people wanting to stay in the lodge (we know we have enough people combined camping and lodge to make a good gathering, it's just that we need a certain number in the lodge to get it all to ourselves), it's going ahead and it's gonna be great!

SMUG 2011, photo credit Patrick Morris.

Stuff Worth Sharing Network My sister Emilie just launched a Facebook group yesterday, aimed especially at the unschooling community! As the description says: "This group is about giving, trading, recycling, and generally providing for and receiving from your community! You can offer and ask for items, a place to stay on your travels, help with learning a skill, etc. I hope that this can be a tool to help unschoolers get things, be it help with a project or that rare book they've been searching for, that they can't find locally." Check it out here.

Freedom-Based Education Events Montreal I started this mailing list (for "sharing freedom-based, radical, and alternative education events happening in and around Montreal"), and then haven't really done anything with it. Yet I really want to change that, because I really think it's important! From the description:  "for several years I've been as involved as I can be with the freedom-based education community in Montreal.  During that time I've often been frustrated at how far-flung and disconnected the various people and groups interested and involved in freedom-based education are, and how hard it often is for people wanting to get involved to know where to start.  So I've started this list in an attempt to remedy those issues, to help people get involved and stay involved in the various events and projects going on, to connect with each other, and to help build momentum in this growing movement." Join the mailing list here!


Anything else you think other readers of this blog might want to know about? Events, groups, etc.? Share them in the comments!