Back from the NEU Conference

We were at the New England Unschooling Conference in Peabody the last two days and had a wonderful time (except for Aseem; more on that later). Supriya was in heaven - she could just step out of the room, go down to the lobby and find somebody (usually one or more slightly-older boys) to play with. There was also a small swimming pool to play in and she must have spent 6 or more hours in there (of the 48 hours we were at the hotel)! She was on her own for much of our stay there.

This was my first unschooling conference, and I had a grand time. Some of my highlights:

• Folk-dancing on Friday: I (& Manisha too) were folk-dancing after a long time and had a ball. We have resolved to find some local venues to do this on a regular basis.
• Juggling and Hooping FUNShop: I had my juggling set and a bunch of hoops with me so I decided to offer a "FUNShop" Saturday morning 10 to 11. I expected maybe 5 people, but ended up having about 25! We had the whole range of ages and experiences.
• Talent show on Saturday night: This was the culminatiing event of the Conference, and I ended up being a part of 3 songs! I opened up the show with "Happy Together" with Ken Briggs on the bass-guitar. Apparently it went well. Later I sang harmony to Marji Z's "This land is your land". I thought it sounded very good & tight and was musically very satisfying. Close to the end Ken, Ben and I butchered Clapton's "Sunshine of your life".
• Watching Supriya: The best part for me was watching Supriya's excitement! She was so thrilled to be at a place where all she had to do was go downstairs to find friends to play with.

The biggest downer for Manisha and me was Aseem's reaction. It was too crowded for him and the space was too confining. To make matters worse, he kept losing Supriya who was too busy running around & playing with her boy-friends. He kept going back to the hotel room, and wanted to go back home.

We made many friends and hope to keep in touch with at least a few of them.

I am in the process of upgrading our Flickr account to Pro, but Paypal is acting up and not accepting my new password. So you will have to wait for the pictures...