Displays at the Homeschoolers' Art Show in Staunton

These are pictures of the kids' entries in the art show. It was a grey, overcast day, but no rain, and we had a fun time walking around looking at the store-fronts that had art displayed in their windows. Emily and Thomas each got a booklet that had reviews of their art by 4 different "art critics," really positive and encouraging comments.




Emily entered the paintings and Thomas entered his clay dragon.

Now That's Some Egg

Look what rolled out from under a hen the other day!

That's one big egg.

It turned out to be a double yolk.

Yes, that says 3.4 oz. I weighed it again and it read 3.5 but we'll just go with this weight. :) According to this website, a jumbo egg weighs about 2.5 oz.

Compared to some of our other eggs

And it was about 3 inches long.

Then we also happened to have this little egg from a week earlier.

What a peewee!

Yeah, only 0.2 oz!

The same as 2 pennies.

And only an inch long.

They're not talking . . .

Buddhist QOTD

Focus,
not on the rudenesses of others,
not on what they've done
or left undone,
but on what you
have & haven't done
yourself.

-Dhammapada, 4, translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
The Three Jewels of Buddhism

Homeschoolers' Art Show in Staunton Coming Up

AN INNOCENT ART WALK
Saturday, March 28
1 - 3 p.m.
downtown Staunton

The homeschoolers' art show opens this Saturday, with festivities beginning at 1 p.m. Anyone participating, or just eager to share in the joy and inspiration, should begin at The Bookstack, 1 E. Beverly St. Here you may pick up your art critique booklets for each participating artist and anyone may grab an Art Treasure Hunt map. There will be art documentaries for the more serious-minded of you, embodied artworks, Living History Artists such as Degas, Cassatt, Dali and Rembrandt strolling around and ready to engage in conversation. Staunton Art Supply will have free children's art projects ready to do, and you may encounter the occasional group of street performers wishing to create something with the kids that very moment. It will be a great deal of fun, a wonderful family event, and a fantastic chance to celebrate the various forms of creativity coming from our regional homeschoolers! With art from Staunton, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Berryville, Afton, and more.

Parking:
Can be found in the large parking lot at the wharf on Johnson, across from Pufferbellies. There are two parking garages on Johnson as well, the first one you must turn onto New St. in order to enter, the second is just past the aforementioned wharf parking lot. You can try your luck with random street parking, too, though I wouldn't bet on it. Johnson St. is parallel to Beverly, so simply park, and walk up.

3rd Annual UWWG Announced for 2010

We're excited to announce the 3rd Annual UWWG (Unschoolers Winter Waterpark Gathering) will be Feb 7 - 13, 2010 at the awesome Kalahari Indoor Waterpark Resort - Sandusky, Ohio!

Join us for a week of awesome fun and support among a 1000+ unschoolly / life learning homeschooling families from around the country, at Ohio's Kalahari Waterpark Resort - the largest Indoor waterpark in the USA!

Plus, NO Registration or Conference Fees! Our super discounted room rates start at only $99/per night for a standard 4 person room - and that includes your waterpark passes and participation in all our UWWG Events! What a tremendous deal!!!

Our 2010 UWWG will be even bigger and better! We'll be doubling the size of the conference area we'll be using, so we'll have lots more room for all the Funshops, Talks and Events being planned.


We already have several awesome and inspirational keynote speakers confirmed for next year!

Jeff and Ginger Sabo will be joining us from sunny, southern California, where they unschool their two sons, Kai (10) and Kade (7). Jeff and Ginger are well liked and respected among the unschooling community. They have both led talks at the former Live and Learn Unschooling Conferences. Jeff will be a keynote speaker at the 2009 Life is Good Unschooling Conference this May in Vancouver, Washington, and the first Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference in San Diego, this coming September. Jeff also writes a blog, Free Boys Dad, about the challenges and learning that comes with balancing an unschooling lifestyle with a corporate career. And Ginger's blog can be found at: http://twofreeboysplus3.blogspot.com/ . We are very excited to be having both Jeff and Ginger speaking at our next UWWG.

Kelly and Ben Lovejoy will be joining us from South Carolina where they live with their unschooled son, Duncan (13) and unschooled, traveling son Cameron (21). We are happy to have Kelly back as a keynote speaker and glad Ben will be joining us for his first UWWG next year. Kelly started the former Live and Learn Unschooling Conferences which she coordinated until September 2008, for 8 years. Her amazing and successful conferences have since inspired unschooling conferences around the country, including our UWWGs! Kelly also is the list owner of the Unschooling Basics Yahoo group, a very active nationwide unschooling yahoo group with over 2200 members. We are excited to have both Ben and Kelly speaking at our next UWWG!

Laura Flynn Endres will be joining us from northern rural Illinois, where she lives with her husband, Rob and their 2 sons, Brady(16) and Jonathan (12) , whom they've unschooled for the last 10 years. Laura has spoken on unschooling at various conferences and events throughout Illinois. She recently took charge of publicity for her state's annual homeschooling conference and has also been featured on the Relaxed Homeskool BlogTalkRadio Show. She enjoys writing and has an interesting blog where she writes about her family's unschooling lifestyle, Wistful Wanderlust. Laura attended our last year's UWWG where she was often found socializing and tattooing in the Henna funshops and became our unofficial mendhi goddess. She was also a sudden replacement for one of our unschooling discussion panel presenters and did an awesome job speaking! We're excited that she'll be joining us next year, and we look forward to hearing her speak again!

If you too would like to be a Presenter at next year's UWWG, please contact Kimberly Conti, our UWWG Presenters Coordinator.

For further details and to start chatting with other UWWG attendees, please join our UWWG yahoo group.

Please help us spread the word, by sharing this announcement with all your unschooling friends and posting on all your unschooling groups!

THANKS and see you next February!!!


Carol Reinhard
UWWG Coordinator
Unschoolers Winter Waterpark Gatherings
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UWWG/

Carnival of Homeschooling at the Homeschool Cafe

I haven't posted a carnival in a long time, but this week's COH is The Blarney Edition, so I couldn't resist! She opens with this poem:

Here's Céad Míle Fáilte to friend and to rover

That's a greeting that's Irish as Irish can be

It means you are welcome

A thousand times over

Wherever you come from,

Whosoever you be

And then says:

Welcome to the Blarney Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. Today, we mingle a bit of Irish culture with our contributors’ wisdom. Enjoy!

Carolina Biological Supply Looking for Homeschoolers' Feedback

I received a message recently about this:

Carolina Biological Supply, a leading science education supplier in the United States would like to talk to homeschool parents about the products they purchase for teaching science to their children. If you would be interested in giving this company some input, such as answering a short questionnaire or participating in a focus group, please send your name, email address and phone number to Tammy Sadler.

Homeschoolers' Art Show in Staunton

I'm pretty sure we'll be sending in some art for this show! Here is the information:

This is just a friendly reminder encouraging everyone to plunge in and embrace the upcoming Homeschoolers' Art Show, now to open on the new date of Saturday, 28 March at one. Our new date is a good thing, as it had to be moved in order to accommodate the ever-growing event and mini-arts fest that is growing around the reception.

Before I launch into that, I'd like to say again that absolutely anything at all a child is moved to do will be displayed in our show. I'd especially like to encourage the older children to explore their creative outlets. Who are our digital photographers? Who's making incredibly dark collages to hang upon their walls? Who's messing around with editing software? We have the capacity to display moving picture art, if that's what a teen or two has been experimenting with lately.

Now for the day itself: including an opening reception for the artists and their families, each work of art will have a critique book in which several local professional artists will have offered their positive encouragements and reflections on the work in question.

Downtown will feature street musicians, visual art-based performance art, living history artists with whom one may converse, an art-related treasure map of sorts leading you through the art walk and various aspects of art history, and embodied classical artworks. It's actually quite amazing how it's coming together, so I hope many families choose to publicly share their artistic endeavors, and those who do not, I hope you'll come out for our spontaneously-forming art celebration.

To reemphasize drop-off details and submission:
Artist submission form: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df7gdw3k_1g7fhjbfh

Thanks,
Megan

The artwork will be presented in the display windows on Beverly St in Downtown Staunton.