the ACTIVITY portions of our program:
the TALK & DISCUSSION portions of our program
All activities are open to all.
YOU get to decide whether you're interested, whether it's appropriate for you, whether it sounds like fun.
Woo-hoo! YOU are completely in charge of your own experience at the Rethinking Everything conference.
Most of the activites will happen at specific times over the weekend. Our hour-by-hour schedule sessions and activities will be completed and ready in August. Be sure to review the program then so you are sure to find the times and locations of your most anticipated choices. You are not required to sign up for anything in advance EXCEPT the ROPES course.
Got another idea for us? Send Barb an email!
ROPES Course
ROPES is an acronym for Reality Oriented Personal Experiences. This will be a first for RE, as the AATC has a professional ROPES course installed on their property. How fortunate we are indeed to be able to offer this exceptional experience! Facilitated by professionally trained guides, our ROPES course will offer first hand experience with cooperative behavior, acceptance of individual differences, respect for others, asking for help, taking responsibility and making decisions. The ROPES method interacts with each at their physical, emotional, social, and psychological level and incorporates their perception of self and the world around them. What better way is there for developing empowered behaviors than by stimulating self-awareness and an understanding of how they affect their own environment?
The ROPES course is open to anyone at least 48" tall and 70# in weight. Completion of the course will will have you climbing up an excitingly high element that will challenge your courage, trust, and self-confidence. Definitely challenging, it is ideal for older kids, teens and young adults. Group cooperation and individual focus will be necessary to enjoy the course. Sign up on the Registration Form. The cost is $45 per person and the course will take 3.5 hours to complete. Advance registration for this is required. You will NOT be able to sign up for this during the conference!
Life Spiral with Brent Cameron
Our lives unfold as a dance between our desires and the circumstances of the world. Our lives are journeys that unfold day by day as an organic process of growth and maturation. How we understand our lives is ten percent what happens to us and ninety percent how we respond. Our inner resourcefulness and our degree of both self-awareness and self-understanding shapes how we act, how we live our lives. Although we are awake each day and are walking on our life journey most of us have not experienced this journey as a journey, as a path across a map. Going hiking in the mountains is so much richer when we are tracking our journey on a map. Great adventures in life, like vacations to new and unfamiliar places that involve following our daily adventures on a map, take on deep meaning. What if we could map our lives, what if we could see our entire life journey curve around us? The SelfDesign LifeSpiral is a unique map that you can walk on and experience. This 2 hour session will be for people new to the LifeSpiral and also a chance for those of you did it last year to take it to the next level.
Beatles Tribute Band
For real - you won't believe they are not the Beatles themselves! Come prepared to dance or sing-a-long. This will be a perfect cross-generational night of very fun music to share with each other. Click here to check them out!
Trashfinder Ball and Trashion Show
Get busy now in creating your costume/ballgown/get-up for RE's first official event using ONLY TRASH to do so. First, we'll host a Trashion Show as a prelude to our Beatles concert. Each participant will receive a number and post it on themselves. All will parade as they model down the runway. Then, we'll all enjoy the concert and dance as we wish while voting for the BEST Trashion. The winner will be announced after the concert and receive a very special trophy. Note: used clothing/shoes do not count. You must use only TRASH to enter the Trashion Show. As with all things at RE, you are also invited to attend wearing any old or new thing you like! There are no rules to follow! If you want to participate in the Trashion show, be brave, creative and definitely out of the box.
Rock Star Parentswith Chris Parent
Calling all adults/parents! Are you a rock star in hiding? Dust off your instrument of choice (guitar, drums, or vocal chords) and check out the song list.We’re forming an adult rock band to open the show and warm up the crowd for the Beatles tribute band at RE.We’ll be practicing solo over the next few months then rocking and having lots of fun together. Let’s stretch ourselves on the stage and show off a little joy and talent for the youngsters!
If you’re a musician proficient in guitar, voice, or drums and would like to participate, please contact:
Chris Parent (on bass) at bentley311_hotmail.com.
Set list:
Summer of 69 – Bryan Adams
Free Falling – Tom Petty
Take the Money and Run – Steve Miller Band
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
There is no such thing as the truth.
Music Room
We have a gigantic music room for our use this year! If you love to play music, bring your instruments and anything else you need. You'll have 5 days to jam, learn, find lots of fans.
Open Mike, Deejay Music & Dance
Our best deejay ever, Graham Cook, is back this year to delight us with his amazing selection of awesome and danceable music. Open to everyone of all ages, with an invitation to anyone who wants to share a song or two at the mike!
RE Documentaryhosted and filmed by Susan Burke
Susan is a filmmaker who was super charged at last year's conference and has taken on the project of developing and creating a documentary on unschooling, the conference and the long term results of unschooling. She's got a big job ahead of her! She is looking for folks interested in being interviewed and in getting involved. Contact her at suisaidhburke_gmail.com. We have a whole page devoted to the Documentary.Click here for more information.
Kundalini Yoga with Cecilia Zuniga
Kundalini = your unlimited potential
Yoga = union with the Divine
Kundalini yoga is designed to awaken your unlimited potential & create a state of union with the Divine in support of your health, spiritual growth, and enlightenment.
In this session, you will be introduced to the uniqueness of Kundalini yoga, it’s energetic foundations, and it’s purpose, but this is not a “sit and listen” 90-minute deal. Nope; you get to have some fun! You will be guided through a gentle series of vinyasas to 1) deeply and intimately connect you to your body, 2) awaken your sensitivity to the energy in your body, 3) find blocks in your energy and begin clearing them, 5) open your being to a more expanded state, and 6) experience deep relaxation to allow the practice to integrate fully. You will leave the workshop feeling rested, refreshed, renewed, and energized in a brand new way!
Kundalini yoga is often called the “Grandmother of all yogas” because it is considered the oldest form and the basis from which the other styles arose, according to some experts. It is specifically designed to open, clear, and energize the body’s core ~ the spinal column and the central nervous system ~ to nurture the main energy centers and channels in the body. This core energy is believed to hold your body’s inner knowledge and innate wisdom. All the nerves of the body run through the spine, from the base of the neck down to the feet. Keeping the spinal column and central nervous system healthy and strong supports the entire body’s ability to thrive and heal itself.
Kundalini yoga nourishes and stimulates what is called our life force energy, which rests in the second chakra of the body. The second chakra is where our sexual organs are. It holds what is called our life force energy - our sexuality, sensuality, creativity, and passion. It is linked to the line of energy that breathes life into all things, and so it is considered by some to be the most powerful energy center of the body. Kundalini energy has a sensuous, fluid, and powerful quality to it, which is why it is generally symbolized as a snake. As such, when Kundalini yoga was brought to the U.S., it was mistakenly identified as a sexual or tantric practice. Yet, this is mostly true in the sense that it does build energy in the second chakra, which is then used to support and awaken the rest of the body and being. Kundalini yoga in general clears out the main energy centers and conduits of the body, which allows you to connect in a more open, loving, and intimate way with the Divine, the self, and others.
Kundalini yoga is a moving practice. Each “pose” is actually a movement that is synchronized with your breathing. These synchronized movements are called “vinyasas.” Vinyasas are specially designed to stimulate, detoxify, strengthen, and/or regenerate certain parts of the body, such as the thyroid and parathyroid glands, pituitary gland, adrenal glands, diaphragm, belly, liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, nervous system, immune system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, and lymphatic system.
Kundalini yoga is a practice, not a competition. You will flex, expand, and grow right along with your yoga practice. The more you practice, the easier the yoga gets, and the more it serves your health and wellness. Honoring yourself is key. Kundalini yoga is best held as a self-paced practice. Because your body changes day to day, the more you honor yourself in the moment, the better the practice will serve you, allowing you to go farther, faster.
Kundalini yoga is a powerful healing tool that is appropriate for all ages and levels of fitness. You decide how fast and how far you take each vinyasa to serve yourself the best. It is a great way to nurture, nourish, balance, and harmonize your entire being. With regular practice, it opens, clears, heals, and energizes the body to keep you feeling great!
SoulsTrueDesires Workshop with Tracey Huguley
(Come find your truth in a gentle way, using art and guided meditation.)
Are you tired of struggling? Do you want answers in your life? Would you like these answers to come in a gentle way? Then these sessions are for you! We will use guided meditation exercises and art to gently unlock your SoulsTrueDesires. The mind keeps us in a constant state of anxiety, worry, fear, confusion, feelings of being stuck; etc.-if we let it! In these sessions we will recognize the mind's trickery, and work with the mind (the lie is that you can shut off the mind, the truth is it will always try to keep us in it’s grips - so it’s best if we find a way to work in harmony with the mind and the soul), to find your deepest truths.
Tracey Huguley, a SoulsTrueDesires.com (Tracey’s company) workshop presenter, went through her own dark night of the soul during a mid-life transition and her husband’s diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Every fear she had was thrown in her face. She faced losing everything. Indeed, she did lose a lot. Thankfully, by learning how to follow her truth, her and her husband sought alternative treatment for his cancer. In the end, they found out he never had cancer! What a mind blower that was. They found this out because they followed their own truth, and not the established medical community’s truth.
Tracey Huguley will guide you through a process that allows you to find your own truth, no matter what your current circumstances are. We will be meeting every morning Saturday through Tuesday. We will meet from 7:00am to 8:30am (I can hear the mind now, “Oh no. I need my sleep. I’m not going to get up that early to go to a session. Blah, blah, blah.”) Pay attention to anything you are thinking while reading this. Can you sacrifice your mornings to find your SoulsTrueDesires? Or, (and this is tough to say) will you allow the mind’s chatter to keep you away?
We will be doing art to gently open the channels to find your truths. So come if you dare! For more on what Tracey is doing, see her new website.
Find Your Voice Storytelling/Art/Writing Workshop with Tracey Huguley
Do you love to express yourself through art? Do you have a story to tell? Is your child a storyteller? Then this is the session to come to! No writing is required (unless you want to write). This session will be art-making, in order to open the channels, and express the stories you and/or your child want to tell. Art is a medium that allows us to express ourselves in a gentle way. We can find our stories, and then if we want, we can write them down. We will paint, collage, draw, make 3-D projects, do box art, etc. We will briefly discuss some common elements in writing, so that you can implement them into your art. Come Find Your Voice and have fun in a gentle way! All supplies will be provided. There will be a handout that you can take home, so that you can continue to work on your stories after the session.
The WrIte Story:
From Conception to Published Author! with Rhonda Spellman
The WrIte Story is based on a very small emperor penguin named Pasqual. When my 1st grader came home angry that an afternoon had been wasted with a fire drill, when there was no fire I created an animal to connect with him in ways that I could not. Soon Pasqual, the very small emperor penguin, won hearts with his message that You don’t have to BE big to DO big things in my second children’s book titled Fire & Ice.
In 2003 I began teaching small groups of children to write and illustrate with a writing program. The 47 programs I taught were memorable, fun and educational—for all!
Before long I was teaching groups of 30—300 to write a complete story based on Pasqual. My goal was and still is: teach a child to become an expert and recognize them for their efforts. I believe that self-confidence gained from this experience carries over into all areas of a child’s life.
Now that I have worked with over 5,700 children authors and illustrators I am thrilled to be a part of turning their stories into a children's TV series. ALL receive guidance to write and illustrate their very own book!
Note: this is for kids aged 6 and up and will last 3 hours, with a break.
Penguin Particulars with Rhonda Spellman
Penguin Particulars teaches fun and fantastic facts about all 17 individual penguin species. Penguins win our hearts while providing a way to teach children to embrace diversity! With Penguin Particulars kids will learn:
•Where do penguins live? You might be surprised where some make their homes!
•One penguin can run! One has a square pupil! One can bark like a dog!
•Some like it hot, some like it cold. Some are shy, some are very social.
•We’re all like penguins: different on the outside, the same on the inside.
The Penguin Particulars Assembly is paired with The WrIte Story program (above). Children can become penguin experts! I include real penguin pictures, real penguin voices, real eggs and a “real” 4’ life-size emperor penguin!
Women and Tarot Getting Acquainted Circle with LaVonne Parker
Bring a pillow, throw, incense, candles, altar pieces, etc., and an open mind ripe for talking, sharing and meeting other unschooling moms and teens. We will sit on the floor in a circle and play fun games with tarot cards that will get you sharing and meeting other women, opening your psyche and exploring the possibilities while learning new ways of using the tarot.
La Vonne, your tarot hostess, is committed to bring the tarot out of the dark room of misunderstaning and into the light of modern approaches of using tarot as a tool for expanding your horizons and empowering women to take charge of their lives. Tarot validates your experience and empowers you to create the life and future you dream of. Join us and you will learn how.
Ghost Hunting with Paula Schermerhorn
History is a great story. It just needs great story telling. Kids are eager to learn, but sometimes history becomes a series of dates, numbers, and names that don't mean anything. Ghosts offer an innovative way to learn history, because you simply can't study spooks and specters without also studying the past. Do you believe in ghosts? Paula spends her time investigating nothing but ghosts!
Family Marketplace
An open invitation for all families to bring, display and sell their handmade products, talents and services. Come and explore all of the out of the box arts, gifts and services unschooling families have to offer. Register your family for their own table or booth or just bring your family and share in the magic. Email Barb if you want to reserve a table.There is no charge to do this. barb_rethinkingeverything.net
Silent Auction
is back for another year! Do you create or offer a service that the RE audience would love to see and bid on? Donate now! All of the auction's proceeds are used to enable families who would otherwise be unable to attend RE do so. Thank you!
Unschool Fashion Lab
Ever wanted to have access to all of the fabirc, thread and materials possible to make your very own funk-tastic fashions? Good news, you've got it! We will have an all access Fashion Lab open the entire weekend . Come by and make an outfit, hat, socks or shoes or whatever your hip self desires. Then join us Monday after the Talent Show for your chance to model your fashion creations on the runway !
You are free to be whatever you wish to be.
Dress Up Room
This has been a huge hit at RE for two years running so we simply must bring it back again this year. Open all weekend, this is a room with nothing but mind-blowing costumes to borrow as you wish. Return and try a new one!
Video Game room, uh... ROOMS
Video Gaming is evolving this year! For the first time ever we will have one room for non-violent video games and a separate room for violent game playing. Our venue offers free WiFi throughout so we will also have yet a third area just for Warcraft ! Awesome or what? Volunteers will be bringing wired TVs and systems. Bring your games. Volunteer to bring your own TV and game system. For Warcraft, bring your laptop !
Didgeridoo Journey with Quinn Eaker
Journey with the popular and primal powerful sound vibrations of the Didgeridoo! This is designed to be a focused Silence Within Sound experience. For groups or individuals sitting or laying on the ground around a crystal alter. Burning of sage, copal, sweet grass, and other ceremonial essences is involved. I will flow the breath through the didgeridoo, bringing life to the impactful sound. Generally 1-1 1/2 hours is optimal with bliss time afterward with those who wish to bask afterwards!
Wee Dance Party hosted by Anuschka Gallagher
(toddlers to 11 years old)
This is a first for RE! Does your Wee one like shaking their booty? If so bring them down for a great time shaking it to the fun pumping beats. Our time will be spent expressing ourselves through movements, partner dancing, being goofy with parents, and/or just listening to the music.
Power Shuffle
This diversity exercise helps group members examine their understandings of diversity, their feelings about belonging to one group versus another and their assumptions about one another. It also highlights the power differentials between dominant and nondominant groups in our society and the sense of "stigma" that may be assigned or attached to non-dominant groups. This is a popular and emotionally intense activity .
Princess Dads
So, it seems there were a bunch of dads inspired on some level by Quinn's outrageous display of princess energy last year on Day 5 of RE, as he confidently strutted about with a shiny pink cape and boa! Now we've got more than a few dads looking for a real opportunity to uncover their inner princess - in support of their precious daughters, in support of their yin energy, in support of whatever makes a dad think pink is fun! Bring your fun pink stuff, your tiaras, slinky stuff or whatever will enable you to express your inner princess. And you don't have to be a dad to show off your inner princess, just a male. We'll do this on Sunday.
Speed Meeting
Like speed dating without the intention of dating, speed meeting will have all those who wish to meet a whole lotta people doing just that - quick and easy, fast and dirty, or flirty.
Breakfast Club hosted by Miller Pyke and Ike Eaker
For late nighters who love conversation, debate, fun and socialization (no breakfast!), the Club will meet at 11pm and go until....
Hooka Party
We have fabulous outdoor space and lots of great space to host this! Bring your hookas and flavored turkish tobacco.
Kid Bazaar
Calling all kids! Last year was such a success that we simply must host this again! It's just for entrepreneurial kids up to age 12 to display and sell their handmade art and other wares and services. This will last for about 3 hours on Saturday afternoon.
Autograph Your Clothes
This will be so fun! For one full day, we will invite anyone interested to wear special clothes and invite others to sign their names, draw, or doodle on them, leaving us with some very special memories of our weekend together. Bring your own Sharpies and those special clothes thatt will soon become permanent works of art.
Loom Knitting Necklace with Jaen Godfrey
Learn the basics of loom knitting by making a quick and easy necklace! The technique is so easy that even younger kids can enjoy it. My 5 year old granddaughter easily learned the process and made herself a scarf! Once you know the basics you can go on to add to your new skill and make all sorts of things. The necklace is a project I have developed especially for RE since it can be completed in a short span of time by a variety of ages and give a result that is both beautiful and unique! I will provide small looms to use and yarn especially suited for the project. I also will have interesting ideas for items to complete the necklace/pendant. A plus is the laughter and fun conversation that will surely accompany the project!
Needle Weaving with Jaen Godfrey
As a fiber artist I have developed my own technique for my art pieces and will share my basic needle weaving process in a project that will produce a butterfly or abstract pattern on a 5” brass ring. In this project, developed especially for the free and joyous atmosphere that is RE, I will provide the materials and you provide your creative spark!
Singalong and Camp Fire
We've got a big fire pit at our disposal so we're going to use it to host a singalong! If you have a favorite song that must be included, email the name and lyrics to us so we can print it out beforehand.
Body Art
Everyone loves to art their body, and we'll have henna, glitter, paints and more.
Bingo!
We'll play this old fashioned game off and on throughout the weekend. Even the youngest kids can play, as surely the person sitting next to them will know their numbers!
Mask Making
This is so popular that we just have to offer it again! Use plaster strips to form a mask over your face that, when dry, will be a perfect fit and can be decorated. You must bring someone with you to make your mask!
Button Rings
We've got everything you need to make your own totally cool and unique ring - with buttons and other hip stuff we have collected for you to experiment with.
Face Painting with Susan Burke
Things do not change. We change.
Zumba! with Joy Smith
is an aerobic fitness program using music based on salsa, merengue, cumbia, reggaeton, calypso, soca, samba, African, cha cha, hip hop and other music. This is the hottest fitness craze and open to all ages and abilities.
Kids Take Apart Electronics
Not just for kids! Teens and dads love this activity so much that we must bring it back for another year. We'll have 100's of used electronics assembled and tools to take them all apart. Our unschool engineer dads particularly love explaining to anyone who will listen how this stuff really works.
Silhouette Studio
We'll use a lamp without the shade, turn off the lights and the get the kids jumping around, doing karate moves, dance poses and generally being silly. Their shadows will be all different and we will trace their silhouettes on big paper to be colored and decorated later or at home!
Magic Wands
Make a magical wand to enforce your special powers, make your wishes come true and become an official wizard or princess or fairy!
Shaving Creme Sculptures
We've got great outdoor space this year, so we can finally host this fun and messy activity. We'll have the shaving cream, you come with your bathing suits and imagination. We can hardly wait to see what results! Hose off and then jump into the pool when you're through.
Mad Scientist
Have fun with a bevy of cool science experiments!
It's a Duct Tape Life
This was so fun last year we must do it again. Who knew you could create such awesome, hip things from brightly colored plastic tape.
Stained Glass Coloring
We've got many intricate and beautifully designed, see-through paper for you to color with markers. When you hang the completed project in your window at home, it will glow just like a stained glass window.
Mosiac Coloring
Are you one of those people who just really love to color in the lines? There is a satisfying feel to watching it all come together and turn gorgeous at the end. We have a lot of geometric designed pages for you to color to your heart's content.
Marry Myself! with Miller Pyke and Ike Eaker
Are you the perfect partner for yourself? Of course you are! Come celebrate how fabulous you really are! Take the plunge and commit yourself to ... yourself!
Part 1: Popping The Question
Am I willing To Love Myself Completely For The Rest Of My Life? It's really such a big question! We will be discussing all of the illusions in regard to having to have a relationship with someone else in order to feel love, security and joy. We'll talk about how we must create and keep open communication with ourselves in all decisions, as well as any issues that might hold you back from falling completely in love with you! We'll explore all of the ways being committed and full of love for yourself can create completely blissful relationships with everyone you meet. Finally, we'll turn this into big fun when we will be writing your very own vows of loyalty, trust and respect, and of course appreciation, as expressions of our unending love to ourselves.
Part 2: The Big Moment!
This is it, the moment you've been dreaming of all of your life, your Marrying Myself Ceremony! We will be wearing our (optional) fabulous self made wedding fashions, reading our heart-felt vows to ourselves and celebrating. What could be better - it's all about you! Committing to love, cherish and respect yourself until death do you part!
Keep reading!We have so many ACTIVITIES this year that TWO pages are required!
Click here to see them all.
...
do what you love, love what you do
