OHEN Conference

I attended the OHEN conference this last Saturday. I am going to copy & paste my description from my SASH yahoogroups...

I went to the TV free class, the Unit Studies class, Lapbooking class and the Unschooling class.

The TV free/limited TV class was small, about 8 of us, but really discussion oriented and I loved how it worked out for our small group. We learned a lot, shared a lot and got some hand-outs. Nothing I didn't know already, but helped to reinforce my thinking of "limited meda" for so many reasons, a place I am at right now...fed up w/ too much media mediums in our home.

The Unit Studies class was great, and I got a lot out of it! I took a bunch of notes on her powerpoint slide show and just loved the hand-out too. I am really thinking that Unit Studies will be fun for all of us. Her style may have rubbed some the wrong way, but her having 5 boys and one girl, well, honestly...perspectives change once you have a "troop" of kids (especially boys), and people can sound harsher than they are meaning to (just their style of humor w/ a big family!).

The Lapbooking class style got a little grittier, I could tell she was just exhausted! However, I learned some great things on Lapbooking, how to integrate into Unit Studies or between them. Very helpful! (Youtube has a bunch of lapbooking clips).

The Unschooling class...well, let's just say I was wishing it was as engaging as her opening speach in the morning. Not what I would've said in a speech about unschooling, and I am not an expert. Some gems in there though, and pulled as much as I could out of it, taking notes all the while.

I am going to some of Scott's talks at the "Life is Good" unschooling seminiar in Vancouver next month or May (keep forgetting when it is!), so I skipped his talks.

Last year the whole thing was WAY bigger I think...bigger space, more classes, bigger rooms to sit in. But they are a very small group of women making this whole thing happen, and I think they did an excellent job it just being them! I think maybe more PR and bigger speakers to rally up more people?

I didn't get my registration in until Friday night, so I had to actually get in my car and leave for lunch (didn't make one and they were out of them, only taking pre-orders), so I missed the walking around and checking out name tags. That and getting my 10 year old to his classes and then to mine.

We drove around a part of Beaverton I wasn't familiar with and found their enormous health food store- New Seasons Market. It was SO cool, wish we had that down here!

I did really enjoy it though, and sadly, they only happen every 2 yrs. We will be attending the A Good Life unschooling conf. in May as a family though, and that should be fun too (especially since I HATE leaving Logan for so long & far away!).