Speakers

The information below is not updated. Most of it is from 2013 - I will update when I receive the new speaker bios and photos.

Cara Barlow

Hi Everyone:

Thank you to Laurie for organizing the Maine Unschooling Mini-Conference!

My husband and I have been married for 26 years, and our daughters are 17 and 19 years old. We're long-time unschoolers, and I returned to full-time work a little over two years ago, when Anna (now 19yo) got her driver's license.

Currently I'm working as the director of a large (for NH) public library, and the girls have their driver licenses, jobs and are filtering into the community college system. I'm the owner of the UnschoolingNH facebook group, and moderate the New England Unschooling yahoo group. 

I enjoy discussing unschooling, navigating the teen years, and how what I learned (and am still learning!) as an unschooling parent carries over into my professional life. 

I also love to travel, and this is a photo from when I was in Sweden last spring visiting my friend Cathy.  Looking forward to meeting you!

Aimee Gerbi

Aimee Gerbi lives in Orono and is an unschooling mother of 4 children ranging in age from 3-12.  When not driving children to fencing, baseball, piano, voice, drama, or storytime, Aimee keeps herself busy as a La Leche League Leader, homeschool group coordinator, loss group volunteer, and housewife.  She is really good at the first three parts of that and really bad at the last part.  Luckily, she has a very understanding husband who fully supports this unschooling journey!

Marti Kenndey

Marti began homeschooling out of necessity, then began unschooling out of love. She lives in Southern New Hampshire with her son Donovan, 14, her incredibly supportive husband Tim, and her dog-friend Luna. Her family has been radically unschooling for 2 years. When she is not playing Minecraft with Donovan, sofa-coaching the Boston Bruins, or watching lots of geeky TV with her family, she is cooking in her wonderful, almost done, diy-remodeled kitchen, and writing about cooking on her blog, Real Food Road. She probably spends way too much time on Facebook and Twitter.

Heather Newman

Heather lives in Southwestern Maine with her husband, David, and their three sons: Ben 18, Arthur 14, and Ethan 12. Their journey led them through schools and structured homeschooling before they discovered unschooling and the myriad of opportunities it offered. Aside from family, Heather's passions include reading, illustrating the stories and creatures that pop into her head, and drinking perfect cups of coffee on mornings full of birdsong. Her artwork can be found at heathernewman.net 

Sarah Thompson

Sarah Thompson grew up in NH and attended The University of New Hampshire. She moved to Maine in 2003. After attempting professional work in finance and horticulture, she elected to stay home with her son Wallace in 2007 and focus on full-time parenting. She lives in Georgetown, Maine, with her husband, John, and two boys, nine and five. She is now pursuing the study of classical homeopathy as well. 

Laurie Wolfrum

Laurie, 46, and her husband Jim, 54, have four children: Katie 18, Keli'i 14, Makana 10, and Kanoa 6 1/2. She came to unschooling by meeting homeschooling and unschooling families at La Leche League, having discussions about life and learning with other homeschooling parents, reading books and online information, attending unschooling conferences and listening to unschooling talks.

Katie chose to attend public school from the very end of 8th grade through 12th grade and will be a freshman at Arcadia University in PA this fall. Li, Makana and Kanoa have never been to school and are planning to continue homeschooling.

She enjoys ballet, jazz, west coast swing, blues and salsa dancing, reading, walking, swimming, the smell of the ocean, playing games, zentangles and star gazing. She is a certified Maine teacher and enjoys doing portfolio reviews for homeschooling families and sharing resources and ideas to offer support to others on their homeschooling journeys, especially if she can put in a few good words about unschooling! You are welcome to check out her Maine Homeschool Resources and Ideas blog: http://homeschoolingresourcesandideas.blogspot.com/.

Sara Yasner

Sara lives in Clifton, Maine with her husband, three children, ages 3, 10, and 13, their dog, cat and six chickens. Although homeschooling came only after deciding to pull their oldest child out of kindergarten midyear (thinking that perhaps waiting another year and having a different teacher would be a better fit), they quickly found the new lifestyle full of promise, freedom, space and choice.  

Sara has a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine and a Masters degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University and enjoys being a Life Coach. She also has a regular mindfulness practice, which she finds immensely helpful.