Portland Children's Film Festival

The first annual Portland Children's Festival is open to any resident of Portland, ages 4-11 and takes place March 29-April 1. To register click through to the Young Filmakers Contest page.

February News

Greetings Unschoolers! I hope everyone is making the best of all our snow! If you are in search of something fun and interesting to do today, I urge you to check out the Chinese New Year Celebration in Portland, from 1030a-4pm. Admission is $6/adults, $4/ages 2-17. It's the Year of The Rabbit.



I recently created another blog called Unearth and Fathom at the request of my two unschoolers and it's where I strew, or leave information about varied topics in their paths. It's intended to be a fun way to learn together and we're happy to have you come learn with us!

Meanwhile, teens are still meeting regularly at the library. It's a great group and there are regularly about 7-10 unschoolers. Stay tuned for postings about other gatherings, coming soon!




Teen Gatherings @ The Portland Public Library

Teen Meet-Ups!

When: Every Tuesday, 12Noon-2pm

Where: Portland Public Library in the Teen Lounge. (The Teen Lounge is located behind the circulation desk). 5 Monument Square Portland, Maine 04101. Directions.

Who: Unschooling Teens, ages 11-19.

Third Annual Grave Rubbing @ Evergreen Cemetery

It was a fine fall day on Monday and though it was a gathering on the small side, we all definitely enjoyed our time making rubbings and adventuring at Evergreen Cemetery. You can find more photos and words from unschoolers here, here and here.

Lobster Tales And Unschoolers At The Gulf Of Maine Research Institute

Last week, about fifteen of us met at the GofMERI for the Lobster: Untold Tales lab. The facility is impressive and the kids had an opportunity to collect data to help with the GofMERI's research. The program feels overall, a bit rushed, however and the staff focuses on the school groups the entire time. For example, at the introduction, the staff presents Google Earth to the participants, zooms in on an inland area and a river, asking the kids if they recognize the area. I could see the home/unschool group wanting and struggling to answer and looking a bit dismayed at the whole exercise, especially when by the end, the staff zooms to the school that the other half of the group came from (which happens to be a location at least two hours from the greater Portland area, where most of the home/unschoolers were from.) I thought this was unfortunate and it needlessly excluded, as I wrote, a half of the entire group participating in the lab. (see other complaint)*




Moving on, now. As stated, the facility is amazing and the kids were all able to participate fully and I think it's fair to say that our group thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Adam, 11, did say, however, that had they had a chance to really dig into the data and ask lots of questions, he would have.

The kids were sectioned off into teams and assigned stations that would be rotated with other teams so everyone had a chance at each station.





The lab consisted of taking videos of the lobsters in the tanks to observe behavior and determine what conditions the lobster preferred, using an interactive game. Then the kids used microscopes to examine and photograph the lobsters in all its life stages as well as the food it eats. At one point, the kids also examined a live lobster. At yet another station, using another interactive program, the kids determined the best and most profitable number of traps per lobster catch. Through their testing and data collection, the kids determined that overall, the best method is to set out a reduced number of traps, which, in turn, gains the fishermen the most profit.









The final step in the lab was to collect the data and present their findings in a video and then all the teams' data was compiled and presented to the entire group at the end, showing the results of their work.





Each participant then received a digital code to the website so they can view their data results. It's a pretty fabulous resource and the institute is very well-equipped with materials and the knowledgable staff offers a unique program. I advise the home/unschoolers to be proactive in getting their group into the the programs and making the GofMRI aware of the home/unschooling community as a whole, so that all kids in this age range can benefit from this fabulous program.

*one more complaint--because the GofMERI relies on sponsership and grants, the program is at times tainted with some commercial plugs. The worst offender was the unnecessary Poland Spring bottled water provided for each kid leaving the program. This was especially ironic given the opening discussion about Maine's invaluable watershed. Many of the home/unschoolers in our group simply left the bottles behind, to the apparent dismay of the staff, knowing as the kids do that drinking bottled water is not good for Maine's watershed. It seemed yet another instance where the program is overlooking how knowledgable and informed many of their participants truly are. Learn more here and here.

~ Amy Bradstreet

Mycological Fun

A few weeks ago, Adam and I had a great walk in the woods at my parent's farm in central Maine. While walking over and under and through the woods, we came across many different types of fungi, and snapped these pictures.
Adam with calvatia cyanthiformis, purple spored puffball - not edible at this point, but good when younger.



Lobster Mushroom - this is actually a mold which makes a russula or other mushroom non-toxic - although this looks amazingly like a chantarelle, not growing on wood, not real gills, etc. We'll have to check back a bit earlier in the season next time, not just for the puffball above but also for this little guy.



Green Jelly Club - leotia viscosa - any of the slime molds are gross IMHO.



Large, Brown, Mystery Mushroom - no idea if the gills are attached or detached, veil or no veil, shape of the base, etc. It was about the size of a small dinner plate.



Based on what we learned at the Maine Mycological Foray on September 18, I've taken a stab at identifying them. The Foray was fun, although the blazing hot afternoon sun made it hard to concentrate on the identification speakers. At the start of the day, we looked at examples of some things we may want to find.

• hiricium americanum, which I know I've seen in my parent's woods before. Here is an excerpt from the University of Wisconsin - Fungus of the Month website: "It's quite delicious, with a taste reminiscent of lobster if it's properly prepared. We like it lightly sautéed in a mixture of olive oil and butter, with just enough heat to turn the teeth a golden brown. It also makes a fine ^TM. You might also try it in soup, as a substitute for rice, noodles or ancini de pepe (or other little Italian pastas). It's great in stir fry. "Lobster Helper


• calvatia gigantea, someone brought a beautiful specimen that they sliced into sections and handed out to certain people - I guess its who you know.


• laetiporus cincinnatus, the Chicken Mushroom, because it, you guessed it, is supposed to taste like chicken when cooked properly.

Then they sent us into the woods and fields. In addition to finding the ducks, and some skeet we also found some mushrooms. The kids have been taking an AP Biology course, so they knew all about finding and collecting mushrooms. We spotted this huge purple mushroom, and learned later that it was ganoderma tsugae, the Hemlock Varnish Polypore. And it was growing on a hemlock too!



We also found a whole bunch of piptoporus betulinus (whitish tan in the center of this photo) growing right up a dead birch tree. From further reading, I understand that the fungus can be treated to make an excellent fire starter - like one spark from a flint and whoom! (that is the sound of a huge fireball resulting from this most excellent fire starter being lit).



When I saw this one in the woods, the kids told me right away it was poisonous, so we handled it carefully and brought it back for show and tell. It was the Destroying Angel, amanita bisporigera. Beautiful but deadly.



Since then, the kids and I have cultivated a growing interest in all things Fungi and we're on alert for further finds on our walks in the woods, like the many we saw on our evening walk in Ferry Beach last night.



This is a great time of year to get out and do your own mushroom foray and being in the Maine woods in October can't be beat. Good hunting!

~Alex, unschooling with Olivia, 13 and Adam, 11 in Old Orchard Beach

Teen Meet-Ups @ Portland Public Library

Teen Meet-Ups @ Portland Public Library are every Tuesday, 12-2pm. Meet in the Teen Lounge area, located behind the Circulation Desk. This is a regular time set aside for unschooling teens, ages 11-19, to have a chance to meet each other, hang out, share ideas and have fun.

Additional places and times to gather will be apart from this regular time and place on Tuesdays. The consistency of having this one spot, in a beautiful space, indoors and weekly, is a huge benefit to our teen unschooling community, so do take advantage of it. We hope to see you there!

Teen Meet-Up Fun

We had a small turn-out for the Teen Meet-Up at Kettle Cove yesterday, but fun was had by all regardless. The day was gorgeous, the water was cold and the seaweed was seaweedy. Of course, is was also a perfect day for some movie-making.



I'm still thinking about next week, as it will be a busy one for my family, but there's no reason others couldn't meet somewhere. Let me know if you have thoughts around this. Looking forward to gathering soon!

~Amy Bradstreet

Teen Meet-Up @ Stonyfield Cafe A Success!

A big thank you to the teens and parents for making our first Teen Meet-Up a big success! For two hours teens, ages 11-17, willingly made space for others, chatted, shared interests, put faces to names and got to know one another a bit better and the parents did the same. Though Stonyfield is a great space, we could have used a bit more room and better acoustics for conversation, so let's hear about all those great community destinations/gathering places for our next Teen Meet-Up.



Be sure to check here for updates, as I'll post soon about the next gathering. It was so lovely to see old friends and make news ones, too! Thanks again!

Summer Update

Hello Unschoolers! I'm sure most of you are making the most of this beautiful summer we are having in Maine, or at least I hope so! Summer for my family has often been a season of growth, not relegated to the garden alone, as Maine offers an abundance of learning opportunities, large and small.



I hope, however, perhaps while you are relaxing in that beach chair or paddling that canoe, all of you are thinking about contributing to Maine Unschooling Network in the coming months, perhaps with a post or in the contribution of resource links. I realize that living in the southern part of the state means I have a limited knowledge about unschooling resources statewide. So this is where I need your help. If you live in the southern tip of northern Maine Bangor, for instance, I'd love to include a unschooling-friendly resource, whether it's a class, workshop, community outreach, facilitator, etc, let me know about it please, and I'll put it on the list. I used to live up that way, and central Maine, too, but before I had kids. That said, I'd like to keep the resource page links focused on those organizations or individuals that have been known to accommodate unschoolers.

In other news, my family will be attending our first ever unschooling conference next month, when we attend the Northeast Unschooling Conference. We're very excited and looking forward to meeting so many that we have gotten to know via the ol' interwebs. Are any of you attending a conference sometime soon? Have you been before? What was your experience like? Perhaps you would share, say in a blog post? Hmm?

Also, calling all shutterbugs out there--I started a companion flickr group for Maine Unschooling Network and it would be great to see how unschooling looks for all of you!

Again, I look forward to building this Maine Unschooling Network with you, so I urge you, please, share your writing, your photography and your knowledge!