ABOUT US
The Northeast Unschooling Conference is more than just an annual gathering! We are a community of unschooling families who support, empower, and encourage each other year-round! Our annual conference provides a dynamic mix of speakers, presentations, hands-on arts workshops, opportunities for reflection, connection with a broader unschooling community, and conference activities geared towards engaging, entertaining, inspiring, and empowering each member of your family on their personal unschooling journeys.
Every Saturday and Sunday in August, our jam packed conference programming will bring you together with other unschoolers to experience live panels, funshops, support spaces, hands-on workshops, games, and more!
Virtual NEUC
We are thrilled to announce our month-long virtual Northeast Unschooling Conference!
Over four weekends, this à la carte event series will come to you every Saturday and Sunday in August, 11:00 AM - 3:30 PM EST.
With three workshop time slots each day, attendees will be free to select workshops from across our four carefully curated tracks, specifically designed to meet the needs of all members of your family, whether you are new to unschooling or a seasoned aficionado.
Keynote Speaker
Maleka Diggs
Maleka Diggs (She/Her), “Disruptor of Monoliths,” is an unschooling advocate, community organizer, presenter, and trainer that centers equity and inclusion, especially BIPOC communities, serving families, schools (public and private), and alternative learning spaces through her organization, Eclectic Learning Network.
She is also co-founder of the Philly Children’s Movement, a multi-racial and multi-generational collective of families talking, playing, and “rising up” for racial justice!
Her work explores the intersections of race, parenting, and education, its impact on Black and Brown peoples and those within under-represented communities while exploring ways to pivot away from harmful practices toward liberatory-centered approaches through unschooling and partnership-based learning practices.
Something for Everyone
Parent Support Track
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Got questions about unschooling? New to unschooling or just need some extra support for you and your family? This track is designed for you! This track includes Q&A’s about many parents’ biggest concerns (math, bedtimes, college, media consumption), in addition to support groups for primary caregivers/primary workers and more!
Building Community Track
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Want to gather with like-minded unschoolers, build community, and make new friends? This track will provide a relaxed setting to engage in fun activities and connect. This track includes a cook-along, hands-on crafting workshops, identity-based support groups, and other community-building activities.
Grown Unschoolers Track
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Join us for the only space BY grown unschoolers FOR grown unschoolers. This is a track designed for those who were raised in unschooling and want to connect and share with others who have the same lived experiences. This track will include support spaces, discussion groups, and both formal and informal opportunities to connect.
Young Unschoolers Track
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Join us for active spaces designed especially for young unschoolers. This track will include hands-on funshops, gaming spaces, arts and crafts, and opportunities to explore new subjects and interests through an unschooling lens!
Don’t miss this incredible, affordable opportunity to connect with other unschoolers in real-time at the world’s largest virtual unschooling conference!
Our Programs
The Northeast Unschooling Conference boasts a variety of robust programming, organized into four convenient tracts: Parent Support, Building Community, Grown Unschoolers, and Young Unschoolers. Within those tracks, there are generally four types of events: funshops, panels, discussions, and presentations.
Funshops are hands-on, interest driven programs where people share skills, create community, learn, and play!
Panels aim to represent a particular demographic, such as grown unschoolers, or address a particular topic, such as concerns around math. Three or more presenters with a depth and breadth of knowledge will speak about their own unschooling journeys, and answer your questions.
Discussions provide an opportunity for our community to come together around a particular topic, sharing wisdom, talking, and listening. These may be unschooling specific topics, closed identity groups, discussions about social issues, and much more! Each discussion will have at least one facilitator to keep the conversation on track.
Presentations allow one facilitator to take the lead, creating a workshop or speech on a specific topic such as college entry, traveling full-time with young unschoolers, or making a career on YouTube.
Programming for folks of all ages will be offered in every timeslot. We appreciate your patience as we put together the program booklet for 2021. Stay tuned for an announcement about our keynote speaker, and a full schedule jampacked with programming options.
Attending NEUC has been helpful in my unschooling journey as a mother of 4. It has helped reconfirm and support our lifestyle. It has given me confidence in the way we are raising our children.
A dynamic conference we left feeling secure in our choice to unschool. Each member of our family left more confident, inspired and connected.
As a grown unschooler, I remember the feeling of relief that my siblings and I felt at NEUC. It was a haven. A place full of people who learned like we did and who helped us feel like we weren't alone in our unique journey of living life and learning.
Event Organizers
The Northeast Unschooling Conference is the first-ever unschooling conference to be organized entirely by grown Unschoolers! Our conference organizers, Emmett and Rhianon, met at NEUC as young children in the early 2000s!
Emmett DuPont (they/them)
Rhianon Small (she/her/they/them)
Emmett DuPont is a 24-year-old always unschooled adult living in Western MA. Emmett started attending the Northeast Unschooling Conference at the age of nine and attended every year ever since. NEUC gave them the space to come into their own as an adult and allowed them to grow up surrounded by other children and teenagers who understood the unique struggles, joys, and challenges of unschooling.
Emmett graduated in May 2019 from Hampshire College with a B.A, double majoring in Public Health and Entrepreneurship, and double minoring in Culture, Health and Science and Reproductive Rights. Emmett is now a high school teacher at an alternative learning school called LightHouse Holyoke, whose mission is to bring unschooling philosophy and interest-driven exploration to ALL teenagers, regardless of family structure or socioeconomic status.
Rhianon Small is a 24-year-old, life-long unschooler currently living in southern RI. Rhianon graduated from the Community College of Rhode Island in May 2018 with an A.A in General Studies and from the University of Rhode Island in May 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and Political Science. Rhianon currently works as a Substance Use Specialist and is in the process of applying to graduate programs.
Having attended every Northeast Unschooling Conference since its inception when she was 6 years old, Rhianon has grown up in the community and views it as a second, vast, and loving family. Her goal is to share the joys and hardships of unschooling and to foster an environment where unschoolers can feel safe and understood, regardless of their sexuality, gender, race, religion, or ethnicity.
community guidelines
This is what we believe. Please take a moment to read through what we stand for.
frequently
asked
questions
Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about NEUC here!
Land Acknowledgement
We want to acknowledge the original and rightful inhabitants of the land our conference is held on.
