Overdue update From Lima, Peru!

Hello from Lima, Peru!

Greetings & hoping everyone is happy and healthy!

Miro and I have been a little absent from our blog lately but we wanted to share what has been keeping us so busy: Project World School. Below is an update written for our latest Project World School newsletter:

Project World School has been very busy in 2016 and the year just got started! Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve been up to:  We have hosted a Family World Schooling Summit, a 22-day Mexico Teen Retreat, and a 13-day Amazon Jungle Retreat, all within the past 3 months!

However, there is no time to rest, we have so much happening in 2016.

UPCOMING PROJECT WORLD SCHOOL TEEN RETREATS:

Cusco / Machu Picchu 25-Day Teen Learning Community

Our most popular retreat is happening again for the fourth time since we founded Project World School!

We are so excited about this year, as we have so much in planned, adventures and excursions, classes and explorations. We can’t wait to welcome a new group to Cusco, the place Miro and I consider home.  The retreat runs this year from June 27th-July 24th.

As always, we are excited to build a temporary learning community with a new group of teens in this magical place. Like all of the retreats we’ve produced in 2016, we suspect this retreat will sell out too. We have filled up 6 of spaces (not including Katie our teen intern and Miro) and we can accommodate only 4 more people.  If you know a teen who would like to join us, please get your application in soon! If you submit an application before April 15th, we are offering a $251 discount from the current price. Simply enter the code “ILOVEMACHUPICCHU ” with your application and the discount will be honored.
Submit your TEEN Application Here. 

This is a special offer. To qualify for $251 discount, (equal to the early bird price) Please use code “ILOVEMACHUPICCHU”  BEFORE APRIL 15, 2016. 

Wales – Organic Farming, Natural Building, Off the Grid Living – 27 Day Teen Learning Community

WE ARE HEADING TO THE UK FOR OUR FIRST EVERY EUROPEAN TEEN RETREAT!

Does living off the grid and getting dirty in the Welsh country side sound rewarding to you? It sure does to us! This special learning community Wales retreat runs from August 18 to September 13th of this year.  In partnership with our host Troed y Rhiw Farm, a high-producing small scale organic farm, we will build a small roundhouse (cob house), work the fields, plant and harvest and  learn the principles of sustainability. Together, we will get dirty, tend bees, forage for wild food, cook fantastic fresh meals harvested by our community while being inspired by the great tradition of Welsh storytelling. Join us for this magical adventure, a life changing experience full of skill building and memories!

Submit your TEEN Application Here. 

Save the date: November 2106, we will be hosting a 25 day teen retreat in Thailand. Details to be released in May.

UPCOMING TALKS & PRESENTATIONS:

TEDx Talk in Amsterdam

Guess who were approached to speak at the TEDx Education Conference in April, 2016? We were! Miro and I are traveling all the way over to the Netherlands in late April to speak about WORLDSCHOOLING! Our presentation promises to be the conference’s “wild card” challenging the very definition of what education actually is. We will invite the audience to  focus on “learning” instead of schooling and suggest that the world around is the greatest classroom. We know this first hand and every teen that joins us on a retreat knows it too.

We have been blessed to have a teen intern, Katie Mitchell traveling with us since January, helping us out with the Project World School retreats. She’ll continue to travel with us until July of this year. Since we had no idea we’d be invited to Amsterdam until a couple of weeks ago, Katie didn’t have time to prepare for this budget expense in advance.

Therefore, we are fundraising to be able to help buy Katie’s flight and to cover some of the travel related expenses. Help us get Katie to Amsterdam!

Ever wonder what goes into preparing for a TED talk? Katie will be covering the process from the inside-out. She’ll be writing about it and sharing on the Project World School blog and her personal blog.

Project World School TEDx Talk Fund

If you can help, even just a little, we’d be forever grateful. Another way you can help is sharing our fundraising efforts. Thank you all so very much!

All support helps us get there in order to better reach the world and spread the word about worldschooling.

Later in 2016, Lainie & Miro will be speaking at the following conferences:

Life Without Instructions – NYC /NJ – September 19-22, 2016

Un in the Sun – St. Petes, Florida – October 3 – 6 (a video from last year’s talk can beaccessed here.)

edNext: New Spaces in Education – Bali, Indonesia – October 15-16 (To be confirmed)

WHAT HAVE WE ALREADY DONE IN 2016?

Project World School Family Summit, Mexico

Our first ever Project World School Family Summit was a crazy success. It was hosted in Puerto Morelos, Mexico from February 1st-5th in the town center and at their Casa Ejidal hall. We had over 30 families attend, and over 150 people joined us all together in the 5 days. The speakers spoke about Unschooling, Worldschooling, parenting, and much more! There was also a Kids Camp set up for the 60+ children in attendance, hosted by our intern, Katie Mitchell, and six other teen volunteers. The kids and teens alike had a wonderful time playing at the beach, face painting, and playing games to their hearts content.

Mexico Teen Retreat

The first ever Mexico Teen Retreat was a fun-loving 3 weeks filled with incredible teens on the sunny beaches of Playa Del Carmen. The group of 12 toured ruins, swam in ancient cenotes, built a kick-ass community, and volunteered with multiple companies. We went forward with the intention to learn all we could from the rich culture around us, and were rewarded tenfold.

Drawing by Erin Azcona-Beam, one of our fabulous teen participants 

The teens got to learn to cook a traditional Mexican meal from an abuela in the area, and ate tacos until they couldn’t eat any more. At the end of the retreat, we visited Isla Mujeres and got to relax on the beaches while sipping Agua de Chaya and celebrating the world around us. The teens went home with a new travel family, and most parted with words of returning for another retreat.  Want more? Check out  the gallery of photos here.

Amazon Jungle Retreat

6 years ago, Miro and I partnered with Rainforest Expeditions for a blog project and spent 10 wonderful days with them and learned all about the Amazon jungle.  This year, we partnered with them again for a Project World School retreat. During the 13 day retreat, our group bounced between 2 of their 3 luxurious lodges up and down the river, the furthest being 4 hours away from the nearest town. We saw 6 of the 7 species of monkeys in this national reserve, we saw peccaries, millipedes, frogs, snakes, and our fair share of mosquitos. We experienced a boat rescue, a true rainforest storm, sat in on Macaw chick monitoring sessions, and so much more! We had participants of all ages joining us on this retreat as well, all the way from 12 years old to 69 years old. The combination of the humidity, mosquitos, and early wake up calls made this a much more challenging retreat, but also one of our most rewarding ones to date!  Check out the photos from the retreat here and keep monitoring the Project World School blog for posts and updates.

WE’VE GOT AN AMAZING 2016 LINED UP AND WE WANT YOU TO BE A PART OF IT!

Project World School partnership: