Alternative Education Resource Organization

Benefit Silent Auction

We will be holding a silent auction to benefit the continued work of AERO. Your support will enable us to start more schools, help families find alternatives, and provide invaluable resource to countless individuals worldwide.

The auction items will be available for viewing and bidding Friday from 9am-9pm, and Saturday 9am-4pm. We will stop the bidding and announce winners shortly thereafter.

If you would like to donate an item to the auction, please download and fill out our donation form by Clicking Here for the PDF (26kb) or Clicking Here for the Word document. (124kb)
Item suggestions include gift baskets, new and collectible books, unique items from your part of the country/world, memorabilia, free home stays, personal services, and much more!

With your help in donating items and bidding, we will be able to further the reach of AERO, alternative education, and more!

Talent Show

The title is self descriptive, but for those that have not participated in an AERO conference talent show before you'll be in for quite a treat! The last night of the conference is always an entertainment evening, which you'll find is much needed after every last muscle in your brain has been tapped! Attendees have brought the house down with applause after sharing some of their talent, which include music, comedy, theater, poetry and spoken word, and so much more! Come to this event to remember!

This year’s talent show will be held at St. Anthony’s, the venue for Grand Street Community Arts—a local non-profit community organization. You can view pictures of the facility and learn more about the organization at http://www.grandarts.org

Yoga

Yoga will be lead each morning of the conference by local instructor and alternative school teacher, Mara Afzali.

Childcare & Kids Program

Free child care will be available throughout the AERO conference. We have a dedicated staff of seven which have been with us for most if not all of our conferences. All of the staff is intimately familiar with alternative education and the level of care our attendees expect for their children. Children ages three* to eleven (3-11) will have a private room near all of the workshops and keynotes along with access to many amenities our new location provides. Special workshops for children, field trips to local parks and museums, games, arts and crafts, and so much more will be available! It’s like summer camp, but they’ll always be close by! While there will be plenty of activities, parents are encouraged to bring toys, art supplies, and activities that they wouldn't mind getting used and potentially destroyed. Those with children under five (5) are strongly encouraged to bring anything that will help make their child's time at the conference better. Some snacks will be provided, but please bring extra if possible. We also suggest sending your child with a change of clothes each day during child care. Parents are free to drop and pick their children up as many times as they see fit during the child care hours. Last year we had forty (40) children take part in our free child care throughout the 4-day conference. The feedback we received truly showed us what the heart of the conference is: the children. We strongly encourage families and those with children to bring them to the conference. If the comments made by parents this past year are any indication, your children will have an amazing time:

"We really appreciated having the free child care available...My son spent his time in childcare, mostly making airplanes and rockets with Corina, who was absolutely fantastic with him."

"The child care was wonderful - really made the conference work for us."

"The child care was exceptional and really well organized. I was really impressed"

"Although I enjoyed meeting others who were interested in educational alternatives, it was the joy on my daughter's face (and her reluctance to leave!) that pleased me most."

Child Care Hours During Conference:

Thursday:
6:30pm - 9:30pm

Friday:
8:30am - 12:00pm
1:00pm - 5:30pm
6:30pm - 9:30pm

Saturday:
8:30am - 12:00pm
1:00pm - 5:30pm

Sunday:
8:30am - 12:00pm

*Contact us if you’re looking for care for a child under three

Teen Program

Information coming soon!

SelfDesign Life Spiral

Our lives unfold as a dance between our desires and the circumstances of the world. Our lives are a journey that unfolds day by day as an organic process of growth and maturation. How we understand our lives is ten percent what happens to us and ninety percent how we respond. Our inner resourcefulness and our degree of both self-awareness and self-understanding shapes how we act, how we live our lives. Although we are awake each day and are walking on our life journey most of us have not experienced this journey as a journey, as a path across a map. Going hiking in the mountains is so much richer when we are tracking our journey on a map. Great adventures in life like vacations to a new and unfamiliar place that involves following our daily adventures on a map take on deep meaning. What if we could map our lives, what if we could see our entire life journey curve around us? The SelfDesign LifeSpiral is a unique map that you can walk on and experience the stages and perspectives of transformation. This workshop is an opportunity to deepen and enrich your life and to put into perspective some of the significant events that have shaped you on your life's journey.