CLUSA-AOU 2009 Conference Report

On the first evening of this year's ChildLightUSA Charlotte Mason conference, a half-dozen nervous teens found their way into a rather intimidating board room at Gardner-Webb University. Their numbers did not even begin to fill the space. They gathered around one end of the table, settled into the large mahogany-and-leather chairs, and cautiously made small-talk. This was the inauspicious beginning of the first annual ChildLightUSA-AmblesideOnline Unlimited Conference.

The plans for this year's teen conference began almost as soon as last year's conference ended. At last year's conference three of us teens met, and we hit it off so well that we decided we needed to get other Ambleside high-schoolers and college students involved and have our own mini-conference. When we went home that summer we started an internet forum for Ambleside students and grads called AO Unlimited, and the conference plans grew as we talked with the other AO students there. We tossed around ideas for sessions and decided what we wanted to do the most. By the time summer came we had a schedule of events, and ChildLight graciously worked with us to reserve rooms and time slots. That was how a group of Ambleside students found themselves in a specially reserved room at this year's conference, meeting—many of us—for the first time.

Later that first night, after the opening plenary session was over, five of the teens sat down together in the fireside lounge and chatted for a couple of hours. It didn't take long to find out that we had a lot in common. Conversation came easily: we talked about Pride and Prejudice, Star Trek, homeschooling, Narnia, eschatology, and everything in between. (And every combination thereof. Just what were Mr. Darcy's views on the End Times, for instance?) After that we weren't so shy, so we went back to our shared apartment and played Beatles Monopoly until the wee hours of the morning.

It was so uplifting and downright fun to find so many like-minded people my own age there. I laughed harder and longer than I had for a long time. It's something special when you meet people that you click with in an hour. Sometimes when we're by ourselves surrounded by teens who go to a public high school it can be hard to find good friends who are so much like you. This conference has been the highlight of my year, and some other teens said the same. I have so many plans for next year, and can hardly wait to see my friends again!

- Hannah, 18

On Thursday, after the morning lecture, two of the teens joined some CM teachers on the panel for the workshop "Exploring CM for the High School Student." A lot of the discussion focused on how to continue learning by CM principles in college. We talked about nurturing relationships with our studies; finding life in dry textbooks; taking the initiative to go on field trips to nearby museums and fairs and rallies; finding other active minds to discuss with after class; and even finding alternatives to traditional college. It seemed helpful for the moms and teachers there to hear about the experiences of CM graduates. I know we enjoyed sharing with them and discussing how to carry CM's methods into the upper years and beyond.

Thursday afternoon, the teens had a Jane Austen discussion over tea and cakes, hosted by the Broad River Coffee Company across the street from the campus. We spent a good two hours talking about Austen's characters and couples. Why do her pairings work? Which seems like the most unlikely couple? What is the difference between a Brandon and a Willougby—and how can you tell them apart? We also talked about what it's like for a guy reading Austen: guys identify more with the heroes, even though Austen gives so little of their perspective in the books. (Guys can still identify with the heroines, but we identify with their personalities rather than their roles.)

Later on Thursday we attended the Eve Andersen Tea lecture, "On Time," about living life deeply instead of just by a schedule. That evening, we stood on the balcony of our apartment and watched a thunderstorm. As the rain flooded the parking lot and dripped off the balcony, we sang songs about the weather and talked of this and that. That night we went to the book discussion about Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle, led by Gardner-Webb's own professor Christopher Keene.

I don't think I can remember ever meeting so many people with whom we had so much in common. It was good for all of us to meet and hang out with like-minded peers. ...The CLUSA conference is a great opportunity for us teens, most of whom have been raised on CM, to learn about her ideas from experienced teachers and thinkers and writers. It is a chance for us to learn more about Charlotte Mason's philosophy, so that we can understand why we were raised as we have been, and why CM education is still important for us even as we're graduating and going out into the world.

- Tim, 18

On Friday two of the teens led matins at 8:00 a.m.. I mention the time because it seems extremely early when you've only had 4 hours of sleep. (But we have things to do at 3:00 in the morning--like watching The Hunt for Gollum and eating popcorn!) Yes... *cough* well... after matins we went back to our rooms and acted out some scenes from Shakespeare, and then took a traveling production of Pyramus and Thisbe to one of our moms who was alone in her room. I do not profess to be any judge, myself, but she thought it quite entertaining. This may have had something to do with our switching characters: the girl played Pyramus, the guy played Thisbe, and hilarity ensued.

Friday afternoon we had a Lord of the Rings discussion, led by Professor Keene. I heard some say that that discussion was the highlight of the conference. Professor Keene had prepared a list of questions to ask everyone—favorite character, favorite moment in the story, things like that—and went around the circle giving everyone a chance to answer. The questions provoked a lot of good discussion: some of the things we talked about were the differences between the races; the burden of immortality; the differences between characters, especially from books to movies; the appeal of Rivendell; and the importance of certain elements in the story, such as the Scouring of the Shire. It was the sort of discussion you seldom get to have at home except maybe with a friend or two who shares your obsession, whereas here we had a full turnout of nearly a dozen teens. After we finished our LotR discussion, Professor Keene gave us a tour of the theater department and showed us some prosthetics he was making, including some rather graphic but very cool wound applications.

I had a great time at the teen conference. I felt the events were organized and there was a good amount of them to participate in.

- David, 16

After that we rushed to find music and a CD player for our Regency dance lesson. The lesson went well: we had half a dozen couples and learned two dances, including Mr. Beveridge's Maggot which they danced in the A&E Pride and Prejudice. However, the lesson took longer than we thought it would, so we had less than an hour afterwards to eat dinner and change into costume before we returned for a Regency Ball. Dancing Elizabeth and Darcy's dance at the ball was another highlight of the conference. Hannah, 18, wrote this about the ball:

It reminded me of the experience of 'Prom' that public schooled high schoolers have their senior year. I had seen my sister dress up like a glamor girl for her prom, and seen her take pictures with her boyfriend, and imagined (like Cinderella in her kitchen) what it must have been like. It was Brittani's senior year too, and she had never had a prom either. I imagine a lot of Charlotte Mason teens don't. That's probably a good thing, but the importance the culture attaches to it was felt even in our separation from the culture. That is why the ball was so important to me. For that one night, I got to dance real dances with real gentlemen, and feel like the princess all girls read about when they're growing up. We had so much fun at that ball that it has been absolutely decided to make it an annual event.

After the ball we changed out of costume—or not—and went to the Broad River Greenway for a walk in the woods. (The conference does this every year; usually there are trail guides, live music, and an astronomer with a telescope.) Our walk in the woods that night proved to be the scene of some lively plotting which spawned yet another project: a film adaptation / parody of Northanger Abbey which is now halfway through production. (Which just goes to show that you can't be too careful at these conferences. You never know what brilliant or crazy ideas you might be inspired to turn into reality.)

The Charlotte Mason Conference was, for me, a wonderful chance to connect with other similar-thinking teens. For the first time in my life I was perfectly able to chat about Jane Austen, Tolkien, current politics and events, all with people my own age! And when I wasn't being stimulated by the company of my peers, I was able to be instructed on a variety of subjects by fascinating speakers. Everywhere there was a great medley of people to discuss ideas and theories with. It has inspired me to once again look on school as a wonderful opportunity and chance for knowledge, rather than as something that must be done. Overall it was a very worthwhile and very enjoyable experience—I will certainly be returning next year.

- Kaley, 16

That night, after we got back from the Greenway, we met in one of the apartments and read Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe. Despite the fact that we read The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Black Cat, two of the scariest stories ever written, this was actually a lovely evening. We snacked and rambled and read in character voices till deep into the night. No nightmares were reported.

That was our last official meeting. Saturday morning, before the last plenary session, two of the teens performed a piece of music from Swan Lake. Saturday afternoon, before everyone headed their separate ways, our apartment crew—the six of us and our families—met for a last farewell at the local ice cream parlour (hence the picture at the beginning). Indubitably, this conference was a wonderful experience for us all. We made new friends, got to know old friends better, and got to enjoy our favorite things with people who shared our interests. And I, for one, can't wait till next year!

Note: The ChildLightUSA Conference took place in June 2009. The first draft of this report was written right after the conference, but it has been stuck in draft for several months waiting to be published. My apologies to the contributors.

Conference Notes on Narration

Friday of the conference offered a three-part series of workshops on narration - six full hours, and we still could have gone longer. Laurie Bestvater did the first couple of hours, Dr. Carroll Smith did two hours, and the laast session was looking at samples and narrating ourselves. These are the notes I took that day.

Narration is a subset of literacy. It seems too simple to work. But it does work. L.B.'s son used primarily narration throughout his school years and went to college on a scholarship. [My son used narration but with even less creative direction, and also went to college on a scholarship; it does work.]

Definition: Narration is a process of taking information. It's more than mere recall. It requires the internalization of ideas.

Why narrate? CM said, "in the act of narrating every power of his mind comes into play, that points and bearings which he had not observed are brought out; that the whole is visualized and brought into relief in an extraordinary way; in fact, that scene or argument has become a part of his personal experience; he knows, he has assimilated what he has read." (vol 6) Narration is not the same as memory work. When you narrate, you re-create and internalize in your own mind. It's a way of knowing, not of memorizing.

G.F. Husband wrote, "Properly dealt with, it produces a mental transfiguration." ("Some Notes on Narration," Parents' Review, 1924) It requires attention/engagement of the mind. Being able to answer a teacher's questions doesn't guarantee that the student really knows.

Narration is an all-purpose, extremely powerful activity. Transformation occurs that physically changes the brain. "The Power of Retelling: Developmental Steps for Building Comprehension," and "Read and Retell" by Hazel Brown and Brian Cambourne encapsulate all the principles of the wholistic/natural learning model.

Narration has linguistic spillovers: meaning, phraseology, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling. Children can retain phrases, styles, etc. that they pick up from narrating even after a year.

Narration enables learners to "own" their learning. "Learning that is not accompanied by transformation is shallow and transitory." (Cambourne) "Reader-Response" by Louise Rosenblatt. The learner "reproduces such Knowledge touched by his own personality; thus his reproduction becomes original." (CM vol 6)

Narration enables students to:
- write better sentences
- better solve math word problems
- increase vocabulary
- have a much higher level of comprehension

Narration improves concept of story, critical thinking, oral language development.

Critical thinking requires background knowledge and concepts to think critically about.

Narration reveals what a child remembers and what he thinks is important. It shows whether his organization matches the text - and more.

Narration in History: For generations and throughout centuries, history has been passed on through oral narration. People who are forced to increase their oral mind have better mental capacity than those who rely on printed text, note-taking, etc. Jewish Rabbis used oral tradition to relay God's truth to generations. See "The Singer of Tales" by Albert Lord for studies. Oral tradition is as literary as printed text. The art forms of literature/story-telling were already set and styled before any of the tales were ever written down. Songs, stories and poems can be kept in people's minds for centuries - intact - with no notes! The more you rely on notes, the less you use your mind.

Emotion drives learning because emotion is what transforms and engages. When the "amygdala" part of the brain is activated by fear or emotion, learning can enter long-term memory instead of short-term memory. Stories, not dry facts, engage our emotions.

Research on Narration

Olaffson and [Nietfeld?] (1999) said that a child's memory at age two predicts his later reading ability.

Zimmerman, Christakis, Metcalf (2007) found that television and DVD/video viewing in children younger than 2 years hinders later vocabulary.

Wise, Savelli ? -- found that oral language skills relate to later reading skills. Children only know vocabulary they have used - not what they have only heard.

Early listening/comprehension skills help with word recognition later.

When Adam named the animals, language was used as intellectual capacity to order his world; it wasn't just to communicate. "Giving a name is more than labeling. It is, as Gerhard von Rad puts it, "'an act of appropriate ordering, by which man intellectually objectifies the creatures for himself.'" Man conceives and orders his environment through words. He needs language in order for his mind to make things real. Internally, the mind forms the concept and imagines it after he has a word to frame it on.

What about a child who isn't used to narrating? There are ways to engage his active mind before reading:
- Build on prior knowledge by having the child look at the picture on the cover of the book, or maps inside, to et them interested. Go over two or three words they'll come across in the text that they might not know.
- Have the child mentally put himself somewhere in the setting, like in a corner of the room, and watch the story unfold in front of his eyes. Show the child how people in the story would have dressed so their mental image is accurate.
- Have the child describe in detail how he lines up at school to go to lunch. This forces him to sequence events and tell them.
- Read a paragraph at a time for narrating rather than a whole chapter.
- Ask the child to predict how the story will go.
- Before the next reading, ask the the child to re-create the scene read previously.

Oral language is contextual: we say what's going on. But written language is removed from our personal here-and-now reality.

Narration should be done immediately after the reading, before it dissipates. At the high school level, students might be able to narrate later than immediately after reading - perhaps during the next period, or the next day.

Narration is "the act of knowing." (CM vol 6, pg 99)

Information is not the same as knowledge.

"Because knowledge is power, the child who has got knowledge will certainly show power in dealing with it. He will recast, condense, illustrate, or narrate with vividness and with freedom the arrangement of his words. The child who has got only information will write and speak in the stereotyped phrases of his text-book, or will mangle in his notes the words of his teacher." (CM Vol 3 pg 225)

Ours is not to train. "ample ground for discussion not for lectures or for oral lessons, but for following for a few minutes any opening suggested by 'current events,' a feature in the children's programme of work. But they must follow arguments and detect fallacies for themselves. Reason like the other powers of the mind, requires material to work upon whether embalmed in history and literature, or afloat with the news of a strike or uprising. It is madness to let children face a debatable world with only, say, a mathematical preparation. If our business were to train their power of reasoning, such a training would no doubt be of service; but the power is there already, and only wants material to work upon." (CM Vol 6 pg 147)

Critical thinking matures from within. "Therefore children should be taught as they become mature enough to understand such teaching that the chief responsibility which rests upon then: as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas presented to them. To help them in this choice we should afford them principles of conduct and a wide range of fitting knowledge." (CM vol 6 pg 139)

Scaffolds vs Bridges: Many a teacher "believes that children cannot understand well-written books and that he must make of himself a bridge between the pupil and the real teacher, the man who has written the book." (CM vol 6, pg 260) But in a CM education, the teacher is not the bridge between the child and information. "Let the boy read and he knows, that is, if he must tell again what he has read. This, of telling again, sounds very simple but it is really a magical creative process by means of which the narrator sees what he has conceived, so definite and so impressive is the act of narrating that which has been read only once." (vol 6 pg 261)

It sounds simple. "All the acts of generalization, analysis, comparison, judgment, and so on, the mind performs for itself in the act of knowing. If we doubt this, we have only to try the effect of putting ourselves to sleep by relating silently and carefully, say, a chapter of Jane Austen or a chapter of the Bible, read once before going to bed. The degree of insight, the visualization, that comes with this sort of mental exercise is surprising." (CM vol 6 pg 304)

As students mature, their narrations become more abstract. "they will respond to such a question as,––"Write twelve lines (which must scan) on 'Sir Henry Lee,' or 'Cordelia,' or Pericles, or Livingstone," or, to take a question from the early days of the War, "Discuss Lord Derby's Scheme. How is it working?"; or, (IV) an essay on "The new army in the making, shewing what some of the difficulties have been and what has been achieved." (CM vol 6 pg 193)

A student's ability to narrate develops over time. And there are many ways to narrate: "But this is only one way to use books: others are to enumerate the statements in a given paragraph or chapter; to analyse a chapter, to divide it into paragraphs under proper headings, to tabulate and classify series; to trace cause to consequence and consequence to cause; to discern character and perceive how character and circumstance interact..." (CM vol 3 pg 180)

Narration is relational: "The teacher's part is, in the first place, to see what is to be done, to look over the of the day in advance and see what mental discipline, as well as what vital knowledge, this and that lesson afford; and then to set such questions and such tasks as shall give full scope to his pupils' mental activity." (CM vol 3 pg 180)

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Samples of one student's narrations over the course of twelve years were shared, and we were given the opportunity to narrate ourselves either by writing, telling or acting out a chapter we read in a book.

How Firm a Foundation: The Life and Works of CM

These are notes taken from a lecture given by Jennifer Spencer, titled How Firm a Foundation. The conference notebook describes this as "an introduction to the ideas behind Mason's methods. The main focus of the lecture is that techniques like narration and picture study are not the nucleus of the Mason model. The paradigm of education with which most of us grew up was rooted in classicism and industrialism, both of which are very humanistic and materialistic. If we simply add Mason's methods to those existing ideas, we fall way short of the mark..."

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This was one of the highlights of the conference; there was a slide show presentation that went with it; these are just the notes I took. I think this lecture is a must for every teacher, especially a teacher in a CM school.

Educational problems are like a leaning tower - everyone has ideas about why it's leaning, but nobody knows how to fix it. If you don't address the problem at the foundation, you won't really fix it. In education, new books, computer programs, adding another new idea/tool without getting rid of bad ideas/tools don't address the foundational problem. Even in many "CM schools," CM's ideas are layered on top of traditional educational methods. This is how hybrids are born; by adding narration or picture study to a traditional program, the school identifies itself as a CM school, when it's really a hybrid.

Following a list of CM methods (narration, picture study, composer study, dictation, history as the hub, copywork, short lessons, hands-on math, classic literature, handicrafts, narrative books) can become like legalistic religion. Where's the relationship?? CM methods should be something that results from her foundational ideas, not something you apply to become a CM educator. It's like doing Christian works to become a Christian.

Here is a short history of education.

(Early?) classical education believed in the "tabula rasa" - the child's mind is a blank slate to be written on. Knowledge is the result of experience. There are three stages: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric. There is an emphasis onrote memorization of facts, and on a body of knowledge to be absorbed by the student. It's a bottom-up model (CM is a top-down model.) There is a dualism because the mind is seen as spiritual and the body is seen as secular matter, so mental pursuits are considered higher than physical pursuits. Pre-Indusrial Revolution, children learned from teachers and recitation. Churches often housed schools. Students often left school early to care for siblings or to go to work. Rich students went on to a university to learn how to use their leisure time responsibly. This kept class lines separated because only the rich had access to culture, while the poor were the workers. Hirsch's "What Your __ Grader Needs to Know" is based on classical ideals.

Then came the Industrial Revolution (1830-1900?). Entire families were often employed, which took children away from school. Books on management by authors like Frederick Taylor showed how to get more productivity from workers. Profit and efficiency were the buzzwords, and this attotude infiltrated even the schools. Dollar economy became the most important aspect of education. Could businesses train employees in schools with their own financing, instead of using school resources? To this day, businesses donate money to educational institutions to make students more useful to their businesses (CM said this was immoral!) The thought of the day was utilitarian: "Whatever helps industry helps the community." Even President Roosevelt supported vocational education/efficiency in foreign trade. People wanted to be productive like Germany and admired Germany's goal of loyalty to the company and to the state.

Charles W. Eliot and David Snedden led the way to American efficiency in the name of patriotism. Masses needed to learn to trust experts instead of themselves. Education needed to train students to respect authority and to be fit for their purpose (in the workplace). Teachers became public servants presenting the ideas of the controlling majority. Standardization was valued over individualization. Lessons were scheduled in rigid time-clock blocks of time. Children were sorted by IQ, social status and probable destiny. We still use many of these sorting techniques: SAT's, uniform textbooks, teacher certification, guidance counseling, mechanical discipline (behaviorism), strict schedules, isolated skills, qualifiable results and grades - all used to sort and diminish the individual personhood of each child.

Two groups opposed industrialization. Humanitarianism was against industrial slavery. They placed people above profit and felt that education should equalize opportunity. The NEA wanted to reform industry because they felt that "teaching is an art, not a science." But they were silenced when WWI demanded more goods and productivity. Then John Dewey took up their cause. He wanted a democratic ideal. Democracy should serve people. His ideas are based on relativism: man is the measure of importance, and a good life on earth is all we can hope for. Sensory experience builds knowledge. He didn't think of mind as spiritual and body as matter. To him, it was ALL matter. He felt that education should improve society, an idea which places society over the individual. Even religion, he felt, needed to evolve through slow social revolution, science and experimentation so that a new morality and new reality would become rooted. This resulted in child-centered teaching and "learning centers" based on inquiry/experience, "learning environments that foster learning," developmentally graded unit studies for thematic integration, democratic atmosphere in classrooms, co-operative learning, character-building lessons. Unfortunately, right/wrong isn't decided by majority vote. Character is internal and grows through ideas; it can't be applied from the outside. Dewey's style of education results in a foundation that shifts like sand. Morality under this atmosphere changes with the times.

CM is different. CM believed that children come to us as complete persons who have an innate desire for justice, and who were created for a special purpose. They already have a fully-developed soul and intellect. It's not our job to trim or prune them to make them conform to society's ideals. Skills are not equal to ideas. With CM, no information is presented without an informing idea. The teacher's job is to provide a rich feast of living ideas via books. The goal isn't cultural literacy, but critical literacy through reading, extracting ideas, weighing them with a constant measure or standard (the Bible), and forming their own judgment. CM is rooted in constructivism. Attentiveness revolves around making connections and expressing the child's own ideas, and partaking in the "grand conversation."

CM is built on --
- The child as a person
- The nature of knowledge as relational
- Ideas as the food for the mind.

CM does not need the bricks of trivium, grades, behaviorism, isolated skills,. But it's not enough to add the good aspects of CM over everything else. You have to also remove the bad in the same way that a gardener removes weeds before letting good plants take root.

The final question is -- should education be based on the changing demands of society/industry, or on the needs of the child?

CLUSA Conference 2009 - A Teen's Perspective

Yes; we are back from a wonderful week with Charlotte Mason friends, full of things to tell about this year's conference and dreaming of plans for the next one. I don't think I can remember ever meeting so many people with whom we had so much in common. From what others have told me, I think the same was true for most of us.

Some of the teens, on the last day

For our family the CM week began a few days before the actual conference, because our mother went early to work on business (which I will let her explain or not as she chooses). Zacharias and I dropped her off and then we had a small adventure, taking a road trip on our own for the first time (and driving in city traffic to boot! yay...). We stayed for a couple days at the house of some friends who live not far from Boiling Springs. I met the eldest daughter at last year's conference, but for the rest of us it was our first meeting; and I make bold to say that we got on well. Honestly, what else could I say when the first evening we found ourselves discussing the various properties of iocaine powder and its effects when combined with the water from Tuck Everlasting (a question which still remains unresolved), and then stayed up--well--later than I wish to say--playing folksongs in an impromptu band comprising a piano, two violins, a guitar, a drum, and several singers? I do not wish, however, to give the impression that our whole time was spent in dissipation. Being Chief Planners and Co-Conspirators of the CLUSA Conference Teen Activities, we were obliged to spend the rest of the visit in serious matters such as Regency dances and music practice and Tolkien readings.

The conference lasts four days, Wednesday through Saturday. Each day there are plenary sessions (which the whole conference is meant to attend), workshops on specific topics, book discussions, and free time for meals or reflection. When we planned the teen activities this year we tried to keep the plenary sessions open so that the teens could attend them. I wanted to keep the teens involved in the main conference as much as possible. The stuff we did on our own was mostly for fun, and it was good for all of us to meet and hang out with like-minded peers. But we are the rising generation of Charlotte Mason students and teachers. I think the CLUSA conference is a great opportunity for the teens, most of whom have been raised on CM, to learn about her ideas from experienced teachers and thinkers and writers. It is a chance for us to learn more about Charlotte Mason's philosophy, so that we can understand why we were raised as we have been, and why CM education is still important for us even as we're graduating and going out into the world. To some extent, I hope that this year's conference did that.

On Thursday I attended an excellent lecture called "The Life and Work of Charlotte Mason," about the history of educational theory and where CM fits into it. I think my mom is going to blog about it, but I might post my own notes as well. After the lecture, two of the teens, along with some CM teachers, were on the panel for the workshop "Exploring CM for the High School Student." Thursday afternoon we had a Jane Austen discussion over tea and cakes, hosted by the local coffee shop. Later that day we attended a lecture "On Time," which was about living life deeply instead of just by a schedule. That evening I went to a plenary lecture about CM's life, specifically the period when she was forming her ideas about education, writing her first books, and founding the PNEU. Afterwards one of the music professors from Gardner-Webb gave a concert/lecture about counterpoint in Bach. (I got to play the harpsichord when she was finished!) That night the teens went to a book discussion about Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle.

On Friday two of the teens led matins at 8:00am. I mention the time because it seems extremely early when you've only had 4 hours of sleep. Yes... *cough* well... after matins we went back to our rooms and acted out some scenes from Shakespeare, and then took a traveling production of Pyramus and Thisbe to one of the moms who was alone in her room. Friday afternoon we had a LotR discussion, led by a professor from Gardner-Webb; I've heard some say that discussion was the highlight of the conference. After that we rushed to find music and a CD player for our Regency dance lesson, which went well but took longer than we thought it would. We took a break for dinner and then returned in costume for a ball. Dancing Elizabeth and Darcy's dance from the A&E Pride and Prejudice was another highlight of the week. After the ball we changed out of costume--or not--and went to the Broad River Greenway for a walk in the woods. (The conference does this every year; usually there are trail guides, live music, and an astronomer with a telescope.) That night, after we got back from the Greenway, we met in one of the apartments and read Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe.

On Saturday we spent most of the morning packing. Two of the teens performed a piece of music from Swan Lake before the last plenary session, which was about CM's perspective on parenting as discussed in her book Parents and Children. After that we finished packing, ate an improvised lunch, had one last lingering meeting at the local ice cream parlor (see the picture!), and then left and went our separate ways. Some of our friends (who live in Oklahoma) came home with us and stayed a couple of days. Next week we will again be having visitors, as two members of the family with which Zacharias and I stayed will be coming to stay with us. For the moment, however, everyone has gone home, the conference feels quite ended, and as time permits I will be blogging my report of it.

ChildLightUSA CM Conference

I'm back from this conference, which takes place every year in Boiling Springs, NC. I love these conferences because there's always so much CM information shared. Whether you're new to the method or experienced, there are lectures and workshops that people at every level can learn from, and the teachers are dedicated CM students who have earned doctorates in CM study, or are familiar with her books so that the information is usually solid. There are both homeschoolers and school teachers there, and it's neat to see both working together to further their own understanding of the CM method.

Last year a couple of teens were there with their homeschooling parents and met and had so much fun talking about their favorite books and sharing music that they decided to plan their own activities for high school/colleg-aged offspring of CM homeschooling moms. They talked about Jane Austen over tea, read Sherlock Holmes and Poe together, dressed up and had a Regency ball, recited Shakespeare, had a Tolkein discussion with one of Gardner-Webb's teachers, hiked, and played Beatles Monopoly . The Monopoly game was an unplanned event. ;) They're already thinking ahead to next year's conference.

For the kids, I think the experience of finally finding others who were into the same things as them was validating and exhilarating - one mom said it reminded her of the CS Lewis quote on friendship, "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!" And for the adults, the conference was compared to coming home to Rivendell. I suspect that the CM method attracts a certain type of person, so when you meet with CM moms, you already have things in common. At least that's been my experience with online CM friends, my local CM group and those I've met through these conferences.

I took notes on a few of the sessions, which I'll be typing to post here in the next few days. The highlights were a day-long session on narration, and a lesson about the history of education and where CM fits in with that.