• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CMER

  • CMER
  • Home
  • CMER 2025
    • 2025 Information and Policies
    • 2025 Presenters
    • 2025 Sessions
      • 2025 Plenaries
      • 2025 Break Outs
    • 2025 Schedule
    • 2025 Location
    • 2025 Registration
  • Past Retreats
    • CMER 2016
      • 2016 Speakers
      • 2016 Workshops
      • 2016 Schedule
      • 2016 Location
    • CMER 2017
      • 2017 Speakers
      • 2017 Sessions
      • 2017 Schedule
      • 2017 Location
    • CMER 2018
      • 2018 Speakers
      • 2018 Sessions
        • 2018 Plenaries
        • 2018 Break Outs
      • 2018 Schedule
      • 2018 Location
    • CMER 2019
      • 2019 Speakers
      • 2019 Sessions
        • 2019 Plenaries
        • 2019 Break Outs
      • 2019 Schedule
      • 2019 Location
    • CMER 2020
      • 2020 Speakers
      • 2020 Sessions
        • 2020 Plenaries
        • 2020 Break Outs
      • 2020 Schedule
      • 2020 Location
    • CMER 2022
      • 2022 Speakers
      • 2022 Sessions
        • 2022 Plenaries
        • 2022 Break Outs
      • 2022 Schedule
      • 2022 Location
    • CMER 2023
      • 2023 Presenters
      • 2023 Sessions
        • 2023 Plenaries
        • 2023 Break Outs
      • 2023 Schedule
      • 2023 Location
    • CMER 2024
      • 2024 Presenters
      • 2024 Sessions
        • 2024 Plenaries
        • 2024 Break outs
      • 2024 Schedule
      • 2024 Location
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • About
  • Team Sites
    • Here to Glory (Dawn)
    • A Sacred Education (Jennifer)
    • a humble place (Rebecca)

Dawn Rhymer

October 1, 2024 by Dawn Rhymer Leave a Comment

CMER 2025: Registration open

Registration is now open for the 2025 Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat.  Please, visit the CMER 2025 Website to see the speakers, sessions, schedule, and so much more.  We hope you are able to join us.

Dawn Rhymer - Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Dawn Rhymer

You may learn more about Dawn on the CMER speaker page.

February 16, 2024 by Dawn Rhymer Leave a Comment

CMER 2024: One Thing

Each year, at the group reflection time that brings the Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat to a close, we encourage everyone to choose one thing they will take with them: one thing to change, one thing to commit to, one thing to get accountability for. The group reflection time allows us to take the first hard step of publicly giving a name to that one thing.

My one thing is simple: cut back. 

With the beautiful, life-giving ideas Cindy Rollins shared during the plenaries, I left the retreat prepared to cut back. Within 24 hours, two big asks came my way. They were good asks to do good things with good people for good reasons, but I knew they would not be good things for me to do at this time. To the praise of God, through the ideas sewn at the retreat, I courageously and confidently said no. Saying no to something new is not cutting back but a start and an important step.

In Georgia, we have sweetgum trees. They are considered weeds by many and produce the spikey sweetgum ball. The balls are all over our yard, are painful to step on, and can tear a duck’s foot. (We have many ducks.) Their seedlings pop up like dandelions, growing from the roots of mature trees. We mow them down with ease. This is like saying no. But removing the sixty-foot mature trees is another story. It is a lot of work and can be expensive. This is like cutting back.

A friend asked, “What is behind the cutting back? Overextended? Are you involved in things you shouldn’t be or whose season has passed?”

These are good questions to ponder as I get out the chainsaw to start working on the trees.

Dawn Rhymer - Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Dawn Rhymer

You may learn more about Dawn on the CMER speaker page.

February 13, 2022 by Dawn Rhymer 1 Comment

CMER 2022: Lead, Kindly Light

Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, 1800, by Benjamin West.

This year we will be singing the hymn Lead, Kindly Light. Can anyone guess why?

As I was researching the hymn, I came across this blog. As I read it, I realized I simply wanted to link to the blog rather than try to create here what was done so well there. As I finished, to my joy and wonder I learned it was written by sweet, past CMER attendee Jenna Dilts. She gave me permission to use the art work she chose for her blog.

I hope you enjoy learning some of the history of this hymn. For those who would like to hear it ahead of time, here is a YouTube video and the music to the version we will be singing at the retreat. There are also links to two other versions in Jenna’s blog.

Dawn Rhymer - Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Dawn Rhymer

You may learn more about Dawn on the CMER speaker page.

November 22, 2021 by Dawn Rhymer Leave a Comment

Advent 2021

Advent is here.

Last year Advent caught me off guard. Unlike in 2020, this year my heart and my mind are better prepared for it, and I am looking forward to the beauty of the season. But with the season come new changes. This will be our first year of Advent with a son away at college, and I am thinking about how to keep him part of our time together in a way that will be a blessing to us all as he is entering a new phase of life. He will be here as we put up and decorate the tree this weekend and will return in the middle of December, so it is not quite a good-bye yet, but I know that time quickly approaches.

Handel’s Messiah

For many years (I don’t know when we actually began) our family’s Advent tradition has been to listen to Handel’s Messiah. We have been using Cindy Rollins’s 25 Days to Handel’s Messiah: An Advent Devotional Guide, and this year I bought Cindy’s book Hallelujah and look forward to incorporating ideas I find there.

The Guide

Cindy gave me permission to share the guide I made for my family to help with reading the scripture and getting to the right spot in the video. We have chosen to use Youtube for our music, and our favorite version is Stephen Cleobury conducting King’s College, Cambridge Choir.

I hook my laptop up to the TV and use the links for the scripture and music. We begin by reading the opening scripture. Then, we listen to the listed pieces. Over the years, we have found it more challenging to come together as a family each night, so usually we are only listening a few times a week and covering several days.

This year I have also found the MP3 of the performance. Each year I see if I can find it and have not been successful in the past. Perhaps this has always been there, but I’m grateful to have found it.

I hope our family’s simple tradition is a blessing for you as you contemplate this advent season.

Dawn Rhymer - Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Dawn Rhymer

You may learn more about Dawn on the CMER speaker page.

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 8
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat

At the CME Retreat Blog, we hope to share with you more information about a Charlotte Mason Education, the retreat, the speakers, the workshops and so much more!

Subscribe

Enter your email address below to receive new updates by email!

Join us on Facebook

  • Facebook

Categories

  • Art
  • Clay Modeling
  • CMER 2024
  • CMER 2025
  • CMER 2026
  • CMER News
  • Composer
  • Composition
  • Exams
  • Favorite Homeschool Resources
  • Folksong
  • Foreign Language
  • Geography
  • Hymn
  • Miscellaneous
  • Narration
  • Planning for the New School Year
  • Plutarch
  • Poetry
  • Scheduling
  • Shakespeare

Search

Authors

  • CMER Team
  • Dawn Rhymer
  • Jennifer Taylor
  • Karen Canon
  • Niko Lewis

Archives

  • May 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • October 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • November 2023
  • September 2023
  • July 2023
  • February 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • June 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018

Copyright © 2018-2025 · Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat