CMER

Dawn Rhymer

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Picture Study

This post is part of our series on our favorite homeschool resources.

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat

After having been a member of the Aspen Grover Educational Community co-op for the past five years, my family is going it alone this year. This has been quite a transition.

While there have been many blessings of the co-op, at the heart of it was that we were families who 1) had chosen the Charlotte Mason method of education and 2) were willing to help each other in the education of our children.

I have held close to my heart what Nancy Kelly has shared about her Truth, Beauty, Goodness Community.

The point of our group is learning in community and allowing the mother to spread the feast to her children without having to plan every single subject and lesson, which can lead to burnout.

What was I going to do now that I no longer had this help? Were my children going to get a subpar education? Was I going to burn out?

[Read more…] about Picture Study

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A Journey with Monet

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Coming into Giverny in Winter, 1885

It was very fitting that I was standing in “In Winter,” the fifth section of the Money exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. I let the audio device I had been dutifully holding near my ear drop to my side. I tried to remember anything I had heard which had captured my imagination. I couldn’t. I tried to remember in detail any of the paintings I had seen. I couldn’t. I felt cold and empty. Would I make it through the Monet exhibition with nothing to show for it? Would my spirit and my soul not grow in beauty and knowledge? Would I simply have checked a box?

The din of the crowd, each with his own audio device, and the visual cacophony of the exhibition overwhelmed me. There were so many people, so many paintings, and so much to hear from those who had carefully made the audio I had been listening to. But at that moment, none of it was living. My eyes darted frantically and desperately around “In Winter,” and I prayed for wisdom on how the amazing privilege of standing before Monet’s paintings would leave an indelible mark upon me. [Read more…] about A Journey with Monet

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Hymns for a Time of Need

Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat
Sinking of the Lusitania
Engraving by Norman Wilkinson, The Illustrated London News, May 15, 1915. P. 631
Public Domain

Karen’s post, Folksongs are like Teapots, brought hymns to my heart and mind. Here is a piece I wrote in 2015 on the AmblesideOnline Forum. At the time, I had just finished reading Erik Larson’s Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.

“Mommy, why are you crying?”

The tears were streaming down my face. I could barely choke out the words to Abide With Me (AO Sept. 2014). We were in the middle of singing the hymn; it was not the time to answer the question. I brushed it aside with a whisper. “My eyes are burning.” [Read more…] about Hymns for a Time of Need