- Break Outs: multiple meetings occurring at the same time from which only one can be chosen to attend.
- Immersion: a larger portion of the session will be spent modeling a lesson–actually doing what we would be doing in our homes or with a group. It will be “real time.”
- Workshop: though it may include a short example of modeling, the format will follow a more traditional lecture style with the possibilities of group discussion and short activities.
Break Out I

A
Keeping
An Introduction to Mason’s ‘Forms of Vitality’
Immersion Presented by Karen Canon
For All Ages
“One thing at any rate we know with certainty, that no teaching, no information becomes knowledge to any of us until the individual mind has acted upon it, translated it, transformed, absorbed it, to reappear, like our bodily food, in forms of vitality.” (Vol. 6, p. 240) In this workshop, we will look at the principles behind Keeping and explore some ‘forms of vitality’ such as Commonplace Books, Century Charts, Books of Centuries, and other Journals.

B
The Art of Narration
How Do We Narrate?
Workshop Presented by Dawn Rhymer
For All Ages
We are always asking our children to narrate. Do you fully understand how hard a task you are asking of your child? Have you actually tried to narrate yourself? During this workshop, we are going to cover the how of narration and practice many types. Hopefully both your understanding of narration and empathy for your child will grow as you get the chance to practice on your own. In addition, by trying narrations, you will leave the workshop better knowing when to use the different types.

C
Nature Study in Community
Immersion Presented by Jennifer Taylor
“We’re all meant to be naturalists.”
Charlotte Mason
You are invited to be inspired in the teaching and learning of Nature Study in this immersion session. Nature Study in a Charlotte Mason education can be experienced in several delightful ways. During this immersion, you have the opportunity to participate in Nature Study as a student in a group setting on the beautiful Ponderosa property. Our time together will include a planned object lesson, time for exploration, journaling and shared narrations. Time for discussion will follow the Nature Study. Be sure to bring your nature journal, paints, pencils and appropriate nature walking attire (boots and coats recommended!).

D
Scheduling
Workshop Presented by Sarah Lancaster
For All Ages
There are approximate 12,874,598 systems out there to help you whip your day into shape. This isn’t one of them. We all know that we need a plan to keep our days running smoothly, but too often we try to force ourselves to accommodate someone else’s system. It chafes like a badly-fitted pair of heels. Our learning either winds up feeling harried and frantic or it putters out altogether. How can you figure out what your family needs?
This workshop will present a profusion of planning possibilities. From the free spirit who wants to take each moment as it comes, to the strict planner who swoons over spreadsheets (color-coded, please), we’ll look at a spectrum of options and discuss how to create a healthy balance between a daily schedule and the unpredictable nature of parenting and homeschooling.
Break Out II

E
Poetry 101
The Basics of Poetry Appreciation
Workshop Presented by Karen Canon
For Grade 4 and Up
Getting acquainted with a few fundamentals of poetry can go a long way to feeling comfortable and equipped to read and enjoy it. We will look at what a poem is, how they are structured, and some practical tips for implementing the reading of poetry in your homeschool. Poetry may be the ‘best thoughts of the best minds’ (Vol. 6, p. 157) but it is certainly ‘within a child’s compass’ (Vol. 1, p. 226) and we owe it to children to open up this very rich avenue of delight and edification.

F
Middle and High School Science
Workshop Presented by Dawn Rhymer
For Grade 7 and Up
Where science does not teach a child to wonder and admire it has perhaps no educative value.
Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education, p.224
Why is it so tempting to trust Charlotte Mason for all subjects but science? Is it really possible for our older children to get a solid science education using Charlotte Mason’s methods and philosophies? In this workshop we’ll examine what Charlotte Mason had to say about science and talk about what science looked like for the upper Forms. Then, we’ll take a step back and see how this might apply to us today. I’ll share the resources available to help you as you guide your older children through science.

G
Screens and Teens
Spiritually Forming Your Teens in the Digital Age
Workshop Presented by Gary Alan Taylor (This is a repeat of Session K.)
For Teens
Gen Z spends upwards of 11 hours per day with technology, and it’s changing how they view themselves, the world, and their faith. We’ll take a deep dive into teen culture to help you understand the major cultural voices shaping the minds and hearts of this generation, while providing three principals to implement in your home to help you in the spiritual formation of your child.

H
Contemplation of Beauty
Picture Study
Immersion Presented by Sarah Lancaster
For All Ages
What is Picture Study? When I sit down with my children on a Monday afternoon, what does it look like? How can I teach my children to love art when I know little or nothing about it myself? What happens after we look at it?! What about projects and crafts? Why does Picture Study even matter? Isn’t this just an “extra” to tack on when we have free time in the schedule?
Studying beautiful art is an integral part, not only of a Charlotte Mason education, but of a rich and full life. Many of us find ourselves overwhelmed and confused about what that actually looks like. We ask, “How can I—not an artist and woefully ignorant about art history—introduce this to my kids?” It’s easier than you think. In this immersion session, we will do a picture study together, discuss Miss Mason’s purpose and goals for including this subject, and examine what we need to bring to the table to help our children unlock the beauty of the Masters.
Break Out III

I
Architecture
Immersion Presented by Karen Canon
For All Ages
Architecture is another avenue by which we travel through time and see the ’emotions, aspirations and beliefs’ of the civilizations that produced it. It is both an art form and science, and it earned a place on Mason’s schedules for her students. Come join us in this Immersion Session as we experience one approach to the study of architecture. We will practice various forms of narration and will use a Century Chart in order to see how an architect’s life and works fit in and reflect the events of his day.

J
Young Adult Book Clubs
Workshop Presented by Dawn Rhymer
For Grade 7 and Up
We learn from Society.–In this way we learn, for most people have things to say that it is good to hear; and we should have something to produce from our own stores that will interest others–something we have seen or heard, read or thought.–Miss Mason, Ourselves pp. 73-74
With my interest piqued by the idea of society, especially in regards to my children, I found myself wondering what a Charlotte Mason book club for children would look like. I first started pursuing the answer to that question almost 2.5 years ago, and the answer was hard to come by. Book clubs were out there, but the ones I found did not seem to follow Charlotte Mason’s principles and methods. Then I came across a book which changed everything.
Come learn about the book club we have developed for the young adults in the Aspen Grove Educational Community. What do our meetings look like? How do we choose books? How have we incorporated Miss Mason’s principles and methods? What do the youth think about the group? This workshop will equip you with everything you need to know to start a Charlotte Mason young adult book club for the children in your community.

K
Screens and Teens
Spiritually Forming Your Teens in the Digital Age
Workshop Presented by Gary Alan Taylor (This is a repeat of Session G.)
For Teens
Gen Z spends upwards of 11 hours per day with technology, and it’s changing how they view themselves, the world, and their faith. We’ll take a deep dive into teen culture to help you understand the major cultural voices shaping the minds and hearts of this generation, while providing three principals to implement in your home to help you in the spiritual formation of your child.

L
Evaluations
Workshop Presented by Jennifer Taylor
For All Ages
How did Charlotte Mason evaluate students? What can we learn from studying her methods to apply in evaluating our own homeschools so we can rest assured we are on the right track? Jennifer will share from not only her research into the information we have from Charlotte Mason’s day, but also from her growing hands-on experience of evaluating her own children and providing end-of-the-year evaluations for many families.
Break Out IV

M
Plutarch
An Immersion with Alexander the Great
Immersion Presented by Karen Canon
For Grades 5 and Up
To inspire in her students the quality of citizenship, Mason had her students read from the multiple-volume set commonly known as Plutarch’s Lives. ‘Plutarch taught me high thoughts; he elevated me above the wretched sphere of my own reflections, to admire and love the heroes of past ages. I read of men in public affairs, governing or massacring their species. I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within me, and abhorrence for vice.’ (Shelley’s Frankenstein)
In this Immersion Session, we will read and narrate from one of Plutarch’s Lives, gaining an understanding of the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ behind it. Handouts will include the text for one term of Plutarch Study to use in your own homeschool. (Note: the life we will cover is one not already covered by Anne White’s Study Guides available at AmblesideOnline.org.)

N
128 Years Later…
A Modern Reenactment
Workshop Presented by Don Rhymer (This is a repeat of Session S.)
For All Ages
In Formation of Character, Volume 5, Ms. Mason gave us a glimpse of what a conversation might have looked like a century after the foundation of her education system in a chapter titled “A Hundred Years After”. The conversation is set between those valuing education at a would-be dinner party in 1990. This workshop will allow participants to read and engage as those characters at a party set today, playing the same roles, but without the old English language. Most importantly, the reenactment touches on the major elements of a Charlotte Mason education that impact character.

O
Composer Study
Immersion Presented by Jennifer Taylor
For All Ages
Hearing should tell us a great many things, but the great and perfect joy which we owe to him is Music. Many great men have put their beautiful thoughts, not into books, or pictures, or buildings, but into musical score, to be sung with the voice or played on instruments, and so full are these musical compositions of the minds of their makers, that people who care for music can always tell who has composed the music they hear, even if they have never heard the particular movement before. Thus, in a manner, the composer speaks to them, and they are perfectly happy in listening to what he has to say. (Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, p. 30-31)
You are invited to come in, take a seat and tune your ears during this composer study immersion. You will receive hands-on experience in how to guide your students in a music appreciation lesson as you take on the role of the student in a Charlotte Mason schoolroom. We will highlight Megan Hoyt’s book, A Touch of the Infinite: Studies in Music Appreciation with Charlotte Mason. Following the lesson there will time for questions and answers. Resources to enhance your understanding of music appreciation will be available.

P
Shakespeare
Immersion Presented by Sarah Lancaster
For Grades 4 and Up
“And Shakespeare? He, indeed, is not to be classed, and timed, and treated as one amongst others,––he, who might well be the daily bread of the intellectual life; Shakespeare is not to be studied in a year; he is to be read continuously throughout life, from ten years old and onwards.” ~Charlotte Mason, Vol 5, Formation of Character, p.226
Despite her wide reading and her admiration of many thinkers, Charlotte Mason placed William Shakespeare in a class of his own. He is one of the few writers whose work was considered so important that students studied his work year after year after year. Unfortunately, many parents today are hesitant to introduce their students to the Bard. Whether it is from their own intimidation, a feeling that this Elizabethan poet couldn’t possible speak into the lives of modern children, or concerns about the mature themes in Shakespeare’s work—perhaps all of the above or something totally different?!—too many students have yet to be introduced to the emotion, the magic, the beauty that is Shakespeare. In this immersion session, we will model a Shakespeare lesson, discuss how to approach bawdy or violent material, and brainstorm fun ideas for getting kids up and acting.
Break Out V

Q
Ourselves
Workshop Presented by Karen Canon
For Grades 7 and Up
Providing key insights into Mason’s scheme for the education of the whole child, Ourselves is an ‘ordered presentation of the possibilities that lie in human nature, and of the risks that attend these.’ (Vol. 4, Preface) In this workshop, we will explore how Mason approached a moral education, how Ourselves fits into her scheme, and how it can be a delightful part of your home schooling.

R
The Power of Image
What Narration Is and Why We Do It
Workshop Presented by Dawn Rhymer
For All Ages
Principle 14: As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should ‘tell back’ after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read. –Miss Mason
Narration is one of Miss Mason’s foundational principles, and, as it is written in Principle 14, it sounds simple. Why then does narration sometimes seem so hard? Often this is because we do not fully understand what narration is or the why behind it. In this workshop we will cover both of these topics and leave you motivated to continue implementing narration, which is, as Miss Mason calls it, the ground-plan of your children’s education. (Mason, V1 p231)

S
128 Years Later…
A Modern Reenactment
Workshop Presented by Don Rhymer (This is a repeat of Session N.)
For All Ages
In Formation of Character, Volume 5, Ms. Mason gave us a glimpse of what a conversation might have looked like a century after the foundation of her education system in a chapter titled “A Hundred Years After”. The conversation is set between those valuing education at a would-be dinner party in 1990. This workshop will allow participants to read and engage as those characters at a party set today, playing the same roles, but without the old English language. Most importantly, the reenactment touches on the major elements of a Charlotte Mason education that impact character.

T
Teaching Persons
The Role of the Teacher in a Charlotte Mason Homeschool
Workshop Presented by Sarah Lancaster
For All Ages
There are so many voices in our ears as homeschool parents: whispering, persuading, and even yelling about what our roles should be. Do we guide our kids or watch them stumble? Can we lead without overpowering? Can we be the authority in our homes and homeschools, and still respect the personhood of our children? And what in the world does all this philosophy look like when we are trying to lead a history lesson on a Tuesday afternoon?!
In this session, we will tune out those outside voices and explore what Charlotte Mason herself said to teachers, leading lessons, on a regular school day. What did she ask her teachers to do, and what did she ask them to avoid? What were the roles of a Charlotte Mason teacher, and which of them still apply in our own homeschool classrooms? Join us as we dig into her own words, looking for timeless principles that can guide us today.