Nancy Kelly
Nancy Kelly lives in a little town on the prairie called Windom, Minnesota. She and her husband Kent have home-educated their six children for 27 years using the principles and practices of Charlotte Mason. After meeting and listening to Susan Schaeffer Macaulay speak on education at the 1994 L’Abri Conference in Rochester, MN, she decided to wholeheartedly pursue this way of learning and living.
Nancy has helped build a thriving educational community in southwest Minnesota that continues to learn and grow. She started the Parents’ Midwest Educational Union (PMEU), a parents’ book discussion group; Truth, Beauty, Goodness (TBG), a student learning cooperative; and the Living Education Retreat, now in its 16th year of sharing and spreading the ideas of Charlotte Mason. 16 years ago she began sharing her knowledge and experience across the country speaking on Charlotte Mason’s philosophy at conferences and retreats. She is a sought-after educational consultant and mentor and feels fully alive when teaching about the CM philosophy. Her group mentoring classes, Living Education Lessons, consistently sell out.
A trip with Kent and dear friends to Ambleside, England in 2014 forever changed her understanding of Mason’s teacher training and deepened her love for Mason’s relational philosophy. She returned in 2018 and hopes to go back soon.
Nancy has a Bachelor of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies with cognates in English and Education from Liberty University. She is a book rescuer and has republished several inspiring texts important to the CM community. You can read her blog and other doings at her website, Sage Parnassus. She enjoys family, ‘bright eyes’, flower gardening, exploring the flora and fauna of new places, and of course…books. Contact her at [email protected].
Karen Canon
Karen began her homeschool journey with Charlotte Mason nearly twenty years ago, little anticipating the bountiful harvest of that one decision. The impact on family life and the bonhomie of the CM community are some of those unexpected dividends and she counts them among her greatest blessings.
Three of her five children, the boys, have now graduated. School-days with the girls are just as delightful but have a decidedly different flavor!
In between frequent cups of jasmine green tea, she enjoys reading, hiking, watercolor painting, and serving on a non-profit board.
Christine Jauchler
Christine has a degree in Physical Education & Accounting. She taught P.E. for 3 years in public school, then ran a kids gym for 5 years. She knew if she had kids she wanted to homeschool! She started learning about Charlotte Mason 7 years ago after looking into lots of other curricula and philosophies. Charlotte Mason captured her heart with God in every subject, short lessons, nature study and presenting a feast to her kids. She has attended the last 3 years of CMER and loved getting to know the other Charlotte Mason moms and has made life-long friends.
She is wife to Jason (15 years!) and mom to 3 girls and 1 boy. They live by the Wasatch Mountains in Northern Utah.
Niko Lewis
Niko first heard references to Charlotte Mason and her philosophy when her oldest daughter was in a preschool that incorporated her principles into their curriculum. She loved everything she heard but didn’t know how to form it into an education for her children until she began attending a local book study in 2015 that was reading through Mason’s volumes. It was then that she found the support to change their homeschooling course and embark on the journey of growing into a Charlotte Mason education for all of them. She is grateful, as well, for the encouragement, growth, and joy of learning with other families that she and her children enjoyed as part of a co-op from 2016 to 2020.
Dawn Rhymer
I often wonder what life would have looked like if Charlotte Mason had not found me. I suppose I have a small taste, as she did not knock at the door until I already had six horrendous years of plain, ordinary homeschooling behind me with nothing but dread for the future and a daily prayer that at some point I could actually like what I was doing. From this slough she pulled me, and in her arms she bore the gift of the profound and impossible task of knowing my children as persons. The task was indeed impossible for me alone, but a greater Helper was already there. Like a gentle breeze that blew in resonance with the natural frequency of my hard exterior was the Holy Spirit, and I began to crack. Through the ever-widening cracks shined beauty: relationship, art, music, poetry, narration, literature, nature, roadkill, horses, mountain biking, Georgia, a high school graduate, laughter, respect. One does not need to look too closely to see the crumbled remains of what once was, but perhaps their presence causes the beauty to look that much more glorious.
Don Rhymer
Don Rhymer is a Pastoral Intern and a student in Reformed Baptist Seminary. He’s a retired Air Force officer and former Assistant Professor at the Air Force Academy, having taught Mechanical Engineering half of his 24 year Air Force career. Don is the husband of Dawn and father of 5 kids (ages 11 to 18). His family is in its eighth year of implementing a CM-based education. When he and Dawn took a diagnostic on homeschool curricula over a decade ago, they independently pegged the meter in the survey for a Charlotte Mason educational model. The Rhymers have participated in a CM co-op and Don has been to 4 CM conferences. He thoroughly enjoyed Art Middlekauff’s inaugural “Idyll Challenge”, in which CM Dads read through all 6 of CM’s volumes in 2 years. He continually sees CM’s principles resonate with Truth in so many facets of humanity, leadership, homelife, and any form of education.
Jennifer Taylor
After earning a Masters in Education, Jennifer enjoyed a rewarding career as a public school teacher. Homeschooling never entered her mind. Upon discovering Charlotte Mason’s deep knowledge, understanding, and experience of educating the whole child, she was inspired to home educate her three children. Since then, she has spent over a decade awakening to the richness of a Charlotte Mason education and gifting this to her children, now in middle and high school.
Over the years, Jennifer has served her local Charlotte Mason community in various ways to include leading a multi-age co-op and book study, as well as offering assessments and consultations to CM families. As one of the founding members of the CMER, she enjoys speaking annually at this beautiful retreat. Currently, she is the director of Rose Cottage School, a CM homeschool enrichment program. You can learn more about her offerings at A Sacred Education.
As a member of a canonical, vowed religious community of the Episcopal Church, she integrates her role as mother, wife, and educator into her rule of life. She lives with her family amongst the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Monument, Colorado.
Rebecca Zipp
Rebecca was first introduced to Charlotte Mason in 2013 when her oldest child was 3. After exploring other educational methods, she felt she had finally found a philosophy that made sense. Every aspect of Ms. Mason’s ideas, from reading living books to the importance of being immersed in the natural world, appealed to her on many levels. With a degree in art history, she especially appreciated Ms. Mason’s emphasis on exposing children to fine art. Rebecca enjoys the freedom found in a Charlotte Mason education and the fact that it not only nourishes the minds, hearts, and souls of her children but hers as well. She lives in Colorado with her husband, their two children, three cats, one hamster, and whatever bug/amphibian pets her kids have adopted. She also writes at her website, a humble place.