Charlotte Mason on the Prairie

Nancy, I have hunted around a bit and have seen several blog mentions of the “Prairie” session. It looks like a very small one-day event. It is not mentioned on the “Conferences” section of the Childlight USA site, and although I’m on their update list I never received any info or notification on it. Childlight’s usual conference is held yearly in South Carolina. You used to be able to purchase sets of audios from the conference, but now it seems they have a few selected talks available as mp3 downloads from the Childlight site. I don’t know much more.

Michelle D

Dear nancyg and Bookworm,

Hi! This is Nancy Kelly. I just wanted to respond to your original inquiry. I realize your first post was 2 months ago, but I’ll respond regardless and hope that you read it! “Charlotte Mason on the Prairie” was only a title to a blog post that I wrote for the ChildLight blog. The post was about our Living Education Retreat which is an annual event in SW MN for CM enthusiasts. I had been organizing events for educators and homeschoolers in our area for over 12 years. Finally, about 5 years ago, I decided to make it solely about the CM method and philosophy instead of trying to please everyone and their different styles. CM is what we have used and CM is what I believe God wants me to talk about and share to encourage homeschoolers.

The events have been both one and two days long. This year it will be held at Shalom Hill Farm in Windom, MN. Dr. Carroll Smith of ChildLight will be our keynote speaker! The dates are July 24 & 25, 2009. Our flyer isn’t ready yet, but I’d be happy to answer any questions. SCM has put the event on their “Events” calendar for the past few years. Maybe some year we’ll have Sonya come and speak! We have had Dr. Smith, Art Middlekauff, myself, Donna Johnson, Sheila Carroll and many other wonderful speakers.

The ChildLight conference is held in North Carolina and it is an inspiring event which I have attended. The information for that event can be found on their website.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

Ring true,

Nancy Kelly

Nancy G.,

We should have our agenda/schedule/flyer out sometime in April. We’ll post the event here on the Events calendar which should have our contact information. I can tell you a few details now.

It will be a Friday night and full day on Saturday with inexpensive lodging available on site. Dr. Smith will be giving 3 plenary sessions on narration, curriculum and scheduling. We will have breakout sessions on a variety of subjects. We usually have around 60-70 attendees and work hard to make it an intimate experience. All speakers are very accesible and we plan for lots of discussion/fellowship/mentoring. Also, our favorite used book seller will be there with tons of living books.

Hope that helps for now. Let me know if I can answer anything else!

Nancy Kelly

Dear Fr. John,

Thanks for asking! We hope to have our flyer with all the important information ready in a week. I’ll be sure to let the Events calendar here know. Everyone seems to be ready to make their summer plans!

By and by,

Nancy Kelly

Dear caroline4kids, Fr. John and anyone else who is interested,

The flyers are now ready! Just email me at livingeducationretreat@live.com and ask for one. I hope to meet some of you this year. Let me know if you have any questions.

By and by,

Nancy Kelly

Windom, MN 😀