I wanted to share a little bit about how our CM community has formed thus far, some of our process, trials and errors, and some of what I've learned.
Two years ago, I had asked the fabulous Nancy Kelly, about attending one of her seminars in Minneapolis. She had suggested I host one in my home city. I had been to The Living Education Retreat twice, so we knew each other a bit. And so, I put one together. She had a certain format already planned, so I just put an ad in my local networks, got the food together, printed out some materials, and got it going! One thing that I did was save the contact information from every registrant. That was important. The seminar was great. People came from other states which surprised me. Nancy had also shared on her networks, which is much larger. We had a beautiful day of learning and connecting with other likeminded parents.
After that day, which was in August, I put the word out among the local attendants that I would be hosting a book discussion. We'd be going through CM's original works. I picked a regular monthly time and stuck with it. Each month I'd send out a reminder and I'd go. Sometimes there would be a nice sized group, sometime there would be just me. I made the decision that I was primarily doing this for myself and my kids. Charlotte Mason's works and connecting with the larger CM community had breathed life back into my homeschool. I have been homeschooling for 10 years. It had been a long and winding road and I was tired! I had originally read Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's , For the Children's Sake, when starting out way back. It had spoken to me back then, and I knew that I wanted to live that life with my kids, but without the support of others doing the same, I had been floundering. Yes, I had been reading living books, and yes we have immersed ourselves in connecting with nature and real things, we've had the "grand conversation" without knowing it had a name, but there was so much more I had been missing! I really needed this to keep ME going. Not only to homeschool my own, but really, this is nourishing way of life that I needed myself! Charlotte Mason's words made complete sense. She said so many things that I had already thought was true about learning, children, and life. In a way, her words were affirming. I desperately needed that affirmation. With the homeschool world always having another method or curriculum to appeal to my insecurity, I needed real wisdom about the simplicity of learning and life. So, for me this was not about getting other moms to do this with me, I was in it for me, myself, and I. But, sharing is caring, right? And so, the open invitation.
After a year of doing the book study (that seems like a long time!), I invited local homeschooling moms to do a regular nature study through the summer with our CM folks. We had a few regulars by then, but the nature study was mostly a flop. Oh well. I think everyone was expecting me to know what I was doing, which I didn't. And with the summer busyness, it just didn't fly. Lesson learned. After that I created our own Facebook page. There are other local homeschooling Facebook pages, so it seemed to make sense. And at the end of the summer, a friend was hosting a co-op immersion day in the Twin Cities, so I put out an invite to that and a couple of moms wanted to go to it. Then the discussion started about doing a co-op here. Now I have to say I felt in no need to create this. It was apparent that there was a need in the community and I had some experience. I also kind of like administrating things. Silly me.
So, we had an info night, and talked about doing it, following a similar schedule to the group we had immersed ourselves in. Now I know there is a great resource here for starting one of these. Our process was similar. Our first session we met every other week for three months. Our subjects were Shakespeare, Poetry, Composer, Artists, Handicrafts, Folksong and Dance, and Hymns. We met in one member's home. Each mother took a subject and we went around the room. (Part of the reason why I like this, is that every mother feels involved and invested. We are ALL learning together) Each lesson was short, involving some kind of narration. It lasted two hours. Now, this was our first time around. We were all kind of awkward in someways, not really knowing what we were doing, but we did it. And I think we all learned things, about the subjects, ourselves, each other, and collaboration. In my opinion, it was well worth it. And really, I hadn't realized how beneficial it would be to have other mothers teaching my kids. I like to teach most of those subjects at home, but each mom does things differently and it was refreshing to see things done in new ways. It was also particularly delightful to see other mothers getting excited about learning, making their own connections. Now we are stepping into our second session. So far we are slightly changing the subjects and moving to a weekly meeting, so that the ideas are more fresh in our minds, especially the younger minds. Two weeks is a long time for a six year old! I like the idea of hosting in homes, but to lessen the load on the families, we are leaning to using a public space. One thing that is unique about our group, is that many of the mothers either own a business, have a career outside the home, or are in school. Using a public space will lessen the stress of having our houses in presentable shape! I also think our group will be smaller, which we hope will lend to a more relaxed learning environment.
One more thing. One of the moms organized christmas caroling at a local nursing home in December. It was really nice. This certain facility was organized into "neighborhoods," so we went around to each and sang. I think it was 8-10 in all! The kids did great. One of the kids realized that one of the carols was written by the composer we had studied that term. He was ecstatic! Ahhh. A living education. We are considering partnering up with another nursing home to share what we are learning with the residents and build relationships. Maybe we can sing hymns or folksongs together? Recite poetry? Maybe one of them can give us tips on our crocheting? I am super excited to see what comes of this and how we can serve others with our learning!
