Packing my bags again

I got back yesterday from the 4th annual Childlight Conference at Gardner Webb University. It was a full couple of days of plenary and breakout sessions and some more relaxed time with homeschoolers, private and public school teachers, academicians, and others who embrace the educational philosophy and methods of Charlotte Mason. It was a rich time.

My favorite sessions at the conference were John Thorley's presentation on the early correspondence of Charlotte Mason. John is a classicist, educator, and historian and his humor and engaging style drew all of us into the life and times of CM as a young teacher.

I also loved getting to meet and hear Tammy Glaser who is a homeschool mom applying CM's philosophy in her work with her autistic daughter. Very, very inspiring and encouraging.

I'd love to write more, but I need to pack my bags again! I'm heading out this afternoon for a week as a dorm mom and lab assistant for 30 high school girls who are attending an Anatomy and Physiology Camp at Appalachian State University. I'm excited about it, but a little daunted at the prospect of spending the week in the dorm with that many high school girls!!! Yikes. I'm used to high school boys. This will be interesting...

I'll be taking a break from the blog for a bit. See you when I get back.

The Charlotte Mason Educational Conference

The 4th annual Charlotte Mason conference is coming up next week at Gardner-Webb University. The conference this year is focused on the learning environment. For more information, schedule, and speaker bios, visit the Child Light USA website.

A trip to the Mint

The boys and I took a trip to the Mint Museum the other day and spent a couple of hours gazing at paintings, woodcuts, and more. What a treasure of a museum we have in our city. We didn't talk much as we walked through. We just wandered, mostly separately, at our own paces, looking at whatever we wanted.

I loved the current exhibit, "Quiet Spirit, Skillful Hand: The Graphic Work of Clare Leighton." Just the title of the exhibit drew me in. Here's what the Mint website has to say about the exhibit:

Born to an artistic family, Leighton studied wood engraving in Great Britain before moving to the U.S. during World War II. Settling first in Baltimore, she moved to Chapel Hill in 1943 and served as a visiting art lecturer at Duke University from 1943-1945. During her career, she wrote 15 books and created more than 700 prints. The natural world and her surroundings were a continuous source of inspiration. Her timeless images reveal an abiding interest in and respect for the earth and those who tend it, advocating the virtue of hard labor and the rhythms of nature. On the surface, her subjects are simple working people -- the ploughman, the washerwoman, the net mender, the cotton picker -- but Leighton portrays them and their labor with dignity and reverence.

Scything by Clare Leighton
Woodcut, 1935

The exhibit is up til September 14. If you're in Charlotte, go!