CMI Western Conference

CMI is an academic arm of research and conferences under the direction of Dr. Carroll Smith that is open to homeschoolers. CMI conferences began on the East Coast and are now in their second year of expanding out West. Below is their welcome letter for the conference as posted on their website.

Welcome Letter 

Friends –

We are delighted to open registration for the 2018 National Charlotte Mason Education Western Conference, which will be held at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California, which is about an hour and a half east of Los Angeles. This will be our third conference near the west coast and we look forward to building a tradition of Charlotte Mason conferences in the west as we have done in the east. 

Over the years many of you have told us that you enjoy the plenary and workshop sessions as they instruct and inspire you for the coming year, and you also enjoy the camaraderie with other conference attendees. We are striving to create the same opportunities for learning and fellowship again this year.  Come and enjoy the warm fellowship of other Mason practitioners as we explore the theme “Parents and Teachers:  Preparing Children to Live at Home, Community and Beyond.”

Our guest speaker will be Storm Hutchinson, pastor and Restorative Practice presenter, who has years of experience working both as a youth pastor and as a student coach at Gillingham Charter School. Plenary sessions will be presented by Liz Cottrill of A Delectable Education and Dr. Jennifer Spencer, CMI Project Manager for Charlotte Mason’s Alveary.

We continue to strive to make the conference as affordable as we can.  This year children 12 and under may attend the conference with their parents for free.  Of course all children and teenagers must be supervised by parents at all times;  the only exception is for the teenagers attending the portions of the conference that are designed for them.  We ask that all parents be aware of where their children are and make sure they are supervised appropriately, and this includes teens attending the conference.  Younger children should not be allowed to interrupt plenary or workshop sessions. We ask if your child starts to be noisy (for example, crying, fussing, talking aloud, et cetera), please leave the session out of consideration for the other attendees. 

Our conference pre-reads are:

Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians and Administrators by Bob Costello

Notching Up the Nurtured Heart Approach:  The New Inner Wealth Initiative for Education by Howard Glaser

LODGING: The apartments at the University of Redlands have space for one person per room.  Having your own room, yet being in an apartment with others, will provide a sense of community as well as space for privacy.  There will be a more economical dorm offering this year as well. 

LODGING NOTE: The optional immersion sessions will be held on Wednesday, July 25.  The conference itself will begin on Wednesday evening after supper.  Please note that if you plan to attend an immersion, you may need to spend Tuesday night at the conference. Immersion sessions will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday; the late start time is designed to give local attendees time to travel to the conference location.  

TEEN ACTIVITIES: Jenny Elias is spearheading teen activities for the conference this year. We will not have a separate teen conference, but there will be a few activities for teens.  The remainder of the time they will be involved in the regular conference.  These Charlotte Mason-educated teens will also share with you some of their handwork, science knowledge and more.  We welcome these young people to our conference! 

There is a great deal of behind-the-scenes work that occurs to plan, organize and run the conferences each year. We appreciate Robin Hancox and Laurie Vigorito for making this conference possible. We also thank Jenny Elias for her work with the teens.

To register go to our website at www.charlottemasoninstitute.com.  We are only accepting payment through Paypal.  If you have any questions about registering online for this year’s conference, please email us atadministrator@charlottemasoninstitute.com.  

For other questions related to the conference please email Laurie Vigorito, Conference Director atconference_director@charlottemasoninstitute.com.

Thank you,
Charlotte Mason Institute