About/FAQ
Joy Vanderley
Hi, I'm Joy Vanderley, a reader and book lover. I have graduated all 3 of my children from home education using living books and the Charlotte Mason method. My own feet have been placed in a wide space as I have read and learned along with my children. Now I am tutoring other students in the CM method, host a monthly CM book club, volunteer at The Children's Preservation Library (CPL), coordinate conferences for Awaken, love to travel (including a recent trip to Ambleside, UK), avidly hike and backpack all while helping my husband in his family business. I manage it all by starting each day with Jesus, a morning walk and copious amounts of earl grey tea.
The How/Why of Awaken
As my children became teens, I started to volunteer at CPL and deeply enjoyed meeting, helping and encouraging homeschool families with book choices, a listening ear, a little tidbit of wisdom or practical experience. Eventually, I asked a few other moms if they would like to study the CM volumes with me and our CM book club emerged. I dove into the CM method deeper, listened to the ADE podcast, read many blogs, and visited with inspiring women like Michelle Howard (owner of CPL) and Camy Lalonde (homeschool mother of 8). Camy and I discovered we had a mutual heart for encouraging fellow moms, and a monthly “moms night out” turned into discussing practical ways to incorporate artist studies, Shakespeare and Nature Study. Searching for other ways to help, educate and encourage moms to come alive to the beauty of using living books, Michelle suggested I meet with Liz Cottrill. Liz, always kind and gracious, was agreeable to setting up a time to meet with my book club. During that meeting she mentioned that it would be great to include others and the idea of hosting a conference was born and executed by the grace of God and the support of so many. Camy and I were excited to see so many come and be "Awakened" to the joy and life to be found in an education founded on the Lord and Living Books.
The core group of Awaken is passionate about women (and men) educating themselves so they can provide the best education possible for their children at home. We have each experienced seasons of grief, burnout, exhaustion and illness and we know how common this is in the home education world. We want to provide a space in time to pray for these people, to fellowship with like minded individuals, to learn from other deeply passionate people and leave inspired and empowered to carry on this deeply important and often difficult work. It's worthwhile to invest in our children and ourselves and we want to inspire that truth, because we also value the investment for our families, our future and our entire culture.
FAQs/Definitions
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Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was a British pioneer of education. She developed and taught a method of education that views children as “born persons”, as in WHOLE people capable of taking in living ideas rather than an empty bucket to be filled. She defined her educational principles as a “science of relations” and said that education is “an atmosphere, a discipline, a life”. You can find a complete introduction to Charlotte Mason and her methods on Ambleside Online →
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See our blog post written by the one and only Michelle Howard, one of our keynote speakers and a cornerstone of living books education in the US. How Can I Know if a Book is Living?
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An immersion is a deep dive (immersing you) into a specific subject using the Charlotte Mason Method of Education. There have been immersions in past conferences that focused on Writing, Geography, Science, and “A Morning of Lessons” (every subject). When choosing an Immersion ticket, you will pick ONE immersion to attend for the day.
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The short answer is simply that not everyone can attend both days due to childcare, traveling, cost etc. We want everyone to be able to get exactly what they need and feel this is best accomplished by selling these tickets separately.
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A notebook (or your commonplacebook!) and pen to take notes, a water bottle if you so choose, and some of our vendors only accept cash or checks, so if you plan on shopping, either of those. We provide food including snacks, and one of our members, Beckie, is famous for the best stocked bathroom supplies you could imagine, so don’t worry about forgetting something you might need, we’ve got you covered!
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Welcome to the broad feast of Charlotte Mason! The exciting thing is that there is so much to learn and a lifetime to learn it in. First of all, don’t get overwhelmed by all the information available. You’re in the right place, this is why Awaken is here! First and foremost, we recommend reading Charlotte Mason’s 6 Volumes. Modern Miss Mason by Leah Boden is a great overview as well as For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. You’ll find a treasure trove of information through our keynote speakers podcast “A Delectable Education”. And of course, you can find an Awaken Living Books Conference near you to attend!
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We highly recommend familiarizing yourself with Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles of education. You can find these listed as a “short synopsis” in Charlotte Mason’s Volume 6: A Philosophy of Education, this volume provides the best overview of her philosophy. You can also find her original principles with helpful side by side paraphrases HERE on Ambleside Online. If you really want to dive into each principle deeper, ADE has broken down the 20 principles into 6 podcasts which you can find linked on their website HERE.
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We provide a broad scope of Friday immersions and Saturday’s workshops and include many that would cater to what Charlotte Mason termed as “the younger years” before formal education is to start. If you feel ready to start diving into what a living education might look like for you, you will definitely benefit by coming! Charlotte Mason’s principles can be applied throughout all of life, not just what we think of as “school education”. You might also enjoy this podcast from ADE: The Early Years
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Charlotte Mason talks about a concept she terms as “masterly inactivity”, this is how she describes it:
“We ought to do so much for our children, and are able to do so much for them, that we begin to think everything rests with us and that we should never intermit for a moment our conscious action on the young minds and hearts about us. Our endeavours become fussy and restless. We are too much with our children, ‘late and soon.’ We try to dominate them too much, even when we fail to govern, and we are unable to perceive that wise and purposeful letting alone is the best part of education” (Vol. 3, p. 27).
ADE dedicates a podcast episode on the topic of masterly inactivity HERE
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Yes! Awaken is more than just a conference for those using the CM method or curriculum.
Our primary goal is to bless, encourage, and equip our fellow homeschooling parents in their homeschooling journey. That includes keynotes and workshops geared toward meeting you where you are and can be applied to any homeschooling method
And yes, Charlotte Mason specific workshops are also available.
Do you have another question? Fill out the form below and one of our team members can help!
Upcoming Conferences
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Awaken Johnson City, TN
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TC Locals
A Delectable Education