The CMP Review — Week of June 22
June 22, 2026
“The Madonna, no matter out of whose canvas she looks at you, is always serene. This is a great truth, and we should do well to hang our walls with the Madonnas of all the early Masters if the lesson, taught through the eye, would reach with calming influence to the heart.” (School Education, p. 33)@tessakeath
June 23, 2026
In the early months of 2015, I was preparing a presentation. My working title was “Knowledge and Moral Development.” I wanted to explain Charlotte Mason’s assertion that living ideas are the true foundation for spiritual growth and character.
I had illustrations, stories, diagrams, and quotes all lined up. I even had a recording ready to play from a workshop I had heard years before. But I needed one final word, one final statement, one inspiring thought to wrap it all up.
Would I find it in one of Mason’s six volumes? Or perhaps in her poetry? The quote I was looking for had to capture an idea in a most beautiful and memorable way. Perhaps some gem of a Parents’ Review article that the PNEU published again and again?
I did finally find my quote, but in a most unexpected place. It was in a letter to an editor. How can that be? Well, in 1915, Maria Montessori wrote an article for the Times Educational Supplement. In December, Charlotte Mason responded.
Sometimes a challenge can bring out the best in us. I think Montessori’s letter was just the catalyst Miss Mason needed to express some thoughts in a new and living way. Thanks to our transcription team, we’ve now added this valuable piece to our collection. Read it today, or hear the expressive recording by Jennifer Talsma. Find it here.
@artmiddlekauff
June 24, 2026
“We are an overwrought generation, running to nerves as a cabbage runs to seed; and every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself.”
Home Education, p. 42
@rbaburina
June 25, 2026
18 years ago almost to the day I received an email that began with, “Hello! My name is Nancy Kelly from Windom, MN.” The email went on to ask me if I was “even remotely interested” in speaking at the “3rd Annual Living Education Retreat.” It was an invitation to take a step of faith. I had never before spoken to an audience about Charlotte Mason. Here was my first chance.
Many years have passed since then and many things have changed, but some things have stayed the same. I’ve been back to the Living Education Retreat several times, but each time is a new step of faith. Granted, it will never again be my first time to speak to an audience about Charlotte Mason. But every year I have new ideas to share. And so each year is my first time to speak to an audience about these ideas. That’s what makes it so exciting for me.
Charlotte Mason wrote that “knowledge … is a state out of which persons may pass and into which they may return, but never a store upon which they may draw.” As I study Mason’s writings with my friends in the Idyll Challenge, my friends at conferences and retreats, and my friends in the community, I pass into ever-widening landscapes of knowledge about education, life, personhood, and God. All inspired by the inexhaustible supply of ideas Mason left behind.
Someone once asked me how long it took me to write a talk for the Living Education Retreat. Do I say six months? Do I say six years?
In two weeks, the 20th Living Education Retreat begins. I look forward to it as a high point of my year. I have a new talk this year. How long have I been working on it? I would say, ever since the Living Education Retreat began. For two decades I’ve been reading, studying, discussing, comparing, and reasoning. And now I’m ready to share my newest thoughts, and stand with Charlotte Mason once again.
@artmiddlekauff
June 26, 2026
Every time we come to visit grandma, Serafina undertakes some project with her. It’s usually something crafty. Grandma is an avid quilter, knitter, crocheter, sewist, needle artist, gardener, puzzler, and more. This time, they had a change of pace and worked on a lovely orchid Lego. It was grandma’s first time doing Lego and she found it quite different and more challenging than her usual handiwork!
@antonella.f.greco
June 27, 2026
This was our first time ever seeing wild strawberries. I don’t think they grow in Manitoba. But grandma’s lawn in Ottawa was covered in these teeny tiny berries this year. She’s never had them before.
They are so precious. I would take this kind of weed any day!
@antonella.f.greco
June 28, 2026
“O Lord, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights: give us grace to use such abstinence that our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory who livest, and reignest, with the Father and the holy Ghost, one God world without end. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 1662)
With this and similar prayers, the church invites us to enter into the wilderness with Christ, to confess the sins that He bore and to deny the pleasures He forswore.
Charlotte Mason too invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s extended fast. His journey into the wilderness is our journey too. What is the meaning of the wilderness journey for the perfect Son of God? And what does it mean to us in this era of the world? Charlotte Mason’s poetry shines light on these questions. Find it here.
@artmiddlekauff