CMP Review 2026-08-13

August 13, 2026

As I return to the opening pages of Home Education this month, I am struck by how often Miss Mason talks about exposure to nature as an investment for the future. “It would be difficult to overrate this habit of seeing and storing as a means of after-solace and refreshment,” she writes.

She stresses that this investment should begin early: “a love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour.”

A happy surprise for me is that these benefits are not reserved for those who were brought up on nature study. They can be felt even by those who begin nature study as part of the education of their own children.

My first solo nature walk after the formal graduation of all of my children was a moment of interest. It felt no different. No homeschool programme compelled me to go out. Just an absorbing pursuit, a pure interest, that I can hardly remember not having.

Our children grow up, and those magical years of school at home never come back, at least not in quite the same way. But the flowers remain. They are new every morning, waiting to be discovered, admired, and drawn.

@artmiddlekauff