CMP Review 2025-02-27

February 27, 2025

Often I hear parents ask how to get their children to become more interested in nature instead of being drawn to screens and digital entertainment. It’s related to the broader question of change. How do we get our children to pay attention to or to focus on different things?

I think change can come from the outside in or from the inside out. In my experience, the latter is more enduring. But how can we as parents bring it about?

I’ve learned from Charlotte Mason that inside-out change comes from living ideas. These are ideas that take root and flourish in the heart, and they are found in living books. When these ideas grow, they bear fruit in changed lives.

Wordsworth has become a favorite poet in our homeschool, and reading the Prelude is like reading a love letter to nature. Several times a week we dip into these words and find them take root in our hearts.

Poetry transforms nature walks from outside-in duties to inside-out loves. We listen to the birds and look at the flowers because we want to see what Wordsworth saw. And in moments too magical to express, sometimes we do.

@artmiddlekauff