The CMP Review — Week of December 22
December 22, 2025
“Every member of a family is a person with the infinite possibilities, the dignity, and the rights and duties of a person. The very youngest person and the very oldest live, not by meals alone, but by their admirations, their hopes, their loves, by the thoughts of truth and beauty and justice which fill their minds. … In our lifetime much has been done to make people more comfortable, still more is being planned. People do not seem to be much the wiser for it (more loving, more thoughtful or more true). In remembering to care for their bodies, do we forget to feed their minds? If so, let each family be the one place where there is no starvation of body or mind.” (Essex Cholmondeley, Parents Are Peacemakers)
@tessakeath
December 23, 2025
“Are we teaching geography?” asks Charlotte Mason. “The child discovers with the explorer, journeys with the traveller, receives impressions new and vivid from some other mind which is immediately receiving these impressions; not after they have been made stale and dull by a process of filtering through many intermediate minds, and have found at last their way into a little text-book.”
And then later she writes, “Perhaps no knowledge is more delightful than such an intimacy with the earth’s surface, region by region, as should enable the map of any region to unfold a panorama of delight, disclosing … mountains, rivers, frontiers, … associations, occupations, some parts of the past and much of the present, of every part of this beautiful earth.”
These words would inspire any parent or teacher to offer a healthy (and enticing) serving of geography in the educational banquet of their home. But just how do we make it “alive” as Mason so strongly urges?
Readers may be surprised that Mason goes on to explain that “great attention is paid to map work; that is, before reading a lesson children have found the places mentioned in that lesson on a map and know where they are.”
So we have maps, map work, books, reading, narration, and more? How do all these pieces fit together?
That was the question faced by teachers in the Gloucestershire schools who had adopted the Charlotte Mason method. They loved the method — and they shared their experiences on how they made it work. Today we share a practical and insightful piece from 1920 by G. H. Smith, with a thoughtful modern introduction by Dawn Tull. Find it here.
@artmiddlekauff
📷: @aolander
December 24, 2025
Have I been sure, this Christmas-Eve;
God’s own hand did the rainbow weave,
Whereby the truth from heaven slid
Into my soul?—I cannot bid
The world admit He stooped to heal
My soul, as if in a thunder-peal
Where one heard noise, and one saw flame,
I only knew He named my name.
—excerpt, “Christmas Eve” by Robert Browning
@rbaburina
December 25, 2025
“In swathing bands, she in a manger laid,
For shelter from the cold, the princely Child:
Nor knew that there she laid the Bread of Life
Where ass and oxen for their fodder came.
“Not, from His infant birth, the Son of Man
Had where to lay His head in this His world,
But shared the common place the cattle used.
“Bless’d Virgin, who didst bear the World’s Delight!
Bless’d Joseph, who first saw the wondrous sight!
Good byre, which sheltered Him from rude affright!
Kind cattle, graced above all beasts that night!”
— Charlotte Mason
🖼️: The Nativity by Duccio di Buoninsegna
Merry Christmas from the Charlotte Mason Poetry team!
December 26, 2025
In 1898, Emeline Steinthal asked G.K. Chesterton to write something to include in the Christmas issue of Aunt Mai’s Budget (the tear out children’s section of the Parents’ Review). She wrote “Instead of a card, I have asked a great friend if he will write, especially for you, a Christmas hymn, which we hope you will learn by heart. Your loving, very loving, Auntie Mai.”
The Song of the Children
This is our world till sunset—
Holly and fire and snow,
And the name of our dead brother,
That loved us long ago.
The grown folk, mighty and cunning,
They write his name in gold;
But we remember a little
Of the million tales he told.
He taught them laws and watchwords,
To strive and parley and pray;
But he taught us, deep in the hay-field,
The games that the angels play.
Had he dwelt for ever amongst us,
Their world had been wise as ours,
And the kings be cutting capers,
And the priests be picking flowers.
But the dark day came: they gathered,
In their faces we could see
They had taken and slain our brother,
And hanged him upon a tree.
Gilbert Chesterton
@antonella.f.greco
December 27, 2025
“But deep in the heart of every person of every age is the need of strength, protection and support which only God can supply. Many grown up people are living their lives with this hunger stifled and forgotten, but children are nearer to reality. Give them the words of eternal life, the words of Christ. Bring them up into the knowledge and love of God, do not leave them down below in the weakness of their human nature. Help them to win the peace of loving trust in a Heavenly Father.” (Essex Cholmondeley, Parents Are Peacemakers)@tessakeath
December 28, 2025
The disciples watch as the Rich Young Ruler walks away, unable to obey Christ’s command. D. L. Bock observes what happens next:
Now the rapid-fire dialogue reaches a high point. Peter remarks, probably seeking reassurance, that the disciples have done what Jesus has asked of the rich man. They have left home to follow him.
Charlotte Mason imagines this moment. What was Peter thinking when he said, “See, we have left all and followed You”? Read or hear Charlotte Mason’s poetic commentary on a single verse. Find it here.
@artmiddlekauff