The CMP Review — Week of January 26
January 26, 2026
“We have the one thing to offer which the whole world wants, an absolutely effective system of education covering the whole nature of a child, the whole life of man.” (Charlotte Mason, The Parents’ Review, Vol. 23, p. 811)@tessakeath
January 27, 2026
The ancient rush-bearing festival continues to this day in a handful of towns in northern England. One such town is Ambleside, where the pageant ends at St. Mary’s Church with a short service. The festival is illustrated by this unique 1943 mural which covers the back wall of the church.
A highlight for me when I visit Ambleside is to enjoy and contemplate this wonderful work of art. I like to imagine the children and adults joyously processing with their flowers and plants. Reverend Francis Lewis spoke about the festival in his sermons. Decades before the mural was painted, he was emphasizing its significance.
In his 1923 sermon “By My Spirit,” he said that “it is your children’s festival,” and its purpose is “to imprint deeply upon their young minds the importance of the things of the spirit.” For “faith,” he says, “is the response of the soul to the leading, and calling of God. It springs from within, not from without.” His sermon still serves as a reminder to parents to rely on the Spirit as they undertake the education of their children. Find it here.
@artmiddlekauff
📷: Photo North (www.photonorth.co.uk)
January 28, 2026
Brushes and paints for nature journaling.
Watch the video for the scoop! If I had to choose just a few brushes and a handful of paints for my family, I’d go with:
Pointed round watercolor brushes ( #4 and #6 are my personal workhorses, but anything #3 through #10 are good as long as you have a smaller & larger brush. Brushes shown here are Silver Black Velvet, those from Simply Charlotte Mason’s brush drawing supplies set, and IKEA Måla set).
Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolors (A basic set of 12 retails for under $20. The pans are really large and the colors are highly pigmented, lightfast, easy to blend or lift off, and have less flow than Western watercolors, making them easier to control. Charlotte Mason’s preferred watercolor technique of brush drawing for nature journaling has its roots in Japanese brushwork, making these a doubly-good fit.)
Obviously, there are a lot of good paints and brushes out there—these are just some good quality products that I find contribute to nature journaling success. Please comment your faves along with any other questions.
Find our Brush Drawing Resource page here!
@rbaburina
January 29, 2026
I studied French for six years in junior and senior high school, but I didn’t continue in college. As an adult I looked for a way to restore and sustain some knowledge of French, and I settled on doing my daily New Testament reading from a French translation of the Bible.
I started easy, with the Parole de Vie version. After getting comfortable with its limited vocabulary and tenses, I moved up to La Bible en Français Courant. More recently, a Canadian friend referred me to La Bible du Semeur which I have been reading for the past year or so. I’ve found that reading a familiar text in a less familiar language has proven to be an effective way to preserve (and perhaps enhance) my working knowledge of French.
At the same time I have been watching with great interest as Charlotte Mason France has been diligently translating Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Series into French. Just a few weeks ago I received volume 3. The beautiful volumes rest on my shelf waiting… for something…
The sign-up for the next Idyll Challenge opens on June 30. This will be the sixth challenge, which means I’ve read the volumes five times over the past ten years. (And I’d read through it a couple of times in the years preceding.) Surely the text is somewhat familiar to me now.
Here’s the question … when I do the sixth Idyll Challenge, should I try to read it in French? It would layer for me a challenge on a challenge… what do you guys think?
@artmiddlekauff
January 30, 2026
We don’t see many cardinals here. There tends to be one pair who hang around during the winter, but even they are not seen often.
The female cardinal came and spent some time cleaning up the mess left behind by the chickadees and nuthatches below our window feeder.
She is elusive and quite amazing!
@antonella.f.greco
January 31, 2026
I watched two very different movies this past week that had me itching to nature journal.
Where the Crawdads Sing is an homage to nature that’s wrapped around a murder mystery inside a coming-of-age story. Miss Potter tells of the life and loves of Beatrix Potter in a whimsical and poignant way.
What movies make you want to pick up your watercolors?
@rbaburina
February 1, 2026
“Dare we venture to let our feeble thought attempt to search matters which the angels desired to look into?” So asks Charlotte Mason, before envisioning a scene in the throne room of heaven. “Perhaps we may, because it is the purpose of our God to reveal Himself to men, and it is only to open minds and willing hearts that such revelation is possible.”
A medieval mystic also envisioned a scene, in which God speaks to humanity: “I want you to realize, my children, that by Adam’s sinful disobedience the road was so broken up that no one could reach everlasting life… This sin sprouted thorns and troublesome vexations. My creatures found rebellion within themselves, for as soon as they rebelled against me, they became rebels against themselves… With sin there came at once the flood of a stormy river that beat against them constantly with its waves, bringing weariness and troubles from themselves as well as from the devil and the world. You were all drowning, because not one of you, for all your righteousness, could reach eternal life.”
All humanity was drowning, but voices were crying out for help. One tireless voice in particular “wearieth heaven with importunity.” In Mason’s vision, this voice is heard in the heavenly council. God and the angels discourse, and the result is the greatest announcement ever made. Read or hear the poem here.
@artmiddlekauff