The CMP Review — Week of July 29

July 29, 2024

“The Principality of Mathematics is a mountainous land, but the air is very fine and health-giving, though some people find it too rare for their breathing. It differs from most mountainous countries in this, that you cannot lose your way, and that every step taken is on firm ground. People who seek their work or play in this principality find themselves braced by effort and satisfied with truth.” (Mason, Ourselves, Book I, p. 38)

@tessakeath

July 30, 2024

Miss E. C. Allen was known for decades in the PNEU as the author of the information about each term’s artist in the Parents’ Review. She thus left an indelible mark on the practice of picture study for generations of students. What is less well-known, however, is that Miss Allen was also an early graduate of the House of Education who attended countless alumnae conferences and gatherings.

That is, until the final year of her life. Unable to attend that year’s Old Students Conference, she wrote a letter instead. The letter was published in the 1952 “Memories” issue of the Parents’ Review and offers vivid snapshots of Miss Allen’s time at the House of Education in 1897–1898. What was it like to meet Miss Mason in person? And to be present at the birth of the practice of picture study? Read or listen to Miss Ellen’s beautiful letter here.

@artmiddlekauff

July 31, 2024

Find encouragement for the upcoming 2024-25 homeschool year as Simply Charlotte Mason hosts CM Homeschool Teacher Prep month.

Join weekly interactive sessions throughout August or register and watch each recorded workshop for up to a week after it goes live. And it’s all free!

Click here for all the information or ask any questions in the comments.

@rbaburina

August 1, 2024

I have many ways to cheer myself when it’s time for a winter nature walk. I think of animal prints in the snow and the infinite patterns of ice mixed with the water of a stream.

Even so, week after week the bare trees and winter weeds begin to wear on my soul. That’s when the words of Emily Brontë express my heart:

How do I yearn, how do I pine
For the time of flowers to come

Amidst evergreen pines and intrepid cardinals I remember those crown jewels of nature study — the flowers. I remember my favorites, the spiderwort and the wood lily:

‘Tis these that breathe upon my heart
A calm and softening spell
That if it makes the tear-drop start
Has power to soothe as well

When the cold finally breaks through my gloves and no warmth is left and I’m ready to go inside, I think of the ephemeral, living gems of summer:

For these I weep, so long divided
Through winter’s dreary day

That’s what makes nature walks in August so precious. Most of the flowers I can’t bring home to me. But I can bring my notebook to them. With just a moment of preparation and a little thermos at my side, I can capture the moment, the gesture, and the life. I know it will cheer me up next winter. It will remind me that I didn’t just see the flowers in a photograph. They were real.

@artmiddlekauff

August 2, 2024

We had the opportunity to take in a very interesting exhibit about quilt making in Canada at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Serafina and my sister (both avid quilters) enjoyed seeing Canadian quilts from the 1800s and 1900s.

Serafina especially loved looking at this “crazy quilt” as she realized that the pillow she herself quilted over winter was created by the same techniques that quilters have used for years and years.

If you happen to be in the Toronto area in the next few months, be sure to check it out. You will not be disappointed!

@antonella.f.greco

August 3, 2024

Did you know that Charlotte Mason was a Janeite?! She borrows phrases from Jane Austen, and references both the author and her works frequently to help explain the methods behind her own philosophy of education. In short, Charlotte makes no attempt to deny that she thinks very highly of her—that she greatly esteems, that she likes her.

Miss Mason even wrote a paper called “Jane Austen” that weaves her writings along with the warm details of her family life.

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen and Charlotte Mason, you’ll love hearing or reading the article.

@rbaburina

“Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year long.”

So begins one of my favorite sections of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The story haunts me.

“And moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.”

The pilgrims had to pass through this fair, otherwise they ”must needs go out of the world.” But they were not welcome there. They did not fit in. Their raiment, their speech, their values set them apart.

“One chanced, mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, ‘What will ye buy?’ But they, looking gravely upon him, said, ‘We buy the truth.’”

Charlotte Mason also passed through this fair. She found what the pilgrims were looking for. This poem will stay with me forever. Read or hear “At the Fair” here.

@artmiddlekauff