The CMP Review — Week of November 11

November 11, 2024

Each morning, my family reads from The Golden Key after breakfast. The Golden Key: A Day-Book of Helpful Thoughts is the youth version of The Cloud of Witness, and both follow the rhythms of the liturgical calendar. We love that this quiet moment grounds us together, bringing purpose and peace before we each begin our day—whether it’s a school day or the weekend.

At Charlotte Mason Poetry, we provide a calendar for both The Golden Key and The Cloud of Witness. Although we don’t attend a church that strictly follows the liturgical calendar, we appreciate aligning with the Christian year as a family. Our CMP calendar makes it easy to follow along with special days and additional readings for saint days—echoing James Clear’s advice in Atomic Habits that reducing friction makes habits more sustainable.

Explore this resource by following this link and discover how a simple daily reading can become a grounding ritual in your own home.

@tessakeath

November 12, 2024

In most schools today, technology is king. All students are given tablets and everyone learns to code. We are told that this approach gives kids an advantage. It prepares them for a future that is becoming more and more digital every day.

Other schools reach back to a nearly forgotten past. A time when science meant painting a flower, not tapping a screen. Many homeschool parents yearn for the latter, and they turn to Charlotte Mason to show them the way. But is that the end of the story for the Charlotte Mason method?

As a professional programmer for many years, I have interacted with technology for decades. As a homeschooling father, I have taught my children to code. But as a Charlotte Mason educator, I have also been awakened to the wonder of books and things. I have worked hard to incorporate more of these elements in my family’s lifestyle.

Technology too has changed over the years. The digital landscape our children experience is not like anything I grew up with. Given all of these considerations, I would propose that place of technology in a Charlotte Mason homeschool is not one-dimensional. There is good, there is bad, and there is ugly.

Recently I spoke with a group of Charlotte Mason educators in Southeast Asia on this very topic. I candidly and openly portrayed the good, bad, and ugly aspects of technology for the family. The presentation was recorded live, and now I’d like to share it with you. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff

November 13, 2024

Preview Book 6 of the Charlotte Mason Arithmetic Series!

Follow this link to find out what concepts are included in Book 6 and sign-up for Simply Charlotte Mason’s free weekly training and encouragement to be the first to know when it releases.

@rbaburina

November 14, 2024

Ever since he was just starting algebra, my youngest son was fascinated with calculus. He overheard family conversations and wanted to know more. I realized that there was some I could teach him using even the little algebra he knew, and the weekly calculus lesson became for him the highlight of his school week.

Somehow he inherited a screen shot from his older brother which depicted an essential calculus theorem. Even with the little calculus we had done, this theorem was completely over his head. He knew he couldn’t understand it. But someday, he believed, he would. So, unbeknownst to me, he held on to that image.

Algebra turned into geometry and trigonometry and Algebra II and then calculus became a very serious study. It was time to fill in all the gaps that remained from our splashes of calculus over the years. It was time to get to all the hard stuff, to leave no stone unturned.

Working on the white board, I developed for him one of the great calculus ideas. Well, he developed it too, because he was discovering the idea for himself. He was seeing that a sum of infinitely narrow rectangles was none other than his old friend the integral. It was an exciting lesson and I knew he would love it. But I was in for a surprise.

“I need to show you something,” he said. He browsed through his photos until he found a screenshot he had saved from at least four years before. Then he showed me a screenshot of a theorem.

I stared in disbelief. My eyes went from the whiteboard to the photo and back again. There on the whiteboard was the idea that eluded him so long. All those years he remembered, and now he got it.

Sometimes we think that a lesson is not complete until it is fully understood. We worry that a narration missed a point, that a line in Shakespeare was too hard, that a detail about an artist was overlooked. We think that understanding is the greatest gift we as parent-teachers can give.

But sometimes it is a gift not to understand. Sometimes it is a gift to hold on to a question, in private, in secret, in hope. Believing that someday the question will be answered if only we persevere. And when that moment comes, it is a taste of eternity.

@artmiddlekauff

November 15, 2024

I was gazing at a bunch of mallard ducks in a pond on a hike in southwestern Ontario (the mallards are ubiquitous there) when I was surprised by these two wood ducks. The mallards are constant friends who can be seen most everywhere in Canada, but the wood ducks certainly are not! I enjoyed watching this pair of wood ducks, with their funny heads. They are so charming, so endearing, and they bring a smile to my face!

Do wood ducks frequent your part of the world?

@antonella.f.greco

November 16, 2024

We love living in Manitoba. We really do!

But the autumn colours in southwestern Ontario, where I grew up, just cannot be beat.

I’m thankful I could share this beautiful view with my daughter.

@antonella.f.greco

Charlotte Mason mentions “the unpardonable sin” three times in the Home Education Series. In all three instances she gives examples of people who have misunderstood this famous teaching from the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. But the words are there in the sacred text — so how are we to interpret it?

In her poem “The unpardonable sin,” Charlotte Mason turns from the negative to the positive and illuminates this difficult passage of Scripture for us. Her interpretation is brilliant and beautiful and draws the heart to love and not fear. Read or hear Charlotte Mason’s theologically rich and devotionally compelling poem here.

@artmiddlekauff