The CMP Review — Week of November 25

November 25, 2024

“The peaceful home was the one where each member of the family was getting what he needed. What do people need? Let us think of that. There is a difference between what people want, what they would really like and what they really need. Certain things we all need, grown ups, children, everyone.” (Essex Cholmondeley, Parents Are Peacemakers)

@tessakeath

November 26, 2024

For almost twenty years I have wanted to write an article about how the Charlotte Mason method is perfect for the education of boys and young men. I have wanted to dispel the myth that the Charlotte Mason method is “too soft,” or that it is only for girls, or that it is only for boys up to the age of ten. I have wanted to show that it is a method that cultivates manliness.

But who was I to write such a piece? I was no professional educator, no educationist, no sociologist; I was just a homeschool dad. But an article was needed!

In 1913, two young teachers got married. One was an instructor in a boys’ preparatory school. The other was a graduate of Charlotte Mason’s House of Education. The bride could not conceal her love for Miss Mason’s ideas. So her husband read the books. And then he was hooked.

A few years later, the couple founded a new boys’ preparatory school built from the ground up around the Charlotte Mason method. The couple also had a child. And the husband, now a headmaster and a father, tested Mason’s ideas.

In 1928, he wrote about his experience in The Parents’ Review. His article became an instant classic, and was published in pamphlet form and sold by the PNEU for the next thirty years.

The author’s name is A. V. C. Moore. I am so thankful for his article because it lets me off the hook. I don’t need to write about the Mason method for boys because someone more qualified than me has done it. A professional teacher who has dispelled the myths.

But myths have a way of resurfacing. Moore’s article was known in PNEU circles for decades, and then it faded away. It’s time to bring it back to life. Now, on the Internet for the very first time, we present A. V. C. Moore’s masterful defense of the Charlotte Mason method for boys and young men. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff

November 27, 2024

Join us for a feast of encouragement, simplicity, and grace at @simplycharlottemason gathering next summer.

Seating is limited for this event, so sign up to be notified when registration opens on November 29 so you can secure your spot and save with the best price by following this link.

@rbaburina

November 28, 2024

Many readers of Charlotte Mason’s volumes recognize the name H. C. Beeching because of Chapter 13 of Parents and Children. In this chapter, Mason explores the ideas of Beeching’s Eleven Sermons with a Preface. It’s a wonderful chapter that helps us better understand the nature of faith and how to break down the distinction between “sacred” and “secular’ in our lives.

Few readers, however, have gone beyond Mason’s wonderful chapter and read Beeching’s sermons for themselves. Even fewer know that one of the eleven sermons was preached at a Harvest Thanksgiving Service. This traditional Christian celebration takes place in early autumn and it is a time when the faithful give thanks to God who gives “us the fruits of the earth in their season.”

This Harvest Thanksgiving sermon is entitled “The Food of Faith.” Whenever I read it, I am reminded of how much it reflects the devotion we Americans express in our Thanksgiving Day celebration each year. As you gather with family and friends to thank God for his many blessings, I encourage you to also take a moment to read Beeching’s sermon for this season. His words offer helpful guidance and inspiration on how we can give thanks today as a fitting expression of our faith. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff

November 29, 2024

With the advent of the first real snow, we get the pleasure of looking carefully at all the tracks around! This little critter zig zagged all over the place!

@antonella.f.greco

November 30, 2024

“From the parent’s point of view, in teaching one’s own children there is much to be gained—more time spent in company with the children, an extraordinarily interesting occupation, a widening of one’s own intellectual outlook as one is kept in constant contact with all the best thought of all time, and, in short, a thoroughly happy existence.” (Brown, The Parents’ Review, Vol. 41, p. 291)

@tessakeath

According to Robert Webber, the season we now call Advent was originally a period of penitential preparation for the baptismal service of Epiphany. It wasn’t until the sixth century that Advent evolved into a time of preparation for Christmas. “It must be noted, however,” says Webber, “that the shift from baptismal preparation to Nativity preparation did not diminish the penitential character of Advent.”

Today is the first day of Advent, and in many churches and homes, it remains a time not only of anticipation but also of repentance. I believe these two disciplines are essentially linked. Charlotte Mason’s beautiful poem “The empty house” illustrates that penance alone does not make for life. Penance alone just leads to an empty heart. To find life, the heart must be filled anew.

“Lord, take my vacant house and dwell therein, For only where Thou art’s no place for sin.” But how do we fill our hearts with Him? Not only our hearts, but the hearts of our children?

“Our fault, our exceeding great fault, is that we keep our own minds and the minds of our children shamefully underfed,” warned Charlotte Mason. Hearts are hungry. Let us dedicate this season of Advent to feeding these hearts on Christ. Read or hear Mason’s poem here.

@artmiddlekauff