The CMP Review — Week of September 1

September 1, 2025

“Surely the child who grows up watching Nature will develop something of the great calm of Nature herself. It is an impatient age of rush and turmoil of thought—what indeed shall give a man peace at last? What rest to eye and brain to perceive the ‘unperturbed pace’ of the unfolding leaf, the gradual bursting forth of the praying hands of the chestnut!”

— Violet Curry, PR36, p. 535

@artmiddlekauff

📷: @dave_stillwell

September 2, 2025

“It was during the years 1918 to 1919 that I, who write this story, took the training at Ambleside.” That is how Essex Cholmondeley, Charlotte Mason’s biographer, opens chapter 8 of her book. And what did Miss Cholmondeley remember most from her time as a student at the House of Education?

Cholmondeley herself answers the question: “Perhaps the most life-giving ideas that the students received were the three which form ‘The Threefold Cord,’ a short leaflet given to each student on leaving college.” But what did this leaflet say?

Years ago Nancy Kelly was exploring the archives at the Armitt Museum in Ambleside when she happened upon a small leaflet tucked away. She saw the title and knew it was something important.

Nancy put two and two together, and I’m sure you can too. Follow this link to read or hear “Our Three-fold Cord,” read and introduced by Nancy Kelly.

@artmiddlekauff

September 3, 2025

Charlotte Mason talks about giving our children a “multiplicity of interests,” how a love of nature can keep our teens from both temptation and navel gazing, how handicrafts help us appreciate skilled workers, and how beauty is a joy best shared.

Over the past year and a half, @aolander and I have been quietly and prayerfully working with Wild + Free to bring a book of beautiful arts & crafts to make this a reality for your family.

My hope is that The Beautiful Wild results in “habits of lifelong joy”—to help you and your family notice the beauty & receive the gifts Nature has to offer, and become good stewards of the earth…not out of fear, but out of a love.

Follow this link to find out more.

@rbaburina

September 4, 2025

I’m taking another pass through Catherine Price’s 2018 How to Break Up With Your Phone, a neat little volume that has aged quite well. Of special interest to Charlotte Mason enthusiasts is Price’s frequent references to habit and neuroplasticity, phenomena that Charlotte Mason handily (and accurately) explained more than 100 years ago.

Price notes how apps give us rewards for certain behavior, training us to use them more. This technique (aka “gamification”) leverages our internal habit engine, changing our brains and ultimately our lives. It’s enough to make one seriously consider “breaking up” with one’s phone.

But of course phones are useful tools and life would be a slog without one. Although … I don’t need it to be my constant companion.

Well it turns out there are two sides of gamification. I have a stand on a shelf for my phone and it stays there most of the time. In front of it is a bright six-sided die. Every time I take the phone out of the stand, I turn the die to the next number. It’s my counter. It’s my accountability. It’s my game.

How low can the number be by the end of the day? Sometimes zero, sometimes one. Today maybe a bit tricky though. I’m already at one because of this shot.

@artmiddlekauff

September 5, 2025

For many years, Serafina has been trying to grow watermelons. Living in gardening zone 3b, this is no mean feat.

We’ve tried in the ground, we’ve tried in a pot. This year we opted for a pot again, hoping we could place the plant where it would get the most sun.

This year only one watermelon flower actually fruited. We kept watching it, hoping it would grow and sweeten.

And then the frost hit it a few nights ago. I had covered my tomato plants before going to bed, but I completely forgot about this watermelon.

So the next day, we decided to pick the single fruit. Though it surely could have used another couple of weeks of sunshine.

We found it very white inside. But with the tiniest hint of watermelon flavour.

Please, send tips. (Zone 9 tips might not help, dear southern friends, but we will take them!)

@[antonella.f.greco

September 6, 2025

Did you know that Edith Holden taught nature journaling at a private school for 14 to 17-year-old girls?

Her standards were high, yet she never criticized her students. Rather, she taught by example, offering guidance and direction.

@rbaburina

“Life, in any real sense, is the knowledge of God now,” writes Charlotte Mason; “and, without that knowledge, there cannot be the free and joyous activity of our powers, the glow of our feelings, the happy living, free from care, the open eye for all beauty, the open heart for all goodness, the responsive mind, the tender heart, the aspiring soul—which go to make up fulness of life.”

In Luke 16 the Pharisees scoffed at Christ’s teaching about riches. Charlotte Mason wrote an unpublished poem that extrapolates from this text and imagines what the conversation between Christ and the Pharisees might have been like. She understood that their interaction was about more than just money. She wrote:

What men give
Proclaim them not acceptable to God
But what they love, desire exceedingly
Nor ever let it from their thoughts remove.

It is not what we give or what we do that makes for life. It is what we love. Read or hear about the knowledge which goes to make up fulness of life. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff

🖼️: The Pharisee and the Publican by James Tissot