CPQ April Newsletter
Our nature outings aren’t fancy, but they’ve become part of our family culture over the last decade and a half. We have a rotation of local places that we visit, enjoying some lengthier rambles in the summer when my husband can join us. But in this particular season of caregiving, I have developed a deep appreciation for our simple, quirky ways.
My mind is constantly swirling with medical information and caretaking. If it isn’t the nervous system or autism for my son, it’s Multiple Sclerosis and seizures for my mom. A lot is lurking, and many heavy things are always on my mind. Plus, I can’t shake this feeling like I’m playing a real-life game of whack-a-mole. It has all made me a bit high-strung while also making me more “let’s go with the flow.” I don’t know how that works. It’s another paradox I find myself sitting in.
But our nature outings, like other parts of this feast, remind me I am a born person. I like to be in the fresh air, learn about nature, paint what I see, and find God in unexpected places. I like to be still in open spaces, find metaphors in the weeds, linger in the tall prairie grass and know its name, and put my hands in the dirt. Wonder is not heavy to carry, and I appreciate it has that characteristic.
So many of us start out doing these things “for the children’s sake,” things like nature study, artist study, Shakespeare, reading poetry, and singing hymns, but we eventually find out how much it is all for our sake, too. Life is hard and heavy, but it’s also easy and light. Jesus makes it so. Spreading a feast helps. It gives Him more ways to show us what we need to see in what is gnarled. This wonder helps with very real realities like caregiver burnout and laundry, too.
Spring is finally here in Wyoming. This means the wind is working (some days) on calming down, and everything will come to life—me included. I look forward to planting my garden, foraging something new, chasing wildflowers, and sitting beside a waterfall. I’m still learning what it means to know how to live. But I’ve learned if this feast is for my children, it’s also for me, and this is a gift I don’t think we know we’ll need as we get older.
-Mariah
On The CPQ Blog
Behind the Scenes
Upper Years is at the printer
Personhood is in layout
Goodness articles are ready for copyediting
Main article writers for “Books” have been contacted
Did you know you can be a part of CPQ? Visit our website to find out how to submit photography, writing, and content pieces from your kiddos.
Join CPQ in Year 7!
We currently have two opportunities for our readership:
First, Century Circle artists! We need three Century Circle artists for Year 7. We will need four-century circles (a BC, an AD, a historical event, and a free choice like the life of a historical figure, the plot of a book, etc.). They are to be done in ink, and we will provide a template for you so the circle is the right size for the page. This can be done by upper-year students or parents.
Second: Do you have a student who enjoys writing and reading historical biographies? This would be a great opportunity for them! We’re seeking someone to give us mini-biographies of unknown world figures. There are many faces behind the well-known faces that have helped pave the way throughout history. Who are those people? We want to know, and we think this will make a great column for the “Inspire” section of the magazine. We’d want quarterly articles, about 600-800 words each.
Please send inquiries to mariah@commonplacequarterly.com.
Coming Up in Personhood
From Elsie Iudicello:
Our first stop was dinner with my father’s parents. Within five minutes of serving the meal, Abuela asked again if the boys would be starting school in the fall. I smiled and confirmed that we were definitely still homeschooling her great-grandchildren because I wanted them to feast on ideas.
“Abuela, espera un momento. Cuando escuches lo que dice esta maestra entenderas…”
I reached for my phone and began typing in the words to a passage of Charlotte Mason’s writings I had come across just a few weeks before. “A sound cure for unhealthy contemplation,” I recalled and hit the search tab.
Up came the quote, tucked in Afterthoughts, a blog I had never read:
“Introspection is morbid or diseased when the person imagines that all which he finds within him is peculiar to him as an individual. To know what is common to all men is a sound cure for unhealthy self-contemplation” (V.2, pp. 242-243).
From Lindsay Roberts:
A fourth “good”: I am learning to be flexible. A dysregulated student means the schedule for the school day becomes the second priority. When a child is crying over math or melting down like cheese in an oven, that’s exactly when I need to respect his or her personhood. I need to be adaptable, resilient, and creative as I teach and lead. “What is really happening?” I try to ask myself. “Are they hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?” Then the next question: “How can I make sure that both this Dickens’ passage gets read and that my child’s needs are respected?” Maybe I put the audiobook on in the bath or save it for a calm Sunday afternoon over tea.
From Liz Cottrill:
We cannot, however, fulfill our duty to our children if we focus on all we supposedly lack. Perhaps you are limited by a poor education, chronic health challenges that sap your energy, financial pressures that prohibit resources you think your children need, the demands of aging parents, lack of organizational skills, a shaky marriage, or children with special needs. The list of individual struggles that we think hampers our homeschooling is endless. Everywhere we turn reveals new information that makes it all too easy to see our limitations, tempting us to fall into doubt or despair. The problem is not in our limitations, however. The problem is in our thinking we should not have any.
From Ana Vargas:
Ms. Mason urges diligent observation of our children, keeping “a diary in which to note the successive phases of her child’s physical, mental, and moral growth, with particular attention to the moral” (Vol. 2, p. 105-6.) In doing so, we will be more apt to know what to pray for and meet our children’s specific needs by seeking appropriate resources and experiences or even creating some of our own.
I keep a prayer journal noting growth, strongholds, and specific needs. It also serves as a record of praises for little miracles because, let’s be honest, we are forgetful and need constant reminders of the work the Lord is doing in the lives of our children.
Blast from the Past
Essex Chomondeley said it best in an article:
“Miss Mason answered many questions in her life-time. It has been said by those who knew her that by her answers she revealed an underlying principle, she would have never merely prescribed a course of action…Miss Mason left no recipes behind her. She believed in thinking persons…”
I believe that home schooling mothers, especially those with children who have special needs, must embrace this role of “thinking persons” in order to find peace and contentment in our school days. It can be exhausting, but it is absolutely necessary if we want to embrace the Charlotte Mason method.
-Morgan Conner
A Calendar of Events Freebie
Are you familiar with a Calendar of Events? This was a notebook that Miss Mason had her students keep in the upper years. Here are some things that Laurie Bestvater says about it in The Living Page (which we can’t recommend enough):
In much the same way as the Book of Centuries invites a critical approach to history, the Calendar of Events implicitly asks for all the students’ conversations and learning to have the touch point of here and now.
Consider what the regular marking of national and world issues from middle school on along with a wide reading in all the liberal arts would give a student by the end of his school career.
The realization dawns on the student slowly: “these are the Perennial Questions. I am reading the same ideas in the 18th Century as we were reading with the ancients and as are surfacing in issues today,” without the teacher having to say such a word.
Mason would have the children outgrow the tight skin of the parochial or handed-down worldview, the dogmatic, or even nationalistic stance, and with their own keen minds (and lives) apply moral wisdom in their own day.
This freebie is designed to be used from 8th grade through their senior year. There is a line a day for current events in an undated calendar, maps to reference and record natural disasters, wars, or whatever else they choose, and lined pages in the back to record the student’s prayers for the world.
Get To Know The Editors
What’s Cara…
Reading: The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour and Sense and Sensibility
Listening to: the BBC’s full cast radio adaptation of 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
Eating: Los Betos California burrito
Watching: FB(eye) with the kids
Creating: a yearbook for our local homeschool academy
Drinking: we got a Ninja Thirsti machine for the kids, and I’ve been drinking all their creations
Thinking about: whether or not I should let my kids find their own way or step in and get involved in their situation, and the sovereignty of God in the life of my kids followed by the power of prayer and when praying is enough
What’s Mariah…
Reading: Julia Child by Laura Shapiro, Rising from the Plains by John McPhee, and Swallows and Amazons aloud to the boys.
Creating: my husband and I have been tiling the shower in our bathroom while we (ok, maybe I) wait for that last frost date to arrive.
Listening to: Morning Light by Josh Garrels
Eating: breakfast burritos with homemade green chili
Watching: A Million Miles Away
Learning: balance—still and forever.
Drinking: a protein shake
Thinking about: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” This line from the Song of Solomon describes how I feel as we wrap up lessons this year.
What’s Sarah…
Reading: CS Lewis’ Space trilogy and Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy
Listening to: an endless loop of ukulele Christmas songs (not by choice) and the incessant whistling competition between my sons.
Creating: Stacks of new books for the 2024/2025 school year!
Thinking about: as little as possible.
Eating: Chorizo and potato tacos
Watching: Long Lost Family (UK edition). This show inspired me to use my DNA and find my paternal family 5 years ago. It was emotional but empowering. The show is on Amazon Prime now…bring tissues.
Drinking: Starbucks iced matcha latte with lavender foam. I’m addicted.