Hello Readers,
I was sitting next to my daughter in the car the other day. Do you know what I was doing? I was apologizing. And she was forgiving me, as daughters do. If someone asked me what my advice is for the high school years, I would say you should let your humility free flow into asking forgiveness as often as you need to, which has been a lot lately for me. I’m just over here trying to pivot in the right direction while still clinging to God’s word and educational principles and realizing how I have been going about things isn’t working. I still have much to learn. This semester, we have seen a lot of change, not the least of which was enrolling my oldest in a private high school.
As I’ve been listening to and adjusting to the needs of our older kids, it has felt a bit like following God into the great unknown and just having to trust the process. Over the past term, I have been unmoored and realized the need to restructure at home, creating a whole new 12-week plan for my younger kids last term because we unexpectedly changed their school plans in response to the older kids’ needs. So, I thought, “Ok, how do we proceed from here?” After all these years, I realized I knew exactly how to proceed and had a whole bookshelf ready to make it happen. I kept it simple. I just built a list of subjects we needed to cover to finish the year. If we had already been doing the subject and still had the books, I left them as is but removed extra projects, videos, or anything beyond verbal narration (I basically removed the need to look online or elsewhere for lesson plans. There is no space for those right now.) If we needed new books, I looked on my shelves and pulled books that fit the subjects, one larger book that could be read in 11 weeks, or two smaller books, divided the pages, and called it a day. It has been going great. We can cover about six time slots daily, and I post a time block schedule on the wall. We go book by book through the blocks each day, all together. The schedule lists the book we are reading instead of the subject, and I keep a bookmark wherever we leave off. Read for thirty minutes or a particular number of chapters--less to think about makes it easy to implement. We won’t keep it this simple forever, but we might not adjust it that much because it is peaceful and good and just what we have all needed. I just had to give myself the freedom to do what I knew would work for us, even if it wasn’t as much as everything else out there. I put all my younger kids together for every subject, every day, reading classics for rigor and giving longer written narration prompts to my 7th grader. My high schooler is independent with Alveary’s 9th-grade schedule on Syllabird, and it is enough. The kids are happy and learning. Sometimes, it can just be that simple. Pray, stay humble, seek forgiveness. Read good books. Don’t skip the narrations. Feel free to adjust your plans based on what you know now.
Finish well, y’all.
-Cara
On The CPQ Blog
Behind the Scenes
Things: sent to print!
Truth: in layout process
Laugh: in copyedit process
Mansoul: in the planning phase
Living Education Retreat
The LER is a bespoke Charlotte Mason retreat experience now in its 19th year of serving the CM community! Nestled on the shores of Lake Koronis in central Minnesota, the retreat takes place at the historical Koronis Ministries retreat center.
This is a chance for the parent and teacher to immerse themselves in the philosophy and practices of a Charlotte Mason education. The dates for 2025 are July 10-12th. Join Nancy Kelly, Leah Boden, Amy Fiedler, Art Middlekauff and many more passionate speakers as we live and learn together. (The retreat fills up fast and a waiting list is a hopeful option!) Also, be on the lookout for our 2026 plans to celebrate 20 years of the LER.
Visit our website to sign up for our email list, join the waiting list, or read all the details for 2025 here.
Follow us on Instagram for interesting LER info or join our Facebook community.
Charlotte Mason Enrichment Conference
Strong families don’t happen by accident—they’re built with intention.
At this year’s Charlotte Mason Enrichment Conference, we’ll explore the Power of Habit in four key areas: The Mother, The Child, The Schoolroom, and The Heart.
Join us July 18–19 in Tulsa (or virtually!) as we learn from Cindy Rollins, Aimee Farquhar, Rachel Byrd, Mary Salas, and Melissa Stephany.
For details and tickets, visit www.charlottemasonenrichment.com/conference.
Do you have a Charlotte Mason conference coming up? Send us the information at mariah@commonplacequarterly.com, and we will share it in our monthly newsletter!
Something Borrowed
We found this lecture to echo a lot of Charlotte Mason’s ideas. Give it a listen!
I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading…
It’s tosh. It’s snobbery and it’s foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn’t hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.
Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian “improving” literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.
Wonder Sale!
Do you know that feeling when you’re cleaning out your closet and stumble upon some treasures from long ago? Cara has been cleaning out storage and just happened to stumble upon some boxes of magazines. We have 40 issues of our Wonder issue from our first year to add to our inventory, and we are adding them at a discount!
This issue has main articles from Marcia Mattern, Richelle Baburina, and Danita Platt. Other articles include Plutarch Simplified, Ancient Words, a study on Filippo Brunelleschi, Stray Gifts from Nancy Kelly, Ordo Amoris from Cindy Rollins, The Art of Keeping, and more!
Grab them while you can! No coupon code needed. $5 off will be applied at checkout.
May Recitation Printable
Get To Know The Editors
What’s Cara…
Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert and Every Home a Foundation by Phylicia Masonheimer
Eating: Poke bowls
Making: piles and piles of items as I declutter
Drinking: London Fog lattes
Listening to: Broadway Musical Soundtrack of The Great Gatsby with my daughter
Watching: Castle and kids’ sporting events
Learning: that I have to Frankenstein my own planner based on my ADHD tendencies.
What’s Mariah…
Reading: Miss Kopp Investigates (Kopp Sisters, #7)—I have loved this series! and Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by J.P. Moreland
Watching: The House of David series on Prime
Eating: pulled pork taco bowls
Making: a chicken enclosure
Drinking: lots of water
Thinking about: finding volunteer work with a vet for my son over the summer
Learning: parenting a young adult is the most humbling season of parenting yet. There’s a lot of exhorting going on, and it is a two-way street.