CPQ May Newsletter
It’s that time of year in our house when all my best-laid plans for school through the summer get derailed by camps and hang-out offers from friends who go to traditional school. It’s always fun to put everything on paper and then go back through and pare it down to just what needs to get done. All those social activities and memories being made count towards learning, too. I have decided this year that we will sing and read an additional classic novel and a history book necessary for setting the stage for next year’s subject. We will also maintain our sciences and maths as able. I am constantly over-planning and under-delivering, but I always appreciate the planning because it makes sure we get more done than we would without. And yet, as I assess each year, even with the pullbacks and not finished books, I really believe that the proverbial wide feast has been spread. Isn’t that the beauty of a Charlotte Mason education? A little here, a little there, when consistently applied, really does produce a well-spring of knowledge in many varied subjects.
Whether you are using your eraser to update plans or high-fiving yourself for finishing everything in order, I hope you are enjoying the spring songbirds outside your window and taking time to enjoy the process.
On The CPQ Blog
Float like a Cadillac, Sting like a Beemer
C is for Composer Study and Folksongs
Magazine Overview
In the mail: The Beauty issue
Ready for layout: Grand Conversations issue
In Copy-edit: Habit of Reading issue
Getting Year 6 into Asana: the first issue will be Fortitude
**The preorder list for our Grand Conversations issue closes May 31st!
CPQ Read Along
Our next CPQ read along will go along with our next magazine theme: Grand Conversations. When considering books, we wanted to find something that could show us, more than tell us, about the idea of Grand Conversations, and we landed on a poet: Annie Dillard.
From the Publisher: Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings. Veering away from the long, meditative studies of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard explores and celebrates moments of spirituality, dipping into descriptions of encounters with flora and fauna, stars, and more, from Ecuador to Miami. There is no writer quite like Dillard when it comes to the mysteries and wonder of the natural world.
Grab yourself a copy, read along with us at your own pace, and in a few months we’ll put a call out on Instagram and our newsletter for your thoughts about the book, and your favorite quotes.
We look forward to reading along with all of you!
Get To Know The Editors
What’s Cara…
Reading: Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Brushac
Thinking about: running as a metaphor for reading
Planning: a simpler home
Eating: Golden Wellness Soup from Eat This Book
Watching: Hidden Figures, The Avengers
Learning: how to forage for mullein and spruce tips
What’s Mariah…
Reading: Charles Dickens as an Agent of Change and Redwall (Book 1) to the boys and starting a handful of other books I am going to read this summer.
Listening to: Dolly Parton
Thinking about: what we’re going to do with our wild and precious summer
Cooking: Grilled Shrimp with mango-cucumber salsa from this cookbook
Watching: Hamilton
Learning: all things pertaining to the nervous system
What’s Sarah…
Reading: Beowulf, A Short History of the World, and Lord of the Rings aloud to the kids. I think I still have a year left to go…
Thinking about: Einstein’s theory of relativity. I still don’t get it.
Eating: Gongura Mutton (goat) Curry
Watching: Call of the Midwife
Learning: About WWI and how the outcome affected pretty much everything going forward (so much more than I realized).
Making: a quilt…of course!
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