The New Mason Jar with Cindy Rollins

As for Literature–to introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child’s intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find. Charlotte Mason, Vol. 6, Philosophy of Education, p. 51 Show Summary: Our guests on The New Mason Jar podcast today are Jeannette Tulis and Sherry Early How Sherry first heard about Charlotte Mason How Jeannette started her own home library that then turned into a lending library How did Sherry and Jeannette learn what books to collect and what not to bring home? Where are the best, budget-friendly places to look for good books to buy? How Sherry and Jeannette run their lending libraries What are a few of our guests’ favorite books?   Books and Links Mentioned: Episode 12: Charlotte Mason Study Groups with Jeannette Tulis Picture Book Preschool Thrift Store Shopping Without Leaving Your House – Bibioguides Private Lending Libraries List – Biblioguides The Card Catalogue – Plumfield and Paideia Jeannette’s Books About Books List Jeannette’s Favorite Books by Category List Jeannette’s Favorite Picture Book Authors List For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher All Through the Ages by Christine Miller Who Should We Then Read, Vols. 1 & 2 by Jan Bloom Anatole Series by Eve Titus Henry the Explorer from Purple House Press The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward David McPhail Don Freeman Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban Obadiah Trio by Brinton Turkle Deep in the Forest by Brinton Turkle Charlotte Zolotow Jan Wahl Little Bear Books by Else Holmelund Minarik Frog and Toad Books by Arnold Lobel Millicent Selsam Animals Do the Strangest Things by Arthur and Leonora Hornblow Carolyn Haywood The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook by Joyce Brisley Sugar Creek Gang Original Series by Paul Hutchens Clementine Books by Sarah Pennypacker The Cobble Street Cousins by Cynthia Rylant Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers Mothering by the Book by Jennifer Pepito Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble   Find Cindy and Sherry: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram Sherry Early’s Blog, Semicolon   When I get a little money, I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food. My luggage is my library. My home is where my books are. Erasmus

All our teaching of children should be given reverently, with the humble sense that we are invited in this matter to co-operate with the Holy Spirit; but it should be given dutifully and diligently. Charlotte Mason, Vol. 2, Parents and Children Show Summary: Our guests on The New Mason Jar podcast this week are Emily Raible and Tracy Fast How Tracy was homeschooled and came to learn about Charlotte Mason How Emily first heard about Charlotte Mason How Tracy got started using Charlotte Mason’s principles in teaching Sunday school How Emily began creating a Sunday school curriculum using Miss Mason’s principles What differences have been noticeable since implementing the new methods? What a typical Sunday school class looks like in Tracy’s church What Emily’s Sunday school class typically looks like Some more benefits of a Charlotte Mason Sunday school Books and Links Mentioned: For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay The Bible Story Handbook by John and Kim Walton The Burgess Bird Book by Thornton W. Burgess House of Humane Letters Simply Charlotte Mason AmblesideOnline Blue Sky Daisies publishing Example of nature coloring pages Emily mentioned Find Cindy: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram   Above all, do not read the Bible at the child: do not let any words of the Scriptures be occasions for gibbeting his faults. It is the office of the Holy Ghost to convince of sin; and He is able to use the Word for this purpose, without risk of that hardening of the heart in which our clumsy dealings too often result. Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Heather Bunting, former public school music teacher, joins Cindy Rollins on the podcast. They discuss the significance of music in a Charlotte Mason education and the benefits of learning solfege. They explore integrating culture and traditions through folk songs in homeschooling and highlight the importance of singing together as a family. The podcast also touches on the connection between nature and human life.

Without knowledge, Reason carries a man into the wilderness and Rebellion joins company. The man is not to be blamed: it is a glorious thing to perceive your mind, your reasoning power, acting of its own accord as it were and producing argument after argument in support of any initial notion; how is a man to be persuaded, when he wakes up to this tremendous power he has of involuntary reasoning, that his conclusions are not necessarily right, but rather that he who reasons without knowledge is like a child playing with edged tools? Charlotte Mason, Vol. 6, Philosophy of Education, p. 315 Show Summary: On the New Mason Jar today, Cindy chats with Dan Bunting, a pastor and father of 4 homeschooled children How Dan first learned about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy Did you have any concerns about using a Charlotte Mason curriculum initially? What Dan saw about this educational philosophy that impressed him What Dan’s role is in his family’s homeschool journey How Dan is continuing his own education as a father Do you think that a Charlotte Mason education is strong enough in STEM subjects? Dan’s best advice for fathers to support their homeschooling families   Books and Links Mentioned: Range by David Epstein Mind to Mind by Karen Glass H. P. Lovecraft Terry Pratchett The 5th Annual Back to School Conference Dan’s Episode on The Literary Life podcast Dan’s Reading the Psalms podcast   Find Cindy: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram   …habit is inevitable. If we fail to ease life by laying down habits of right thinking and right acting, habits of wrong thinking and wrong acting fix themselves of their own accord. Charlotte Mason, Vol. 6, Philosophy of Education, p. 101

In the things of science, in the things of art, in the things of practical everyday life, his God doth instruct him and doth teach him, her God doth instruct her and doth teach her. Let this be the mother’s key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl; not of her children; the Divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child. Because He is infinite, the whole world is not too great a school for this indefatigable Teacher, and because He is infinite, He is able to give the whole of his infinite attention for the whole time to each one of his multitudinous pupils. We do not sufficiently rejoice in the wealth that the infinite nature of our God brings to each of us. Charlotte Mason, Vol. 2, Parents and Children Show Summary: Today on the New Mason Jar, Camille Malucci is back on the podcast to talk with Cindy about a painting that had a great effect on Charlotte Mason How did Charlotte Mason come to view these frescoes? What are some of the scenes depicted in the frescoes in the Spanish Chapel, Santa Maria Novella? What was it about this painting that so impacted Miss Mason? Why is it so hard for us to grasp the concept of “the Great Recognition” that Mason talks about? How did Charlotte Mason see this recognition as helpful to resolving some of the discord in modernity?   Books and Links Mentioned: The 5th Annual Back to School Conference Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason Common Place Quarterly Magazine The CMEC Camille’s episode on the CMEC curriculum Mornings in Florence by John Ruskin The Story of Charlotte Mason by Essex Cholmondeley The Charlotte Mason Collection at the Armitt Museum Print of The Great Recognition from Riverbend Press   Find Cindy: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram   We must think, we must know, we must rejoice in and create the beautiful. And if all the burning thoughts that stir in the minds of men, all the beautiful conceptions they give birth to, are things apart from God, then we too must have a separate life, a life apart from God, a division of ourselves into secular and religious––discord and unrest. We believe that this is the fertile source of the unfaith of the day, especially in young and ardent minds…and the young man or woman, full of promise and power, becomes a free-thinker, an agnostic, what you will. But once the intimate relation, the relation of Teacher and taught in all things of the mind and spirit, be fully recognised, our feet are set in a large room; there is space for free development in all directions, and this free and joyous development, whether of intellect or heart, is recognised as a Godward movement. Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children

Commonplace Tales: Tales of Imagination––Stories, again, of the Christmas holidays, of George and Lucy, of the amusements, foibles, and virtues of children in their own condition of life, leave nothing to the imagination. The children know all about everything so well that it never occurs to them to play at the situations in any one of these tales, or even to read it twice over. But let them have tales of the imagination, scenes laid in other lands and other times, heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales in which they are never roughly pulled up by the impossible––even where all is impossible, and they know it, and yet believe. Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, Home Education Show Summary: Today on the New Mason Jar, Cindy and Dawn chat with friends Angelina Stanford and Timilyn Downey about the building blocks of stories in relation to a Charlotte Mason education How Angelina came to learn about Charlotte Mason Why Timilyn values the building blocks of story so much What are stories versus literature? What is the difference between how modernity sees art and stories and how the medievals saw them? What is wrong with the idea of literature as a mirror or a window? Some metaphors for approaching story Why are unit studies problematic in approaching a Charlotte Mason education? How can you learn the language of literature so that you can teach your children?   Last but not least, the fact that the story does not turn on children, and does not foster that self-consciousness, the dawn of which in the child is, perhaps, the individual “Fall of Man.” Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character   Books Mentioned: Northrop Frye C. S. Lewis J. R. R. Tolkien Harold Goddard “Meditation on a Toolshed” by C. S. Lewis Aesop’s Fables illus. by Jerry Pinkney He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands illus. by Kadir Nelson   Find Cindy, Angelina, and Timilyn: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram House of Humane Letters Angelina’s Facebook Angelina’s Instagram The Literary Life Online Conference 2023

The honor due to our country…is not to be confounded with the ignorant and impertinent attitude of the Englishman or the Chinese who believes that to be born an Englishman or a Chinese puts him on a higher level than the people of all other countries; that his own country and his own government are right in all circumstances, and other countries and other governments always wrong. But, on the other hand, still more to be guarded against, is the caitiff spirit of him who holds his own country and his own government always in the wrong and always the worse, and exalts other nations unduly for the sake of depreciating his own. Charlotte Mason, Vol. 4, Ourselves, Book 1 Show Summary: Today on the New Mason Jar, Dawn Duran is here to share about her new book A Reasoned Patriotism How did this book come about? What did Charlotte Mason have to say about patriotism and the teaching of a country’s history? What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism? What does this book include? How can mothers help develop this reasoned patriotism in the home? What does Dawn mean when she talks about critical thinking?   But before we teach children to criticise the institutions of their country, before we teach them to be critical of what is bad, let us teach them to recognize and admire what is good. Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education, pg. 126   Books and Links Mentioned: Ourselves by Charlotte Mason A Reasoned Patriotism by Dawn Duran   Find Cindy and Dawn: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram Dawn’s Swedish Drill Website Dawn’s Articles on Afterthoughtsblog.net It is good, doubtless, to be cosmopolitan in our tastes, liberal and unprejudiced in our judgments; but he who would love all the world must begin with the brother whom he has seen, and enlightened sympathy with other nations can coexist only with profound and instructed patriotism. Charlotte mason, Formation of Character

After all, what is the chief sign of growing old? Is it not the feeling that we know all there is to be known? It is not years which make people old; it is ruts, and a limitation of interests. When we no longer care about anything except our own interests, we are then old, it matters not whether our years be twenty of eighty. Anna Botsford Comstock, The Handbook of Nature Study Show Summary: Cindy and Dawn share a little about the upcoming 2023 discipleship course at Morning Time for Moms, The Uphill Road Dawn asks Cindy how the summer discipleship course started several years ago They share a few highlights of what moms can expect and some of their favorite features of this time together Books and Links Mentioned: The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock Bandersnatch by Diana Pavlac Glyer The Convivial Homeschool by Mystie Winckler Find Cindy and Dawn: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram Dawn’s Swedish Drill Website Dawn’s Articles on Afterthoughtsblog.net …what if the devitalization we notice in so many of our young people, keen about games but dead to things of the mind, is due to the processes carried on in our schools, to our plausible and pleasant ways of picturing, eliciting, demonstrating, illustrating, summarising, doing all those things for children which they are born with the potency to do for themselves? No doubt we do give intellectual food, but too little of it; let us have courage and we shall be surprised, as we are now and then, at the amount of intellectual strong meat almost and child [or mother] will take at a meal and digest at his leisure. Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education

Of the three sorts of knowledge proper to a child,–the knowledge of God, of man, and of the universe,–the knowledge of God ranks first in importance, is indispensable, and most happy-making. Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education Show Summary: Today’s guest is Bethany Mandel, Orthodox Jewish homeschooling mother of 6, co-author of the new book Stolen Youth, and conservative political commentator How Bethany first heard of Charlotte Mason education How Bethany juggled home educating and writing a book at the same time What a typical day looks like in Bethany’s homeschool How Bethany navigates the challenges of finding CM-friendly Jewish homeschool resources How do you see Charlotte Mason lining up with Judaism? Why reading stories from the past perspectives is so important today What Bethany and Karol’s book is all about Are these problematic ideas infiltrating the homeschool community?   Books and Links Mentioned: Towards a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason Stolen Youth by Bethany Mandel and Karol Markowicz Heroes of Liberty series edited by Bethany Mandel Stories for Children by Isaac Bashevis Singer Honey on the Page trans. by Miriam Udel The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor A Gentle Feast Curriculum   Find Cindy and Bethany: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram Right Books 4 Kids on Instagram Bethany’s Instagram

But the educator has to deal with a self-acting, self-developing being, and his business is to guide, and assist in, the production of the latent good in that being, the dissipation of the latent evil, the preparation of the child to take his place in the world at his best… Charlotte Mason, Home Education Show Summary: This week’s guest on The New Mason Jar is Ella Rice, is a homeschooling mom of 5 who uses the Mater Amabilis curriculum with her children How Ella first learned about Charlotte Mason Is Mater Amabilis only for Catholics? What made you choose to use Mater Amabilis over other curriculum choices? What are some of your favorite part of the curriculum? How does Mater Amabilis handle the sciences? Are there any possible pitfalls for parents using this curriculum? Books and Links Mentioned: Real Learning Revisited by Elizabeth Foss (this is the updated edition of the book Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home Ella mentioned) The Mater Amabilis Facebook Group Find Cindy and Dawn: Morning Time for Moms Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group Mere Motherhood Facebook Group The Literary Life Podcast Cindy’s Facebook Cindy’s Instagram Dawn’s Swedish Drill Website Dawn’s Articles on Afterthoughtsblog.net Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. Emily Buchwald