The New Mason Jar with Cindy Rollins

The 5th Annual Back to School Conference

They are the earth and the wind and the home and the heather and all the gracious commonplaces of human life and circumstance. They are children of the open air.

from The Joyous Book Singing games by John Hornby

S5E62: The Role of a Homeschool Dad with Dan Bunting Jul 20, 2023

Show notes

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

Dan's Episode on The Literary Life podcast

Dan's Reading the Psalms podcast

Find Cindy:

The 5th Annual Back to School Conference

…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

S5E61: The Great Recognition with Camille Malucci Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

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:

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:

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

S4E60: The Building Blocks of Story with Angelina Stanford and Timilyn Downey Jun 22, 2023

Show notes

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:

"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:

The Literary Life Online Conference 2023

House of Humane Letters

Angelina's Facebook

Angelina's Instagram

S4E59: A Reasoned Patriotism with Dawn Duran Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

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:

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

Bonus Episode: The Uphill Road – Summer Discipleship with Cindy and Friends May 19, 2023

Show notes

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:

A Gentle Feast Curriculum

…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

S4E58: An Orthodox Jewish Approach to Charlotte Mason with Bethany Mandel May 18, 2023

Show notes

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

Find Cindy and Bethany:

Right Books 4 Kids on Instagram

Bethany's Instagram

S4E57: The Mater Amabilis Curriculum with Ella Rice May 04, 2023

Show notes

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:

Brandy Vencel's Charlotte Mason Think Tank

Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.

Emily Buchwald

S4E56: Prioritizing Principles Over Practices with Alanna Hendon Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

The parent who sees his way––that is, the exact force of method––to educate his child, will make use of every circumstance of the child's life almost without intention on his own part, so easy and spontaneous is a method of education based upon Natural Law. Does the child eat or drink, does he come, or go, or play––all the time he is being educated, though he is as little aware of it as he is of the act of breathing.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education Show Summary:

Today on The New Mason Jar, Alanna Hendon returns to discuss more about using Charlotte Mason's ideas in the homeschool
How Alanna came to Charlotte Mason and learned more about her principles in-depth
The gift of the unplanned and prioritizing principles over practices
How do you see Charlotte Mason's philosophy playing out with individual children versus the group?
What a typical day looks like in Alanna's homeschool

Books and Links Mentioned:

Home Education by Charlotte Mason

AmblesideOnline

Koshka's Tales by James Mayhew

Episode 51: Homeschool Boys with Alanna Hendon

Find Cindy and Alanna:

Literary Life Online Conference – Shakespeare: The Bard for All and For All Time

Alanna's Instagram

S4E55: Q & A No. 6 with Cindy and Dawn Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

…of all the joyous motives of school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only one which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will hereafter live.

Charlotte Mason, School Education, Volume 3 Show Summary:

Cindy and Dawn tackle another round of listener questions on this episode of The New Mason Jar
How can a mom of several school age children keep up with pre-reading?
How do you implement use of a Book of Centuries?
What can be done about children complaining about morning time?

Books and Links Mentioned:

Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason

Find Cindy and Dawn: