Sipping Pages Like Tea

Sipping Pages Like Tea
I'm excited. Charlotte Mason's writings are back in print. Now in a large format. My new set has arrived and I've been writing in the margins! I love my new books. As always I am sipping the pages slowly, like tea.

The company Simply Charlotte Mason has published the series anew. We authorized use of the copyright material on the covers and the front-matter of our pink volumes. They asked Dean to write an introduction for this new edition. Here's a piece of it: 

"The 21st century has brought changes in the way people access, read, and store books. The demand for printed books has diminished while the demand for e-books has increased. Sadly, we are no longer able to continue our printing of The Original Homeschooling Series. Yet thanks to kindred spirits at Simply Charlotte Mason, we have been able to pass the baton, so to speak, and partner with them to see The Original Homeschooling Series safely back in print."

I'm happy to announce that the beautiful old-fashioned font is intact. The pagination remains the same, too.

Both are what I've become so fond, and so familiar, reading. I like how my eye can land on the page on the exact geographical spot of the pages of my pink volumes.

This is good news for those of us who are involved with personal and group study.

It preserves footnoting and referencing so that we can all be literally on the "same page."

More good news. The print is larger (for my old eyes) and the ink is darker and easier to see.
How is it that I'm noticing gems I hadn't noticed before? Was this bit always here? I asked myself.

Re-reading is re-discovering. And Miss Mason's ideas are Christian-life-wisdom for people of all ages; even grandmothers.

Beautiful old-fashioned font is intact. Pagination is the same. A larger, darker size print. Yeah.

Peony taken on Dean's walk, like a flower in the painting.

These days, I share tips with my daughter long distance, over the telephone when she asks. She is home-teaching. What exhausting effort Sophia puts into her bright, rambunctious children.

Sometimes she gets muddled. I suspect a probable cause. She sees an endless scroll of questions on Facebook sites. Here young mothers seek specific advice on learning materials. Then, a myriad of well-meaning, but conflicting answers flood in.

"I think you might be experiencing information-overload," I tell her. "Reading a product review and also a couple pages of a well-written book is a calmer, more consecutive, and less confusing practice," I remind her.

Old oil painting. Gift from Dean. A bouquet that never withers.

In the days of her girlhood, I endeavored to live Charlotte Mason's advise. I rarely talked about the philosophy with my children.

Now Sophia is the home-teaching mom. She is learning what to "think" as well as what to "do."

It's always a joy (and relief) to hear what she has decided to apply, and that it is working satisfactory, if not splendidly well, as yet.

It takes time to see progress with anything newly adapted. I commend her hourly effort.

The pages of Miss Mason's books are a big help with child training, home atmosphere, and discipline.
They provide a guide to the kind of books that open the door of a child's mind and create that wonderful "intellectual glow" on the faces of the children that make all the time and effort worthwhile.

I enjoy laying one of my new Charlotte Mason books open where my lap-top computer used to rest before it died. (I'm in no rush to replace it.) I like to read 2 or 3 pages in an afternoon quiet-time. That's all.

I might pencil a note in the margin. Also, whatever especially speaks to me I copy into a hardcover-notebook.

See the bunny? It sleeps under the lilies and ate every lily leaf and parsley leaf there. Humph.

A slow reading is the only doable one for me. Even during my years of young motherhood, when I sometimes had to contend with a quickening sense of urgency in wanting to understand Miss Mason, I sipped the pages like tea.

I didn't worry about having to understand absolutely everything I read. Ideas have a way of growing on you. Weeks or months would go by when I let "thoughts think themselves."*1 I would go about the business of life. Ideas have the potency to stand up to simmering on the back burner.*2 The "life" part (the application of practical ideas) is where the most patience and persistence is required. Keep plodding, my friends.

"Steadfastness is, of course, of the essence of all Loyalties," says Miss Mason.*3 

19th century cradle, gift from Dean. I wonder whose baby slept in it.

Here's a link to the new series for sale at Simply Charlotte Mason. 

It contains hidden gems to uncover. Gems to grow-by.


End Notes
*1  Charlotte Mason, Parents & Children, pg 156 "Thoughts Think Themselves."
*2  Ibid, pg 34 "Now is it not marvelous, that recognizing as we do the potency of ideas, both the word and the [concept] it covers, enter so little into our thought of education?"
*3 Charlotte Mason, Ourselves, Bk 1, pg 123

Yours,

Karen Andreola

"A Philosophy of Education" is one of my favorite volumes and probably the most often quoted in "Companion."