Week 7 (2023)
boys in school, Charlotte Mason & Maria Montessori, beauty by necessity & intergenerational wealth, Flannery's fiction & goodbyes, child benefits, the housing market & what homes are for
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reading: books
Animal Farm, George Orwell — audio — Finally got around to this classic.
Before Curriculum, Amy Fischer — paperback — There’s a million and one resources on Charlotte Mason philosophy and implementation, but after coming across the essay Persons Not Products (shared previously), I bought this book of hers. A very simple and helpful primer!
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
Intergenerational Wealth: A Vision Of Property And Stewardship (Part 1) — Mark T. Mitchell, Public Discourse — “Stewardship applies to a wide array of goods… This include various forms of private property—including a house, a business, an automobile, or tools—but it also includes cultural gifts such as stories, songs, and celebrations. It includes institutions and practices that have been developed over time and passed from one generation to the next.”
(related: Part 4 in this series, shared previously. Wanting to get through all of them.)
Child Benefits Are Universal Benefits — Leah Libresco Sargeant, National Review — “Children strain family life and finances at the beginnings of the parents’ careers, when the family has the least ability to absorb the shock.”
(related: Markets And The Strangulation Of The American Family, shared previously.)
Seniors Have Large Suburban Houses To Sell. Does Anyone Want Them? — Ben Abramson, Strong Towns — “…the solution involves building more of the types of housing that today’s and tomorrow’s buyers want. More multi-family structures. More attached dwellings. More ADUs. But too many of these missing-middle solutions are hamstrung by zoning laws, which often dictate suburban-style, single-family homes, even in urban cores.”
What's A Home For, Anyway? — Bethany Joy — “Consider the resources you invest in the place you call home, and then ask yourself, “What’s the point? Why do I do this? Why do I make a home for myself and, perhaps, others?””
(I look forward to reading through her successive posts exploring themes of home and hospitality.)
Boys Aren't The Problem — Sally Thomas, Plough — “Anxiety about academic skill sets and standardized assessment has meant that an educational trajectory whose endpoint is college entrance has worked its way steadily down, from first grade into kindergarten, from kindergarten into preschool.”
(related: Schools Are The Wrong Shape For Boys, shared previously.)
The Ordered Liberty Of Montessori Education — Marsha Familiaro Enright, Law & Liberty — “It creates young human beings that are remarkably self-disciplined, purposeful, and self-confident. Moreover, they have an independent, hardworking, and entrepreneurial mindset, and are socially adept and able to productively collaborate with others. This is so important for the business of a free society. They are superbly self-regulated, something desperately needed today among our young.”
On Our Need To Be Displaced — Christina Bieber Lake, Comment — “I have devoted my career to explaining why we must think through fiction and allow ourselves to be opened and examined by it. Good fiction isn’t an argument; it’s an invitation to accurate and redemptive self-knowledge. “The Displaced Person” invites us to consider how we fearfully create illusory selves bolstered by our tribal affiliations.”
(related: Karen Swallow Prior & Jessica Hooten Wilson discuss Flannery, shared previously.)
Good Termination — Rachel Rim, Ekstasis — “It is striking how much time Jesus dedicates to saying goodbye to his disciples.”
When You Feel Like Your World Is Collapsing — Claire Swinarski, Letters From A Catholic Feminist — “That’s the point of the banner, and that’s the point of poetry, and that’s the point of a fantastic novel, and that’s the point of the Grand Canyon, and that’s the point of any of it.”
(related: A Year Of Building Optimism: 365 Days Of Beautiful Modern Buildings.)
Prioritizing Money Over Marriage, Today's Parents Are Making A Big Mistake — Alysse ElHage, Institute For Family Studies — “Rather than being a foundational part of adulthood, as it was in the past, marriage today is seen as more of what sociologist Andrew Cherlin described as a “capstone” to a successful adult life, one that comes only after individuals have achieved a measure of educational and economic success.”
Slouching Toward Calvary — Dwight Lindley, Dappled Things — “My abstract mind is painfully alienated from the concrete fact of my temporal, embodied existence. I’ve got my hands full.”
watching/listening
6 Books to Read as a (New!) Classical Charlotte Mason Mom — The Commonplace — I revisited The Abolition Of Man last year (Tsh Oxenreider said she reads it every year), and recently went through the Whole Brain Child. Three others were already on my list to read eventually, and the remaining one looks great, too.
Homeownership Tips, Generational Wealth, and Resisting Greed — With The Perrys — Good stuff to go along with the essay at the top.
Continuing On:
Managing Your Fertility with Bridget Busacker — Episodes 38-40 — Why you need an instructor, living integrated, and Theology Of The Body (especially enjoyed that one as I’m currently, slowly, going through Christopher West's accessible explainer.)
Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer — Bonus Episode 42.5 — With the founder of Embrace Grace.
using: product, tip, resource
Jakob (and Lukas) helped prep the crayons for breaking & melting into chubby recycled crayons.
DIY Scalp Scrubs and Clarifying Shampoos.
remembering
One Year Ago:
Two Years Ago:
This Week:
Valentine mail & firefighter hats. Staying hydrated all winter through a sun-up to sun-down intake of hot tea. Planning ideas for garden spacing & new items arriving for seed starting. Coconut cake (with fluffy whipped cream/mascarpone icing)! Getting a tease of above-freezing temperatures & warm sun. The particular pleasure of extended conversation time when all 3 boys fall asleep in their carseats after a full Sunday — so you just keep driving.