Notes on the habits that Charlotte Mason encouraged parents to cultivate in their children.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the habit-training articles from the past few weeks. They are just a sampling of the thirteen articles and more than fifty Charlotte Mason quotes included in our new 2009 calendar journal, A Year of Smooth and Easy Days. [Continue reading 2009 Calendar Now Available …]
“Trust me, you’re not going to like it.”
My little girl’s big brown eyes peered solemnly across the table. “But I want to try it.”
“If you try it, you will have to sit there until you drink it all. Do you understand?”
Her eyes lit up. “Yes.”
“All right, you may try it, but you’ll have to drink the whole thing and it won’t taste good.”
My daughter learned two important lessons that day. [Continue reading Natural Consequences …]
“I nag them and I nag them, but it does no good.” Most of us can testify to the truth of that statement. But I never understood why nagging doesn’t work until I started to study Charlotte’s habit-training principles. Now it makes sense.
Let’s say that you’re trying to teach your child to hang up her coat when she takes it off. In order to make that action a habit, she needs to [Continue reading Why Nagging Doesn’t Work …]
I recently got a new printer for my computer, and as I was unpacking it I came upon a huge stack of user documents. My heart sank. The amount of information was a bit overwhelming. It was all helpful, to be sure; but the sheer volume of it all looked intimidating, and I didn’t know where to begin.
Then my gaze fell upon these welcome words: Quick Start. [Continue reading Habits Workshop Now on DVD! …]
Have you ever driven to the grocery store and, after you pulled into a parking place and shut off the car, you realized that you didn’t remember the drive there? It was almost as if you drove on auto-pilot. Whenever that happens to me, my next thought is, “Oh, I hope I didn’t run any red lights!”
I can still picture the textured wall, the shiny smooth top of the spinet piano, and the white kitchen timer with its seemingly unmoving dial. I was supposed to be practicing my piano lesson, but I probably spent half of the allotted time listening to that timer’s ceaseless ticking. I knew I was supposed to practice every day, but I usually waited until my mother told me to.
Then something happened that changed my whole outlook on practicing [Continue reading Her Own Idea …]
Last month we did a little deep cleaning around our house. Well, okay, not a little — a lot. At least it seemed like a lot. Cleaning can be hard work! By the time we had the furniture moved, the closet emptied, the light fixtures disassembled, and the curtain rods dismantled, I was tired. And only one thing that kept me going was that picture in my mind of how nice the room would look when we were done.
We moms will work hard if we know that the goal is worth it. [Continue reading Smooth and Easy Days …]
We know of several groups that are using Laying Down the Rails for their weekly or monthly book discussions this coming year. How exciting! I wish I could be a part of each group and hear all the comments. It is always so helpful to learn what other people are doing and how they are applying Charlotte’s habit-training principles.
If you will be leading one of those discussions, here are a few ideas to help get the comments started. [Continue reading Habits Book Discussion Tips …]
This week’s Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival contains a lot of encouragement and ideas on habit training. Be sure to check it out over at Barb-Harmony Art Mom’s Handbook of Nature Study blog.
To most of us, the idea of self-discipline comes with a mental picture of a ball and chain. We think of discipline as a taskmaster, forcing us to do what we don’t really want to do. Today let’s change that mental image. Today let’s consider how discipline brings freedom! [Continue reading Discipline Brings Freedom …]
1. Charlotte Mason encouraged us moms to concentrate on forming one habit at a time, keeping watch over those habits already formed. Soon it will become your habit to cultivate good habits in your children. [Continue reading 5 Ways to Cultivate Good Habits …]
We’ve been discussing the three words Charlotte Mason used to describe her approach to education: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life. The past three posts explored how the ideas that rule your life as a parent affect the atmosphere of your home. If you would like to, you can review that aspect of Education Is . . .
Today let’s talk a little about how Education is a Discipline. [Continue reading Education Is a Discipline …]
1. Forgetting that the child is a person.
One of Charlotte Mason’s chief principles is “The child is a person with all the possibilities and powers included in personality” (Vol. 1, p. 4). Each child is unique. Become a student of your child and work with him or her as an individual. [Continue reading 10 Mistakes CMers Should Avoid …]
Over the past few weeks, we’ve enjoyed a little jaunt through Charlotte Mason’s five categories of habits: decency and propriety, mental habits, moral habits, and physical habits. Today we’ll round out the five categories by looking at religious habits. [Continue reading Religious Habits …]
Since Laying Down the Rails, our new habits book, was released we have received many requests for a printed version. Today we’re happy to announce that Laying Down the Rails is now available in printed form! [Continue reading Habits Book in Print! …]
In our discussion on habits, we’ve already looked at the power of good habits, habits of decency and propriety, mental habits, and moral habits. Today we’ll take a look at physical habits. [Continue reading Physical Habits …]
This week we’ll continue our discussion of Charlotte Mason habits by
looking at moral habits. Moral habits are commonly thought of as character traits. But if you think about it, character is formed by habits. [Continue reading Moral Habits …]
Did you ever have a project that expanded? I started on a little project last year and just completed it last week. In the process it expanded into quite a large project! Here’s the story. [Continue reading Habits Book Now Available …]
Mental habits are different from Decency & Propriety Habits in that they require direct training, not just a good example. Here’s the list of Mental Habits, [Continue reading Mental Habits …]
Last week we explained that the habits Charlotte mentioned can be outlined in basically five broad categories: mental, moral, decency and propriety, physical, and religious.
This week, let’s take a look at Habits of Decency and Propriety. How’s that title for sounding intimidating? [Continue reading Habits of Decency and Propriety …]
I’ve made hundreds of decisions already today, and so have you. You just don’t remember them because they were habits. They didn’t require a lot of mental effort and stress. [Continue reading The Power of Good Habits …]
