About halfway through that workshop, as usual, I pulled out the picture cards so we could do a picture study. You should have seen that dad light up! He really seemed to enjoy describing the picture, and after that, it looked as if his attention struggles were past.

Later he stopped by the booth and confirmed what had happened. He had been feeling very weary and struggling to pay attention, but when I said, “Let’s use a different part of the brain” and distributed the picture cards, his mind seemed to turn on again. Looking at the picture refreshed his brain, and he was able to focus for the rest of the workshop.

Use Different Parts of the Brain

When we think about keeping our balance, this switching-to-a-different-part-of-the-brain technique can play an important role. Things get out of balance when too much weight or use is put on one aspect rather than distributed more evenly between many aspects. The same principle applies to how we use our brains and require our children to use their brains. Charlotte Mason encouraged us to be careful to use the various parts of our minds rather than overusing just one part. Following her advice can help us and our students pay attention more easily.

You can use this technique in a reactive way. If you notice your child’s attention starting to lag, set aside what he is working on, go do something totally different, then come back and his mind will be refreshed and ready to go once more. Usually a person struggles to pay full attention when that part of his brain has been over-fatigued or overused. Maybe he has been reading too long in one sitting, or she has been working long division for a lengthy stretch of time. Switching to use a different part of the brain gives the fatigued part an opportunity to rest, and it will be ready for more pretty quickly.

But you can also use this technique in a proactive way. When you are determining the order in which to do schoolwork each day, arrange the sequence to use different parts of the brain as you work through the subjects. In other words, don’t schedule all the reading and narrating back to back. You might read and narrate from one book, then go do a few minutes of copywork or work on an ongoing handicraft project, then some math, then a picture study or music study, then you might be ready to read and narrate from another book. By using different parts of the brain, you won’t over-fatigue any one part and it will be easier for your student to pay full attention.

Try it for yourself. Next time you feel your own attention start to lag, go do something or think about something as totally different as possible. Then come back to the original task and see how much easier it is to pay full attention. Better yet, when planning your day’s activities, try to organize them in a sequence that will use different parts of your brain.

You may be surprised to see how much this little technique will help you keep your balance.

Final Days to Save on The Stuff They Left Behind Portfolios

Looking together at a picture of a related artifact can add much to a history lesson, and it’s a great way to use a different part of the brain before you dive into the reading. Our new The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios are designed to make that process simple.

Choose from three eras—Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome—and receive 16 large, full-color photographs of important artifacts and architecture along with background information and discussion ideas for each.

This is the last week to order The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios at the introductory price. Special pricing lasts only through Thursday, May 23. Download the free sample and see how these collections can make history come alive for your students!

SCM at FPEA Convention in Kissimmee, Florida

This weekend we will be in Kissimmee, Florida, at the FPEA Homeschool Convention. Our booth is 501 in the exhibit hall. We will be bringing the new Stuff They Left Behind portfolios and the new Laying Down the Rails for Children two-book set, as well as our other resources. Plus, Sonya will be presenting these workshops:

• Laying Down the Rails: The Power of Good Habits in Your Homeschool—Friday, 10:30 AM
• The Early Years: Homeschooling Your Preschooler—Friday, 1:30 PM
• A Lesson from Frog and Toad—Friday, 3:40 PM
• Charlotte Mason and Her Methods—Saturday, 11:35 AM
• Learning with Living Books—Saturday, 1:30 PM

Stop by and say hello. We would love to see you there!

Keeping Your Balance: Switch Things Around originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

Charlotte well knew the advantages of forming those relations, of making friends that can be recognized across the room. In fact, she used that terminology to describe true learning. When describing how young readers should learn new words, she explained that they should recognize that new word anywhere, as the familiar face of a friend peeking out of a crowd.

She heartily believed that Education is the Science of Relations. It is only as we form connected relations with God and the people and things in this world—past and present—that we truly learn and grow and are educated.

Relating to History through Artifacts

One of the ways that she encouraged those relations was by giving her students The British Museum for Children, a wonderful book by Frances Epps that brought the artifacts from the past to her schools. The British Museum houses a lovely pageant of history in its rooms full of treasures; but Charlotte realized that not every child would be able to make a trip to see the artifacts for himself. So she shared with her students a collection of pictures and descriptions of those artifacts.

This little collection encouraged two types of relations. First, when students read about people in history, they were able to see the artifacts that those people actually handled. When they read about King Jehu, for example, they could see the actual obelisk of the Assyrian king who conquered him. They saw for themselves the inscription of Jehu kneeling and paying tribute to that king. That physical object from the past helped them form a relation with those historical people. And students were encouraged to draw the artifacts in their Book of Centuries to further strengthen that bond. Second, if the student later had an opportunity to go to the museum, that relation would be still further strengthened as the child recognized the familiar face of the obelisk, peeking out at him from the crowd.

“The study of ancient history which cannot be contemporaneous we approach through a chronologically-arranged book about the British Museum (written for the scholars of the P.U.S. by the late Mrs. W. Epps who had the delightful gift of realising the progress of the ages as represented in our great national storehouse). I have already instanced a child’s visit to the Parthenon Room and her eager identification of what she saw with what she had read, and that will serve to indicate the sort of key to ancient history afforded by this valuable book. Miss G. M. Bernau has added to the value of these studies by producing a ‘Book of Centuries’ in which children draw such illustrations as they come across of objects of domestic use, of art, etc., connected with the century they are reading about. This slight study of the British Museum we find very valuable; whether the children have or have not the opportunity of visiting the Museum itself, they have the hope of doing so, and, besides, their minds are awakened to the treasures of local museums” (Vol. 6, pp. 175, 176)

A relation formed. A familiar face. These are the hallmarks of truly knowing.

It is with this idea in mind that our new The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios were created. We like to think of them as our modern-day equivalent to the museum book that Charlotte used. We hope the collections of pictures, descriptions, and discussion questions will help your students (and you) form relations with the people of the past. May you soon recognize many familiar faces peeking out from the pages of history!

Special Pricing on Portfolios and Calendar Journals

Just a reminder that the special pricing on our new 2013-14 School Year Calendar Journal, A Growing Time, is good for only another day or two—through this Thursday, May 16.

The special introductory pricing on our new artifacts and architecture portfolios, The Stuff They Left Behind, will continue through May 23.

SCM in Nashville, Tennessee, This Weekend

This weekend SCM travels to Nashville, Tennessee, for the Teach Them Diligently Homeschool Convention. We will have The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios, the 2013-14 A Growing Time calendar journal, the habit-training companion, Laying Down the Rails for Children, and all of our other great resources available at our booth at special convention pricing.

Sonya will be presenting five workshops throughout the weekend:

• Charlotte Mason and Her Methods—Thursday, 8:00 PM
• Laying Down the Rails: The Power of Good Habits in Your Homeschool—Friday, 2:00 PM
• Looking Past the Fear—Friday, 3:30 PM
• Learning with Living Books—Friday, 6:30 PM
• Flexible Homeschooling with Planning and a Bit of Technology; Saturday, 2:00 PM

Stop by and say hello. We would love to see the familiar face of a friend!

The Familiar Face of a Friend originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

What a great idea!, I thought. The stuff that the ancient civilizations left behind tells a deep story. Those ancient artifacts and architecture add a rich layer of understanding about what life was like during the eras of history.

But too often they are presented to students as tiny pictures all packed together on a two-page spread with a mishmash of text that requires a degree of unraveling to figure out, let alone form a personal connection with them. How much better it would be to do as my friend was doing: present one artifact at a time, as a single large picture, related to the history account as it is read, and with plenty of time to really look at it and discuss it.

And that is how The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios were born.

The Stuff They Left Behind Portfolios

Each portfolio collection consists of sixteen large, full-color photographs of important artifacts and architecture from an era in history. The photographs are printed on heavy paper, just like our popular Picture Study Portfolio pictures. Plus, a handy booklet is included to provide Leading Thoughts with interesting background information and discussion questions that will encourage your students to look closely and carefully. And all of the beautiful pictures and helpful tips come in an attractive, sturdy portfolio that will keep each era’s treasures organized and handy.

Three collections are currently available: from the days of Ancient Egypt, from the days of Ancient Greece, and from the days of Ancient Rome.

You can use The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios to enhance any history curriculum and to study the art of ancient times. Most of all, they will help your children form more fascinating connections with the story of history.

The Stuff They Left Behind portfolios are available at a special introductory price through May 23. Download the free sample and see how you can add another layer of richness in your history studies through really looking at the fascinating stuff that people of long ago left behind!

Publisher’s Note: We don’t usually announce two new resources back-to-back, but we’ve had so many requests for this new resource that we wanted to let you know about it just as soon as possible! Rest assured, we are still dedicated to giving you more teaching tips and encouragement than product announcements. We’ll get back to our regular schedule next week.

A Growing Time Calendar Journal on Special

The new 2013-14 school year calendar journal, A Growing Time, is still available at the special introductory price through May 16.

We want to see our children grow. Yet sometimes we run ourselves ragged because we forget the basic principles of growth. We spend all of our time and effort trying to force-feed learning and control growth on our own time-table.

This year take a breather and be refreshed by some basic truths about growing. Handy calendars, encouraging articles, room for journaling, and inspiring quotes will help you stay focused on what is most important during the upcoming year. All with a gentle Charlotte Mason touch.

SCM in Texas and Pennsylvania this Weekend

It’s a big traveling week for us as we head to two great homeschool events for the weekend. SCM will have a booth in the exhibit halls of the Home School Book Fair in Arlington, Texas, and the CHAP Homeschool Conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Stop by our booths to get your hands on the new Stuff They Left Behind portfolios, the new A Growing Time calendar journal, the new 2-book set, Laying Down the Rails for Children, and all of our other great resources. Everything in our booth will be available at special convention pricing.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Stuff They Left Behind originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

It was refreshing to see the results of a winter’s growth in some places; but other plants were still awaiting the right time to blossom. What a picture of a growing time!

We’ve been talking about growth over the past several months, on and off. It all started with a Lesson from Frog and Toad and grew from there (pun intended). The main encouragement we want to give you is to do your part—cultivate the atmosphere, pull the weeds, and nourish the plants—and then relax and trust the process. Don’t try to force growth in your children on your own time-table.

A New Calendar Journal for You

And now we’re pleased to announce a new resource that will come alongside you for a whole year and gently remind you of those helpful principles. A Growing Time is the new Charlotte Mason-style personal calendar journal for the 2013-14 school year.

This handy calendar will take you from July 2013 through June 2014 with encouraging articles, real examples, extra Charlotte Mason quotes, and plenty of room to write your personal notes. The monthly articles will give you gentle reminders about growing, like

• The gardener’s attitude greatly affects the growing atmosphere.
• It’s easiest to pull weeds when they are small.
• Sometimes a weed is just a displaced plant.
• The best food to help a mind grow is ideas.
• Growth often occurs way down deep where we can’t see it.

The year-at-a-glance calendar, monthly calendars, looking-ahead thumbnail calendars, monthly divider tabs, and two-page spread each week will help you stay organized.

Plus, special touches—like areas to jot down gentle reminders, prayer requests, and books you are reading—will combine to help you create a keepsake journal of your year. All with a gentle Charlotte Mason touch.

A Growing Time with Charlotte Mason, 2013-14 School Year Edition is available at a special introductory price through May 16. (The 2014 Calendar Year Edition will be available later this year.)

This year take a breather, regain your perspective, and experience a growing time with Charlotte Mason!

SCM at Teach Them Diligently Convention in Spartanburg, South Carolina

This weekend, May 2–4, Simply Charlotte Mason will be at the Teach Them Diligently Homeschool Convention in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Sonya will be presenting these five workshops:

• Charlotte Mason and Her Methods—Thursday, 8:00 PM
• Learning with Living Books—Friday, 2:00 PM
• Laying Down the Rails: The Power of Good Habits in Your Homeschool—Saturday, 9:30 AM
• Flexible Homeschooling with Planning and a Bit of Technology—Saturday, 3:30 PM
• Looking Past the Fear—Saturday, 5:00 PM

Stop by and say hello. We’d love to see you there!

New Calendar Journal: A Growing Time originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

A few hours later, as I was helping our youngest child get ready for bed, I walked into her bedroom and witnessed another “growth surprise”: she has definitely outgrown her pajamas! When did that happen?

The truth is that growth is occurring all around us. We just don’t always see it, because it is happening down deep, out of sight, like the flowering vine. It had been growing for weeks, preparing to blossom. But I could not see that growth until the bud finally opened into a bloom.

Maybe one of your children is like that vine. Remember, just because you can’t see a dramatic change in him (yet) doesn’t mean he’s not growing on the inside. Be patient. Keep a watchful eye for weeds that might choke his growth and make sure he is getting the full benefit from the sunshine and rain of great ideas. He’ll grow under the surface, and one day you will see the beautiful result burst into full bloom.

While You’re Waiting

But what do you do while you’re waiting? Sometimes it seems like that is the hardest part: waiting to see the results of the growth that is happening down deep. That was Toad’s problem.

Do you remember the story of Frog and Toad in which Toad wanted a garden? But once he planted his seeds, he became so anxious that he fretted and fussed himself into exhaustion, waiting for those seeds to sprout. To him, the waiting was “very hard work.”

We chuckle at Toad, but in some ways we sympathize with him too. Sometimes waiting can be very hard work. So here are some ideas to help while you are waiting to see signs of growth.

• Remind yourself that you cannot force growth on your own timetable. When you try to control a child’s pace of growth, you run yourself ragged and end up frustrating both yourself and your child. Relax. Let it go.
• Concentrate on the things you can control: providing the right atmosphere, pulling the weeds, and nourishing the plant. God made plants and children to grow in the proper setting, so focus on providing that setting and leave the growth itself up to God and nature. Trust the process.
• Celebrate any growth you see in your child. Make a note of that word any. You may be hoping for and watching for growth in her reading skills. Don’t become so focused on that one area that you miss the flowers that may be blossoming in other areas. She might be growing in her ability to control her temper or in her acceptance of new foods or in her ear for music. Watch for any growth and celebrate it!

Growth is what life is about. Growth is what education is about. Both are very individualized processes with very unique results. May you find much to appreciate about each beautiful plant that is growing, even now, in your home.

If these reminders about growth have been encouraging to you, watch for the announcement next week of our new calendar journal. It’s all about A Growing Time.

Revised Book Lists Now Posted

Those of you who are looking forward to the new editions of our first three history/geography/Bible lesson plan handbooks will be happy to know that we have finalized the book selections and posted the revised book lists. Our goal is to have the new editions of all three studies available before fall 2013, but we thought you might like the book lists now so you can take advantage of sales and convention pricing to start collecting the titles you will need. Use the links below to view the revised book lists and the additional page of Suggestions for Where to Find the Books for your convenience.

• Revised Genesis through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt book list
• Revised Joshua through Malachi and Ancient Greece book list
• Revised Matthew through Acts and Ancient Rome book list

We are revising these three handbooks because they all use the Oxford First Ancient History book, which has gone out of print. The current handbooks will still be available in e-book form for those of you who have that book and want to continue using it. With the addition of the new revisions, everyone will be able to use whichever lesson plans fit their families best.

Final Days to Save on Laying Down the Rails for Children

The special introductory sale for our newest resource, Laying Down the Rails for Children, is drawing to a close. This brand new habit-training companion for the whole family is filled with more than 400 pages of stories, Bible passages, poems, activities, quotations—living ideas that will nestle into your children’s minds and motivate them toward the habits of good character.

Laying Down the Rails for Children is available at a special introductory price online through Thursday, April 25. If you don’t already have the original Laying Down the Rails book, be sure to check out the special bundle pricing available when you get both titles. Special pricing will continue to be available at our booth at the homeschool conventions that we will be attending.

While You’re Waiting originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

Charlotte Mason believed that. Children learn in order to grow, not just to know. Growth is the goal of true education—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially. We’ve talked a bit before about our role in helping our children grow: provide an atmosphere that welcomes growth, pull the weeds of bad habits, and feed the plant with nourishing ideas. Today, with the reminders that come with spring, let’s look at another aspect of growing.

I once heard a gardener describe a weed as a displaced plant. The same flowering bush that might be spurned in one place can be welcomed with open arms in another place. Take honeysuckle, for instance. Its fragrant flowering vines can cover unsightly walls in a garden and add beauty; but find one in a field, left to run wild, and it becomes an invasive pest.

So it is with people. What would be considered a valuable character trait when directed in the right way can become an annoying problem if left to run wild. When we think about pulling the weeds in order to help our children grow and thrive, we would do well to remember this principle.

“Every quality has its defect, every defect has its quality. Examine your child; he has qualities, he is generous; see to it that the lovable little fellow, who would give away his soul, is not also rash, impetuous, self-willed, passionate, ‘nobody’s enemy but his own’ ” (Vol. 2, pp. 67, 68).

A child who has a loving, sensitive heart may naturally consider others and try to do what will make them feel loved. But let that characteristic “go to seed,” as it were, and that child may be easily swayed from doing right because he so desperately wants to please others.

Even good traits and habits can run amuck if allowed to take the wrong direction.

The Flip Side

Now, if we think about that principle from the flip side, it will give us some direction and hope when we’re dealing with bad habits—habits we would consider weeds. When we are faced with a child’s bad habit, we can look for the corresponding good habit that has run amuck. Charlotte gave a great example of a child who had a bad habit of eavesdropping and sticking her nose into everybody else’s business.

“An Inquisitive Child.—Susie is an inquisitive little girl. Her mother is surprised and not always delighted to find that the little maid is constantly on voyages of discovery, of which the servants speak to each other as prying and poking. Is her mother engaged in talk with a visitor or the nurse—behold, Susie is at her side, sprung from nobody knows where. Is a confidential letter being read aloud—Susie is within earshot. Does the mother think she has put away a certain book where the children cannot find it—Susie volunteers to produce it. Does she tell her husband that cook has asked for two days’ leave of absence—up jumps Susie, with all the ins and outs of the case. ‘I really don’t know what to do with the child. It is difficult to put down one’s foot and say you ought not to know this or that or the other. Each thing in itself is harmless enough; but it is a little distressing to have a child who is always peering about for gossipy information.’ Yes it is tiresome, but is not a case for despair, nor for thinking hard things of Susie, certainly not for accepting the inevitable.

“The Defect of her Quality.—Regarding this tiresome curiosity as the defect of its quality, the mother casts about for the quality, and, behold, Susie is reinstated. What ails the child is an inordinate desire for knowledge, run to seed, and allowed to spend itself on unworthy objects” (Vol. 2, p. 176).

There it is. The basic “plant,” as it were, is curiosity. Allowed to run wild, it can become a bad habit. But cultivated in the right direction, it can add much enjoyment to life and motivation to learning. So Charlotte encouraged Susie’s mother to introduce some delightful topic of study to her daughter that would give her a worthy object for her curiosity. Then have a little talk about “the unworthiness of filling one’s thoughts with trifling matters so that nothing really interesting can get in” (Vol. 2, p. 177).

Every quality has its defect, every defect has its quality. Sometimes a weed is just a displaced plant.

Save on Laying Down the Rails for Children

The special introductory sale for our newest resource, Laying Down the Rails for Children, is in full swing! This brand new habit-training companion for the whole family is filled with more than 400 pages of stories, Bible passages, poems, activities, quotations—living ideas that will nestle into your children’s minds and motivate them toward the habits of good character.

Laying Down the Rails for Children is available at a special introductory price through April 25. If you don’t already have the original Laying Down the Rails book, be sure to check out the special bundle pricing available when you get both titles.

SCM in Rochester, Minnesota, for MACHE Conference

This weekend, April 19–20, SCM will be in Rochester, Minnesota, for the MACHE Homeschool Conference. Stop by our booth in the exhibit hall (#622/624), say hello, and get a closer look at our resources, including the new Laying Down the Rails for Children. Plus, Sonya will be presenting these five workshops throughout the two days:

• The Early Years: Homeschooling Your Preschooler—Friday, 10:30 AM
• Laying Down the Rails: The Power of Good Habits in Your Homeschool—Friday, 1:30 PM
• Looking Past the Fear—Saturday, 9:00 AM
• Learning with Living Books—Saturday, 1:30 PM
• Fine Arts the Charlotte Mason Way—Saturday, 3:00 PM

A Displaced Plant originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

Many people have told us that these habit-training concepts along with the practical tips found in the award-winning book, Laying Down the Rails, have changed their families and homes! What a blessing!

I love to present the workshop based on those concepts at homeschool conventions across the country! And it seems like whenever I talk about laying down the rails of good habits, I usually get two questions:

Q: Should I focus on one habit per person or one habit for the whole family?
A: It’s easier to keep your sanity if you focus on one at a time for the whole family. Yes, the current habit may be easier for some children than for others, but that dynamic will probably shift with the next habit focus you choose. And it never hurts to encourage a child to continue to do well.

Q: Where can I find good books and other material that will motivate my children toward these good habits?
A: Have we got an exciting announcement for you! Read on.

Laying Down the Rails for Children

SCM is pleased to announce Laying Down the Rails for Children: A Habit-Training Companion, a wonderful collection of classic stories, beautiful poems, Bible passages, life activities, and inspiring quotations to use in habit training. It’s as if the author, Lanaya Gore, has handed us motivation at our fingertips!

This two-volume companion to the original Laying Down the Rails covers all 60+ habits that Charlotte Mason recommended. It takes you by the hand and helps you put into practice the ideas that Charlotte presented, one at a time.

With Laying Down the Rails for Children, you will

• Feed minds with the wonderful ideas nestled in classic stories, beautiful poems, Bible passages, and powerful quotations.
• Inspire hearts to practice the habit you are focusing on by keeping it in the forefront of your family’s thoughts, discussing practical aspects of it, and enjoying pointed life activities around it.
• Encourage action, using the handy Parent Prep section to guide your thoughts and outline a personal plan for your family to practice the habit of your choice.
• Build habits for years to come!

Laying Down the Rails for Children is available at a special introductory price through April 25. If you don’t already have the original Laying Down the Rails book, be sure to check out the special bundle pricing available when you get both titles. Download the free sample and see how Laying Down the Rails for Children will become your treasured companion as you lay down the rails of good habits in your family!

SCM in Peoria, Illinois, and Rochester, Minnesota

Our next convention stop will be at the APACHE Homeschool Convention this weekend, April 12–13, in Peoria, Illinois. We’re looking forward to spending time with some of you there!

Next weekend, April 19–20, we will be at the MACHE Homeschool Convention in Rochester, Minnesota. SCM will have a booth in the exhibit hall and Sonya will be presenting these workshops:

• The Early Years: Homeschooling Your Preschooler—Friday, 10:30 AM
• Laying Down the Rails: The Power of Good Habits in Your Homeschool—Friday, 1:30 PM
• Looking Past the Fear—Saturday, 9:00 AM
• Learning with Living Books—Saturday, 1:30 PM
• Fine Arts the Charlotte Mason Way—Saturday, 3:00 PM

Laying Down the Rails for Children originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

But there is another key to forming a new habit, and this key is just as important, if not more so: we must have sufficient reason for wanting to form the new habit. Something or someone has to motivate me, to cause me to want to start getting out of bed at that time!

Making It Worthwhile

Charlotte Mason recognized that fact:

“ ‘Sow a habit, reap a character.’ But we must go a step further back, we must sow the idea or notion which makes the act worth while” (Vol. 6, p. 102).

You see, ideas are powerful motivators! When the seed of an idea takes root in our minds or our children’s minds, it can produce a bountiful harvest. We begin to imagine what that idea might look like in our own lives, and we feel the stir of emotions as we dream of what the future could hold down that path.

We read a book or a blog on making our homes welcoming sanctuaries of beauty and peace. Our hearts are stirred with the desire to make it so for ourselves, and we begin to imagine what that might look like in our own surroundings. Those thoughts grow into pondering what it would take to make that image a reality. And now we have deep-seated motivation to start making changes and forming a new habit or two in order to live out that idea.

Or our children read a well-written story about a woman who would not be content but kept grasping for more and more until it all vanished, and they ponder that idea the next time they see a toy catalog or create a birthday list. And the habit of contentment starts to grow.

Or they hear a beautiful poem about God’s creation and the enjoyment one can find outdoors, and they begin to desire that enjoyment for themselves and think about how they might spend more time among nature the next day and the next. The habit of outdoor life is taking root.

The fact is that you never know when an idea will nestle in and start to grow, but as Charlotte reminded us, we would be foolish to leave it to chance. “What do parents sow? Ideas” (Vol. 2, p. 29). As parents, we should be sowing those good, loving, and noble ideas into our children’s hearts regularly, intentionally, to motivate them toward good habits.

Next week we will tell you about an exciting new resource to help you do just that: “sow the idea or notion which makes the act worth while.” You won’t want to miss this!

SCM in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Peoria, Illinois

We’re looking forward to seeing some of you in Ohio and Illinois over the next couple of weeks!

This weekend, April 4–6, Simply Charlotte Mason will be at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Stop by booth #1829/1831 and say hello!

Next weekend, April 12–13, we will be at the APACHE Homeschool Convention in Peoria, Illinois. We would love to see you there!

The Second Key to Good Habits: Motivation originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

Afterward, during an interview, we learned that they practice seven or eight hours per day. In a way it’s not surprising. We all expect that repetition of physical movements will make those actions easier to perform. If we didn’t believe that fact, there would be no soccer moms.

But what we often miss is the fact that what is true in the sports world is also true in the everyday habit world.

Habits Come By Practice

As Charlotte Mason explained:

“We know this well enough as it applies to skating, hockey, and the like. We say we want practice, or, are out of practice, and must get some practice; but we do not realise that, in all the affairs of our life, the same thing holds good. What we have practice in doing we can do with ease, while we bungle over that in which we have little practice.

“This is the law of habit, which holds good as much in doing kindnesses as in playing the piano. Both habits come by practice” (Vol. 4, Book 1, p. 208).

So the first key to forming a good habit is to repeat that action as often as possible. God made our brains to form neuron paths for each action. The more often we repeat an action, the more permanent becomes that neuron path until, eventually, it fires without our conscious effort—it becomes a habit.

Just as performing certain actions on the volleyball court can become second nature to a child, so can opening the door for his mother and sisters or obeying his parents the first time they speak. Practice makes permanent. Repetition makes habitual.

See that your children have lots of opportunities to repeat the habit your family is focusing on for a full six to eight weeks and you will start to see the results of good practice.

“And this is a delightful thing to remember, every time we do a thing helps to form the habit of doing it; and to do a thing a hundred times without missing a chance, makes the rest easy” (Vol. 4, Book 1, pp. 208, 209).

Next time we’ll look at the second key to forming good habits.

SCM at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio

Next week, April 4–6, Simply Charlotte Mason will be in the exhibit hall at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Yes, we will have the new Picture Study Portfolios for Titian, Van Gogh, and Monet available there; but we encourage you to come by early, because those items sell out quickly!

You’ll also be able to get your hands on other new releases, such as the printed book and audiobook of Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors; our other new audiobooks, Boy of the Pyramids and The Story of Thomas A. Edison; and our new language arts resources, A Child’s Copybook Reader, Volumes 1–3, and Print to Cursive Proverbs.

So stop by booth #1829/1831. We’d love to see you there!

The First Key to Good Habits: Repetition originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.

We are happy to announce that the Impressionists have arrived! Emily Cottrill has once again done a superb job of selecting beautiful works of art and sharing interesting Leading Thoughts. And this time she has surpassed herself by writing original biographies for Monet and Van Gogh that are captivating, interesting, and completely family-friendly.

In addition, the rich, vibrant colors of Titian’s work are now available in a Picture Study Portfolio too. This prominent artist, who lived at the same time as Michelangelo, is another “must have” in the art appreciation line-up.

All three new Picture Study Portfolios—Titian, Monet, and Van Gogh—are available in printed or electronic download format. And additional prints are available for classrooms, co-ops, or families who want each child to have his or her own beautiful copy. We will also have the printed portfolios at our booth at the homeschool conventions we will be attending; but be forewarned that they sell out quickly at those live events, so don’t delay.

Make plans now to give your children the beauty of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Titian’s The Virgin and Child, and Monet’s Waterlilies!

Monet, Van Gogh, and Titian Are Here! originally appeared on Simply Charlotte Mason.