Speaking of habits…new book questions

I was thinking about this too reading through the samples. My DC are very young 4 and 2 and it seems like I should wait a few years to begin this study. mrsmccardell, I like your idea of reading good (in my case picture) books for habit development. I wish I could find a good book list categorizing habits and picture books to go along with them. Maybe I should come up with this on my own – we’ll see. My kids still need pictures to go along with read alouds or they start to drift off into space.

It’s never too late to start forming habits, sltress. But to answer both the posted questions, some of the activities and stories in the new Rails companion book are geared for younger ages and some for older ages. We encourage the reader to use those elements that fit her family best, and to use the ideas as a starting point for her own adaptations and ideas.

Whatever you use for living examples, I would encourage you to go back to focusing on one habit for six to eight weeks rather than switch to a different one each week, Leslie. The readings are only one piece of the puzzle; you need time for the repetition to start forming new paths in the brain neurons. Don’t feel like you have to read something about the habit every day; in fact, that might be overkill. Work on practicing the habit every day for your main course, as it were, and add readings as tasty garnishes every once in a while, allowing plenty of time to digest the ideas between times.