adventure

If I could but make others see with my eyes how much this saying should mean to the educator! How habit, in the hands of the mother, is as his wheel to the potter, his knife to the carver––the instrument by means of which she turns out the design she has already conceived in her brain. Observe, the material is there to begin with; his wheel will not enable the potter to produce a porcelain cup out of coarse clay; but the instrument is as necessary as the material or the design. It is unpleasant to speak of one's self, but if the reader will allow me, I should like to run over the steps by which I have been brought to look upon habit as the means whereby the parent may make almost anything he chooses of his child. That which has become the dominant idea of one person's life, if it be launched suddenly at another, conveys no very great depth or weight of meaning to the second person––he wants to get at it by degrees, to see the steps by which the other has travelled. Therefore, I shall venture to show how I arrived at my present position, which is, from one of the three possible points of view––The formation of habits is education, and Education is the formation of habits.
~Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p.97


This week I've been busy doing some deep cleaning, sorting (getting rid of stuff), organizing and gleaning from the teachings of Charlotte Mason. I've also been prayerfully considering my own lack of habit in so many areas. I am so glad to finally have gotten my huge "book closet" in order though (major accomplishment). This is one of the two oversized hallway closets we have, which is lined with built-in bookshelves. It's where I keep all of my teacherly-type stuff... and it's also become a *catch-all* type closet over the last year, whenever I was doing those quick company's coming de-clutter clean-up type jobs. SO, it needed some serious help! And it's about done! Now I pray that I shall get my days in the right order, fully realizing that this will forever be a fluid (changing) work in progress!

I've also finally been able to sort through stacks of papers from over the last year, and we're now actually putting them into their appropriate notebooks! Now that this is getting done, I'm beginning to come out from under that defeated and overwhelmed feeling that's basicly held me back from accomplishing much lately in the way of our notebooking endeavors. The kids are having fun going through all of their previous and forgotten work/drawings etc. They've been inspired and happily working on new illustrations for their Bible notebooks. We're now aggressively planning to keep up with it weekly (filing), putting our papers/projects into their appropriate notebooks each Friday.

This leads me to my next determination. I recently finished reading A Charlotte Mason Education, and was greatly encouraged and challenged by it on many fronts. It's a light and enjoyable easy read. One particularly potent chapter for me was ch. 20, "The Formation of Habit". I've been working on this area of habit forming in my own life... and do see that I have long ways to go, realizing that my habit-forming efforts with my children will only be as effective as what I've first established within myself. And it is with this in my mind that I will require a bit more routine/scheduling around here. I'm not speaking of a rigidly structured, timed schedule (no, that would never work for me/us), but rather simply a more consistently recognized/written down and followed routine. I need it, Chris approves, and the kids need it... So, I've been writing out our weekly routines/ schedules in an MS Word doc. I downloaded here, from ToG.


Something that really struck a chord in me as I read A Charlotte Mason Education was the truth of the following. Catherine Levison writes;

To summarize, she (Charlotte Mason) saw the will of children as weak. Some examples are how they are given to be idle, tell fibs, and dawdle. The problem for the educator is to give the child control over his own nature. She teaches us that thoughts defile a man and thoughts purify a man. That we think as we are accustomed to think and we get into ruts. The outcome is that we do not deliberately intend to think these thoughts. She says the child is "immature of will, feeble in moral power, unused to the weapons of the spiritual warfare." (Vol.1, p. 109)

Charlotte's belief is that habits of thought will govern the man, even his character. You will find her often likening habits in the human life to rails for the train. The same way it is easier for the train to stay on the rails than to leave them, so it is for the child to follow lines of habit carefully laid down than to run off these lines. It is the very serious responsibility of the parent to lay down these tracks.

Habit is so powerful according to Charlotte that it will rule 99 in 100 of our thoughts and acts. This will happen whether you formed the habits or not. (emphasis mine)


Right now, I'm designing two seperate charts for us, one for weekly lessons and one for weekly chores, which I'll print out for each of the kids to have in their own notebooks. That way they can SEE what's expected of them each week, and actually check it off as it's done. They say that they'll appreciate this. Now that they're getting older (N will be 10 next month! T will be 7!) I'm wanting to establish more structure in their/our days... I'm finding that without a plan for us each to literally see and go by each day (and be accountable to), it's been so hard to stay on track, regardless of all of my/our good intentions.

I've fallen way behind in our AO scheduled readings for Years 1 and 2, mostly due to our spontaneous library finds and our following personal interests instead of doing AO first. But that's okay, I'm not going to sweat it... you know? I can't bring myself to tell N, "Put that book you're reading (and thoroughly absorbed in) down, and read this one instead!" Lately he's been immersed in the three Usborne history books we have, has nearly read them all cover to cover.

And so... I'm thinking that if I can get an *earlier* start/routine each day (rather than my usual late start), so that we can finish our "lessons" soon enough that the kids will have plenty of time still for all of their playing, own reading and interests, then our days will flow better. *sighs* ...begin, and begin again...

I have been greatly encouraged though, by the fact that our family has actually stayed on schedule with our Bible reading plan for this year so far. Yes, the most important habit is well established once again, as we're together reading the Word, listening to it and talking about it daily. So, maybe there's hope yet for our homeschooling/daily routines as well. I plan to have us on track for starting our other lessons next week.

I'll see if I can get Word pasted in here, and post our routine schedules as soon as I get them finished... Also, I'll share more about what notebooks we're keeping, and our Book of Centuries (we each have one of our own) too.

Moral Benefits of Wisdom

¹ My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,

² turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,

³ and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,

⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,

⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷ He holds victory in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

⁸ for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹ Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.

¹² Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,

¹³ who leave the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,

¹⁴ who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵ whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.