Habit training our children is a foundational principle of Charlotte Mason.
In her very Twenty Principles she lays it out:
“…we are limited to three educational instruments – the atmosphere of environment, the disciple of habit, and the presentation of living ideas.”
…By EDUCATION IS A DISCIPLINE, is meant the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body.”
(Vol. 1, Preface)
And what does that attention to habit get you? No less than…
“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days.”
Vol. 1, p136
Smooth and easy days sure sounds nice. Mason says the top 3 habits for a child are obedience, attention, and truthfulness. How are you on all those habits? Great? Oh yeah, me too. Totally.
The author of Laying Down the Rails for Yourself, Sonya Shafer, is also the creator/author of some of the most popular Charlotte Mason curriculums at the site Simply Charlotte Mason (Christian curriculums). She also has many free ebooks you can download, plus a blog and a podcast that is an audio version of the blog posts. Here, she’s written a small book on how to apply Mason’s habit training methods to yourself.
Shafer advocates on her blog that the top 3 habits for a homeschooling mom are orderliness, adhering to a regular routine, and the habit of a sweet, even temper. What, you didn’t know your temper was a habit? Now you know. That was a hard pill to swallow when I first heard this post on the podcast, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with her. If only agreeing were enough to make it suddenly appear in my life!
So how does one cultivate these habits…or any other? Especially with the new secular year approaching, a lot of us are reviewing our lives and habits, seeing how we can make the next year better than this one. Habits are the best place to focus, but it’s hard to reconcile all the different habit advice on the market (and the web). Believe me, I’ve read a lot of them.
What I like about this book is that it takes all the different analogies and “word pictures” that Mason uses to describe habits and breaks them down. Train tracks, well-trained riding horses, good investments, etc. Further, it follows Shafer as she changes her own health habits, applying each chapter to her story.
I found it encouraging and a different perspective than I’m used to in habit books, plus the bonus of further geeking out on CM. It also has a handy list of the habits Mason herself wrote about in her volumes in the back of the book. I read this over Shabbat, so I couldn’t take notes, but from what I recall, this was a secular resource, though her reasons for her habit change were religious.
Further reading: The other perspective-shifting habit book I’ve read was Gretchen Rubin’s Better than Before. However, if you struggle(d) with disordered eating, I do not recommend this book because I think it advocates a very disordered approach to eating as a “health” practice.
The other (obvious) further reading is the original Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Shafer, which is a lightly annotated and organized collection of all Ms. Mason’s quotes about habits in her Volumes. I was skeptical about buying a book full of quotes in books I already owned, but it’s organized neatly by topic, which makes it a great reference. It can also be read straight through, but it’s not the most engaging for a straight read, given the nature of the resource. I’m still reading it straight anyway, of course. Because that’s how I roll.
What’s your favorite habit resource? And what habits are you working on? Personally, I’m in the middle of trying to establish a regular routine.
Thank you, this is a lovely review for this book. I have purchased but haven’t read yet. I definitely am in the need to focus on my own habits so I can better lead my children in proper habits. I don’t want them to struggle as an adult as I often have due to poor habit training.