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Friday, September 12, 2014

Teaching Your Children Good Habits ~ Charlotte Mason Series


"The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days…"

The thought of home education can be daunting to many mothers. Perhaps they are imagining children hanging from the ceiling fans, running circles around the learning center and living a sloppy, tangled, disorderly life. The truth can be anything but that when mother puts the actual training of her children at the center of home education. These important lessons on character building to instill good/godly habits will bless all other areas of the parent's and child's life. Because you have created an orderly environment (and our magnificent God is a God of order), your home is now a fertile ground for education! You will be able to successfully teach and your children will successfully learn.


"The habits of the child produce the character of the man, because certain mental habitudes once set up, their nature is to go on forever unless they should be displaced by other habits. Here is an end to the easy philosophy of, 'It doesn't matter,' 'Oh, he'll grow out of it,' "He'll know better by and by,' 'He's so young, what can we expect?' and so on. Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend."


"Consider how laborious life would be were its wheels not greased by habits of cleanliness, neatness, order courtesy; had we to make the effort of decision about every detail of dressing and eating, coming and going, life would not be worth living. Every cottage mother knows that she must train her child in habits of decency, and a whole code of habit causes a shock to others which few children have courage to face. Physical fitness, morals and manners, are very largely the outcome of habit; and not only so, but the habits of the religious life also become fixed and delightful and give us dues support in the effort to live a godly, righteous and sober life."

"But all the minor moralities of life may be made habitual to him. He has been brought up to be courteous, prompt, punctual, neat, considerate; and he practises these virtues without conscious effort. It is much easier to behave in the way he is used to, than to originate a new line of conduct."


"In conclusion, let me say that the education of habit is successful in so far as it enables the mother to let her children alone, not teasing them with perpetual commands and directions--a running fire of Do and Don't; but letting them go their own way and grow, having first secured that they will go the right way, and grow to fruitful purpose. The gardener, it is true, 'digs about and dungs,' prunes and trains, his peach tree; but that occupies a small fraction of the tree's life: all the rest of the time the sweet airs and sunshine, the rains and dews, play about it and breathe upon it, get into its substance, and the result is --peaches. But let the gardener neglect his part, and the peaches will be no better than sloes." 


Perhaps we can glean from the well known verse (Matthew 6:33 paraphrased), "Seek the kingdom first and the rest will follow." In the world of home education, we can also adopt this similar thought, "Seek to train in good/godly habits first, and the rest {academics, etc.} will follow!"

"Train up a child in the way he should go:
and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
~ Proverbs 22:6

Visit here for more posts in the Charlotte Mason Series.

You may also be interested in:
Reading the Bible and Narration ~ Charlotte Mason Series

Queen Homeschool Supplies, Our Favorite Charlotte Mason Curriculum
{Note: We are affiliated with them and do receive a small commission if purchased through our link.}

23 comments:

  1. Love this! A very good reminder, thank you!

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    1. May you have a blessed homeschooling year ahead of you!

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  2. I just so believe that the early training is imperative for our little ones. Perhaps the earliest efforts (or lack of them) set that child up for failure or victory and the ability to conquer the will. Ultimately self-governance was our aim for each of our children. Lovely images of the process!!
    Love and blessings to you all, dearie.

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    1. Self-governance and a God-fearing lifestyle is most definitely our aim too! Thanks for taking the time to visit :)

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  3. Very good. And I love the old pictures. They are so sweet!

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    1. Thank you Rita :) Those old pictures stir my heart as well!

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  4. Excelllent - just excellent !!! Thank you for this wonderful post !
    Leticia from King Maker blog

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    1. Hi Leticia, thank you for taking the time to encourage here today!

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  5. This is lovely, thank you Jes for the beautiful pictures that go with such words of wisdom. I appreciate the time you put into your blog posts.

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    1. Nice to hear from you! May you have a lovely weekend! :)

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  6. We're all done homeschooling as our girls are adults now, but I'd like to give a hearty amen to all the above. Homeschooling made it so much easier to continue teaching and reinforcing those good habits on a daily basis. Love those illustrations! Have a great weekend!

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    1. Thank you Toni! May you have a lovely weekend as well :)

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  7. Hi Jes this did back some happy memories! I really believe these were the very things we were able to instill into our children's life! It is amazing of all the great resources that are available today! I love all your sweet pictures in this post! I still miss having my children home and the hours we spent together!
    Also, I think the information you make available to others is a ministry and you present it so lovely!
    Warmly, Roxy

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    1. Thank you Roxy, you are ALWAYS so encouraging!! Have a lovely weekend!

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  8. Hi JES! Your posts are always such an inspiration to me and I know to many other women. Thank you, dear one, for taking the time to share words of wisdom and teaching to us.

    This post was a blessing to me because as you know, I homeschool my little one. My husband and I were homeschooled for most of our lives so we have been there, but it's different when we become the teachers. Again, thank you, my friend!

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    1. You are most welcome and I thank you for the encouragement too :)

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  9. Thank you for sharing your post on So Much At Home. :)
    (reading this post as I work on some other things as well-love your posts!)

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    1. Thank you Finaorlena :) I pray these prove helpful!

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  10. Love this post, especially this quote...""Seek to train in good/godly habits first, and the rest {academics, etc.} will follow!"" Many blessings to your and your sweet family :)

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    1. Thank you for taking the time to share Beth! :)

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  11. Thank you for each of these beautiful quotes. They are very helpful!
    Blessings,
    Carrie

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    1. Thank you for sharing. Charlotte Mason has many gems for us :)

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  12. Excellent post Jes and I so agree with the last quote "Seek to train in good/godly habits first, and the rest {academics, etc.} will follow!". Brilliant. Thanks for sharing at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings

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