I am working part time as a preschool teacher (and a substitute teacher for grades K-8th) in a Charlotte Mason Classical School, which is lovely. I am consistently reminded that we have to train good habits in our kids, minute by minute, day by day. They have to be gently reminded to obey right away and directed to do the right thing. They need taught to be diligent, even if we need to sit with them in those early years and teach them to stay on task. They need to be stopped as they are interrupting and taught to wait to patiently. It requires training.
I think we often just expect these habits to happen or we think we taught it once so we need not do it again. Habit formation is a daily task. Remember that Charlotte Mason says that, “Education is a Discipline”.
Discipline is defined as, “ practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, “.
We need to get in the practice of training our beloved children to obey, to be diligent, to do everything without whining or complaining, to persevere. It’s not easy and it’s really exhausting but that’s all apart of educating our children properly. Training in habits will, eventually, make your academic training go much smoother but it takes dedicated time in those younger years. It’s as important as learning to read or how to count. Our teen years have gone so very smoothly because of those earlier years of training. Those early years were hard and draining and seemed to last forever but all that hard work was worth it.
If you haven’t read, “For the Children’s Sake” by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, start today. It helps to break down those vital habits and gives a great foundation in the tenets of a Charlotte Mason education.
