Habits and Character: Thoughts from Charlotte Mason
Are you familiar with Charlotte Mason’s principles of habits and character?
What do you think of when you hear the terms habit training and character development? I have to admit that I tended to feel negatively toward those terms because it seems they’d been used as a weapon against children. Something to “tame” them or exert control. That runs contrary to what I want to do with my children — I want gentleness, respect, and love to be our guiding principles.
After reading Charlotte Mason’s ideas on education, I realized that these terms could be used in a very positive way, more in line with my own thinking on gentle parenting.
“Let children alone… 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.”
– Charlotte Mason
How Habit Training Cultivates Character and Responsibility
When habit training is mentioned there often is a collective sigh from moms saying, “Yes, I need this for my children.” What is not as often understood is that whether you implement
purposeful habit training or not you are most certainly habit training a child. We all form habits, though not all habits are for our good. This is where the intentionality comes in.
“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.”
– Charlotte Mason
Yes, every day and every hour you are influencing the habits and future character of your child.
We can either do this intentionally and reap the benefits of those efforts or do so
unintentionally and risk the result.
Purposeful habit training is work. We have to set aside the common notion of “he is too young to understand” or “he will grow out of it”, to using every opportunity as a means to influencing future character. Gentle correction to replace poor habits with proper habits can last a lifetime. This begins with our children when they’re young so that it becomes a natural way of life.
“The habits of the child produce the character of the man.”
–Charlotte Mason
We often think of habits in terms of a child brushing his teeth or making his bed. We think of
chores and not character. Yet, character is directly correlated to the behavior habits a child
forms.
If a child who calls his sibling names is not corrected and taught respect, then this
behavior will become a habit. The child will grow to be someone who lacks respect for others. It also follows that if a child is not taught to be obedient as a habit, then the child will grow to accept his own disobedience as a normal response to authority. That runs counter to what we’re trying to do as we pass on our faith and values, doesn’t it?
We hear that consistency is the key to parenting. Habit training falls in line with that train of thought. It is your choice to choose to teach consistently or inconsistently. Think about your struggles and where consistency would serve you well. Help your children to establish these habits early in life. You will also reap the benefits by creating a day that runs much smoother. This means that we are to be the best examples to our children, not employ “do as I say, not as I do” methods.
“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.”
– Charlotte Mason
I’ve created a free printable Habits Tracker that you can download right here. Use the free printable to keep your home accountable to creating new habits and a new home
environment.
Recommended Reading
A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
Charlotte Mason: The Teacher Who Revealed Worlds of Wonder
Before Curriculum: How to Start Practicing the Charlotte Mason Philosophy in Your Home
How do you approach habit training and character development?
FAQ
Charlotte Mason style includes living books, narration, copywork, and nature studies.
Several curriculum resource providers offer Charlotte Mason influenced curriculum. However, Charlotte Mason did not write curriculum herself. She did write a series of books on home education meant to be used as a guide for parents.
Basically, Montessori is a sensorial approach to practical life skills learning in the early years. Maria Montessori believed children learned best through play. Charlotte Mason education is based on the personhood of children created in the image of God, with an emphasis on a feast of ideas through quality literature and connection to God’s world through nature.
Waldorf is a secular approach based on the seasons and rhythms of life, with an emphasis on delayed formal education (after age 8). Charlotte Mason education is rooted in the idea children are created in the image of God and designed to learn. The similarity between them is the focus on nature.
- 35 Christmas Books for Kids - December 4, 2024
- The Best Homeschool Black Friday to Cyber Monday Deals 2024 - November 26, 2024
- Spring Books for Kids - March 15, 2024
