“Perhaps it is not too much to say, that ninety-nine out of a hundred lost lives lie at the door of parents who took no pains to deliver them from sloth, from sensual appetites, from willfulness, no pains to fortify them with the habits of a good life.” Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason spoke quite a bit about forming habits in your children.
From physical to moral to character, Charlotte Mason felt instilling habits was vitally important to the raising of a child. In fact, at the heart of the Charlotte Mason method is habit training. The lack of habit training will cause a mom to constantly have to run around repeating the same commands to her children. Instead of running a race you cannot win, it is best to instill habits, one at a time, so the job of parenting and educating your child can be fruitful.
The first step in this process of habit training is to pick one habit to work on. After about four weeks or so, once the habit is mastered, pick another habit to add. You may want to start with something simple with a young child like making her bed every morning. With an older child, you may want to start with getting up at a certain time every morning. As time goes on, you will want to add habits of obedience, truthfulness, kindness and so on.
In my search to find an effective way to instill habits, I found The Notebook Pages.com. This site has a free printable of Character/Habit Training Cards. You will also find goal setting help and notebook pages on habits. If you are uncertain on which habits to instill or where to start, you can print off a copy of a list of habits to instill in your children. This is a wonderful resource and best of it fits any budget as it is free. Click HERE to print off your copies.
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