Charlotte Mason Home Education Read Along Series Week 26

Welcome to week 26, The laying down of lines of habit Charlotte Mason Home Education Read-Along Series.

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The Laying Down of Lines of Habit Charlotte Mason Home Education Read-along

This week we are reading pages 107-111 of the Home Education volume. The Laying down of lines of habit

If you want to see the rest of these posts in one place, you may view them HERE. And don’t forget to download your free worksheets with each reading! If you are interested in a Charlotte Mason “curriculum”, our favorite resource is Ambleside Online.

****If you need to purchase the Charlotte Mason Home Education volume, it is available in a newer version HERE. (Affiliate link)****

I am using the Original Homeschooling Series, Volume One, Home Education- the pink books.

Begin it and the thing will be completed

Every seed of thought or feeling that you implant in a child will develop and grow and bear fruit. This statement from Charlotte Mason brings with it a solemnity that is deeply felt when truly considered.

We think, as we are accustomed to think

A child who is immature, weak in moral power and not trained in spiritual warfare cannot control the lines of thought that run through their brains. They depend on the parents to show them the thoughts to think or reject.

A parent is the model by which a child learns from to choose the way they should think. Charlotte says that this is the vocation of every parent.

Direction of lines of habit

Charlotte paints the picture of a parent laying down the tracks of habit so well that a child’s path is made smooth before them. This of course, is a series and responsible charge for the parent to consider, for the tracks we lay determine the direction the child will go.

Habit and Free Will

She asks the questions many would wonder: Does this forming of habits in our children take away their free will?

Habit Rules ninety-nine in a hundred of our thoughts and acts

Charlotte addresses the above question by asking parents to consider that habits will rule their child regardless of whether or not they train their children in habits. All of us are creatures of habit, either god ones or bad ones.

And, so, it stands to reason that we should give our very best effort to help our children form good habits that will produce a good life for them rather than leave it to chance and risk the formation of bad habits that will lead to disappointment, weak character and vices in life.

Habit powerful even where the will decides

When habit is strongly formed, it provides a familiarity by which will can decide. Habits can be laid down with real purpose and method to achieve desired results.

My takeaway from This Week’s Charlotte Mason Reading

Whew! This week really has my gears turning. I also feel the weight of Ms. Mason’s words. Her philosophies, I see, require effort and commitment in order to see them through to fruition. I see where my own efforts in raising and educating my children pale in comparison to her standard. It is certainly a matter that I will be taking to the Lord in prayer.

How about you? What’s your takeaway this week from the reading???

Don’t forget your free printable to go with this week’s reading!

Do you want to see the previous posts from the Charlotte Mason Home Education Read Along series??? You can find them all right here.