In my post yesterday, I discussed the educational tools or instruments that Charlotte Mason talked about. Education is an atmosphere means that we should keep the schooling whether it is homeschooling or traditional schooling as natural as it can be. There is no need to "create" the atmosphere of schooling in the house. That is the first educational instrument that has been helpful in our homeschooling journey.
The second tool is discipline. Education is a discipline. Growing up, I had a very interesting view of what "discipline" should be. Hearing the word discipline somehow has a negative connotation to me. I thought that it meant that when a child does good - gets good grades, does their chores, behave well - they get a reward. If they act otherwise, they get a punishment. True enough, that has been the case for me and for most of my friends.
Discipline in the Charlotte Mason method means the discipline of habit. Reading through Home Education (Vol. 1 of Charlotte Mason's Homeschool series), I read the phrase Habit is ten natures. I had to read this part of the book a lot of times before I got the idea.
It is the parents' job to make sure that their children form good and healthy habits as early as they can. Because once a habit has been formed, it becomes ten times stronger than nature. If a child develops the habit of putting his readings aside to do other stuff like play a game or stare at his phone, even if curiosity naturally comes with him from the moment he was born, his habit overcomes that nature. Our body is built so that it would want to eat healthy food, but if we formed the habit of eating those processed, junk food, vegetables become the nasty stuff our children do not want to try or even look at on their plates.
On the brighter side of things, once a child develops the habit of attention in her studies, she will have no problem remembering the details in her lessons no matter how long ago it was discussed. We have just finished our 3rd quarter exams, and like always, my daughter did not need to have a refresher or a review of all the lessons we took for the last 3 months. This is even after going through a lot of vacations in between.
It has been a while since I last had to pick up any of my kid's toys on the floor. This is because she has developed the habit of cleaning up after herself. I am very strict about it. She has to make sure that all her stuff are put away before she could use the computer or watch TV. And speaking of devices, she has also developed the habit of being watchful of her routine. She only has an hour of gadget time.
Now, this is not something that happened overnight. My husband and I had to consistently and patiently lay down the rails for our daughter so that she could form those healthy habits. We sometimes fall away from the rails but we give it our best to make sure that she keeps all those healthy habits. Oh, and we never give rewards as recognition of her good behavior and good habits. She once asked me what will her reward be if she fixes her bed in the morning. I answered simply that her reward would be that she will always know that she can look forward to a relaxing sleep after all the hard work during the day.
I don't believe in the effectiveness of rewards and punishments especially in children. I see those as bribes and threats. "I will give you this bribe if you do as I say." and "If you don't obey my rules, you will < insert threat here >. Once a good habit is formed, it no longer looks like a strenuous activity for the child. It becomes a delightful thing for them to do.
Although, letting the child relax and go through forming the habit, then breaking it, then starting at it again, makes it harder for the child to form it again each time. Consistency is key. Forming good habits in a child is not an easy task for parents and educators alike.
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, Home Education, p136
The discipline of habit, used along the atmosphere of environment will be a great help in educating our children. This eradicates the question Why wouldn't my kid listen to me? or Why couldn't my grown up child take care of himself? Education is a discipline simply means that we as parents need to put all our efforts not in pushing children to bring home medals or good grades. Instead, we should put more effort into forming good habits and instilling self-control and self-regulation.
The cover photo in this post was created and edited in Canva.
