We have just gone home from our vacation and of course, I am climbing back into my rhythm. I brought my book to the trip so that I could read during any down time. We stayed indoors during lunch and a few hours after. The sun is scorching during those hours and the little one needs a little break because she's been having too much fun in the water. During our breaks, I get to pick up my book and just read in silence. My 2 companions know to just leave me be once I've buried my face in a book.
Last time I did my online narration of my reading, I discussed the most important habit that children should develop is the habit of attention. Once the habit of attention has been developed, all other good habits would follow. During our vacation, as I was reading up on the topic Education is a Discipline, there was part there that resonated to me the most.
“Habit is inevitable. If we fail to ease life by laying down habits of right thinking and right acting, habits of wrong thinking and wrong acting fix themselves of their own accord” (Vol. 6, p. 101).
It supports the saying that humans are a creature of habit. Since it is our brain's way of saving itself from doing too much effort of decision, it forms habits every single time. If we don't form the positive habits, surely its corresponding negative habits will take over. That's nature.
This is why no matter how strict my husband and I may seem to other people, we made sure that our daughter develops as many good habits as she can as early as we can. Let's take the habit of healthy eating as an example. We formed this as early as the very first time she ate solid foods. I was a working mom back then, but I made sure that before I sleep in the day (I worked nights), I have prepared all of her solid food for the day. I would boil potatoes, mash bananas, puree apples, etc.
There were people that tried to introduce junk food to her (chocolates, candies, etc.) but we did our very best for our daughter to avoid those. Now that she's a big girl, I have no fear of her getting too much sugar in her body because she has set it in herself that she needs to eat healthy. She would sometimes say she doesn't like a certain vegetable purely because she has developed the habit of honesty, but still would eat the new vegetable because she knows she needs to eat healthy food.
Her healthy sleeping habits is one of the habits that I am extra thankful we were able to develop. We worked a little bit extra hard for this habit to form. Most parents, even the strict ones, would let their kids sleep late sometimes, which is most of the time the weekends and the holidays. I set the rule that even on weekends and holidays (even during our vacation), her sleeping time still did not change.
Knowing that habit is inevitable which means not forming good habits would mean bad habits will be, parents and educators need to be consistent in training their kids in habit formation. "Oh, she's been constantly eating healthy food, it wouldn't hurt to give her chips this time." "Oh, she's been sleeping on time, let's give her this night to sleep late so she could watch until she falls asleep." These are fatal pitfalls to habit training.
Parents need to be consistent in laying down the rails especially to little kids. Habit forming should be a delight in itself. Habit formation is a gargantuan challenge. But once done properly and consistently, parents and children will find delight in the discipline of habits, and it will open the doors towards simple, happy, and easy days.
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