Habit Training
I have come to see that your first year of homeschooling is all about creating routine and forming family habits. Not only for your kids but for yourself as well. I have been digesting and reading over Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles. I really “dig” big picture philosophy and it helps me stay motivated in the day to day repetitive routine. Like I have stated in our HS philosophy it is very important for Mike and I to encourage our children towards thinking critically about the world around them. #19 and #20 have really been speaking to me.
19. Knowing that reason is not to be trusted as the final authority in forming opinions, children must learn that their greatest responsibility is choosing which ideas to accept or reject. Good habits of behavior and lots of knowledge will provide the discipline and experience to help them do this.
20. We teach children that all truths are God’s truths, and that secular subjects are just as divine as religious ones. Children don’t go back and forth between two worlds when they focus on God and then their school subjects; there is unity among both because both are of God and, whatever children study or do, God is always with them.
It was interesting to me the other day when Jackson asked me “Mom before Jesus walked on the earth, were all people heathens?” He was making connections with some of our reading and the time line we have started. It is true that children really do make connections all over the place in a holistic way if they have the space and time to think about it.
So I am betting that if we help our kids to think, and give them enough good information to make connections and not necessarily discipline them towards morality and shelter them from the world we may end up with stronger, more grounded, thinking, adults who can live this “way of following Jesus” without it being fragmented and something that is just “fire insurance” or a code for morality.
Just my thinking out loud thoughts today. Peace to all~
