The midpoint of summer is bittersweet for this mama! July was incredibly fabulous, and with August upon us I find myself wanting to savour every sweet moment of summer, while heeding the beckon of the fall season and a new homeschool year. Though the practical details need doing (but really, who doesn’t LOVE back-to-school supply shopping?), it’s my heart and mind that need the real preparation.
This month, I find myself asking the hard questions…
What is it we really want to achieve in these fleeting years we get with our kids? And how best do we meet those needs?
The word that keeps coming to me is habits. And so, as a broad, sweeping goal for the year, I want to get better at teaching and consistently building some new habits for my kids. And most definitely for myself!
In the book “Laying Down the Rails”, Charlotte Mason, a British educator from the late 1800’s ,is quoted from her original works,
“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”
Oh, can I ever relate! Has anyone out there experienced the agony of “endless friction” ?! My kids are wonderful people and have some wonderful habits in place… but I’m far enough in the journey of parenting to learn how utterly exhausting it is to expect something to be done, and to find that it is not.
Even more important than my own convenience is the idea that habits will secure for them a lifetime of “smooth and easy days.” Taking full responsibility for my own lack of follow-through in some of these areas, I am inspired and motivated too “take pains” (and I know it’s gonna hurt) to lay down some new rails for our family.
This month, I’ll walk through the process of choosing & establishing some new habits in our family. Watch this short clip from Sonya Shafer on the power of habits!
How do you create and implement lasting habits for your family?
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” -Steven Covey
Laundry Mom~Kali ♥
Kali,
Great article! I love the video, too. “Once habits are laid your life can run on them without so much decision.” (or something like that) Taking the effort NOW ensures less friction later.: Important, TRUE and worth the effort!!
[…] the beginning of the month I’ve been meditating on this word habit- and realize that even the notion of habit can seem […]
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[…] promised a check-in with how it’s going in our home as we “lay down the rails” of new habits. So here’s what we’ve been doing the past couple weeks, and I’m […]
Great advice Kali. I am going to try this in my house too. Undone chores is an endless frustration for me. I have already given a no dishes done, no driving time for my oldest but I am also tired of the whining from the others.