Good Habits
From Dr. Cindy Swicegood, Alveary Administrative Assistant:
I love the start of a new year! Honestly, what I love most is the opportunity to have a fresh start–to regroup, reassess, recommit. I am never lacking for ways I could improve!
How many of us brush our teeth every single day–perhaps even multiple times a day? Yet how many of us labor over this task? One key to simplicity is forming good habits and Mason speaks often of this.
The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days. Philosophy of Education, p. 136
Each of us has in his possession an exceedingly good servant or a very bad master, known as habit. Ourselves, p. 208
Whether you choose or no to take any trouble about the formation of his habits, it is habit, all the same, which will govern ninety-nine one-hundredths of the child's life. Home Education, p. 110
Ninety-nine one-hundredths! This makes me all the more eager to form more good habits in my life. This year I have joined an accountability/life-coaching group (via Zoom) and have downloaded James Clear’s free course: “30 Days to Better Habits: A simple step-by-step guide for forming habits that stick.” (This is essentially his book, condensed into 30 pages.) If you don’t have time to read Atomic Habits–or even if you’ve read it–I think you will find this course very helpful. I am thrilled to be moving toward becoming more of who God created me to be, thanks to His guidance in forming new habits.
Share your favorite resource on habits–or let us know which habit you are working to implement (personally or with your children)--in this Fabulous Friday post.
Notes
1. Blue Open Door: Learn how to develop a relational community in which teachers and learners flourish. Register here for Dr. Jack Beckman’s “The Relational School” course.
2. CORE: Registration is now open for our next teacher training course on Charlotte Mason’s methods which begins January 16.
3. CMI Conference: Early Bird registration ends on January 31st, so register now!
4. Alveary 2024-25: Registration opens on February 1. Read this informative Hive post from member Bethany Steadman on the benefits she has found in renewing in February.
5. CMI YouTube: Belated “Happy birthday!” to Charlotte Mason, born January 1, 1842. Here’s a wonderful video on who Charlotte Mason was from CMI Board Chair Dr. Deani Van Pelt. The next video in the playlist titled “A Relational Education Rooted in Scripture” is also a ‘must-watch’.
Query
My 4th grader is having a hard time with written narration and struggles to write even three sentences. Do you think it is a good idea if I type up her oral narration and have her use that for copywork? Will that help her improve with written narration?
Watch this 6-minute video to hear our suggestions.
