Habits for Healthy Homeschooling

“Whether you choose or not to take any trouble about the formation of habits, it is habits all the same, which will govern ninety-nine one hundredths of a child’s life.” Charlotte Mason

How do habits help us in the homeschooling world?

In my eyes they are the scaffolding that keeps our daily life supported with the structure of expectation and flow.

I’m talking about the expectations to “watch tv” or use a tablet / device, eat garbage, read garbage or forget manners.

These slippery slopes set us up for battles when the time comes to shape up. When we moved to our country valley town in 2018, I had zero intention of getting a tv.

My other half however brought a huge smart tv for the purpose of watching sport. Sport has always been a big part of his life.

We would use it mostly for our educational documentaries here and there and the odd family movie night or comedy.

A year ago however, we replaced it with a wood fire. From that day on, it’s been so peaceful without a big black dominant rectangle crowning the focal point of our space!

I share this to demonstrate that living without one can change life dramatically. Our children have incredible imaginations! They are not passively being entertained to pacify them as a means of distraction.

This is a habit, free open ended play… or reading, that I feel goes a long way toward building strong characters.

This is just one mere example of a habit that I feel worthy of contemplating. We don’t have a divorce for them and we’ll still whip out a Friday night family movie occasionally on the laptop, but this has been a big dynamic reduction of temptation in our home!

So I wanted to begin with that.. because it appears to be a huge hurdle for many families I speak with!

On many occasion I have been firmly warned to avoid an iPad / tablet at all costs during childhood, by parents who have been there and felt it cause addictive tendencies in their own.

So… we haven’t “gone there” yet. And while yes they can be wonderful learning tools, I feel at the primary age, it’s redundant, given many technologies will soon be obsolete regardless.

I’ll also add that later, the age will come at the relevant time, when basic skills are acquired, but til then, there’s too much in our minds… at stake. Brain function being one. Especially knowing hand and eye coordination can be attained through many other means.

Typing is planned to begin this coming year for our daughter so it’s certainly not that we’re avoiding technology. But I will say that education (self development) comes before entertainment in our home.

I’ll just leave that here for thought. I’d love to hear some of your homeschooling habits if you’d like to share. How have habits helped or hindered your homeschooling life?