Looking through some OLD Ambleside Online emails in my inbox yesterday evening, I came across an email from Lori, of Keeping the Home blog. I browsed her blog for a bit and came to an entry on Habit, mentally noted it and went back to my archived email readings.

This morning, I was reading some of the Charlotte Mason series on a few things I'd been meaning to reread... studied dictation, out-of-doors, composition. I decided to also have a looksie at the portion on habit.

I know I've read this before, as I've read nearly the entire CM series in its entirety, but that was admittedly, a few years ago, when my daughter was much younger. But wow, that section on habits sure spoke to me this morning.

My husband has tried to prod me over the years to be a better warden when it comes to enforcing the behaviors we expect from our daughter. (Such typical things as a tidy room, care to clean up after yourself, hygiene, etc.) And I've tried, but alas, apparently only half-heartedly.

Reading Lori's blog entry about how she found great insight in the writings of Ms. Mason with regards to habit was just the poke I needed to reignite my curiosity and rekindle my desire to improve my teachings...further than book knowledge... to better include, yes, habits.

So, I've reread and pondered the section on habits. I'll chew on this section a bit before moving on into further insights on habits from Ms. Mason. I've even downloaded this particular volume of the CM series to my PDA to have at my fingertips. (Something that wasn't available years ago, the last time I read through the series. LOL)

Maybe my husband's prodding was just at the wrong time for me. My heart must not have been in it? But as I've said, it spoke to me this morning, loud and clear. Just the section alone about the child whose menancing habit is about closing the door... that doesn't hit close to home, it hits right at home. (Refence vol 1 pg 122, section entitled "Stages in the Formation of a Habit.")

My daughter is continually forgetting to "close the back door, top & bottom, and close the blinds." (This is for the sliding glass doors leading out to our lanai... aka the park out back.) Simple tasks like that, seem to go really well for a period and then, as written in Ms. Mason's book, go once to a forgetful instance that I, as the enforcer, didn't make right. Then twice to a forgetful instance, then a third, and so on. Just times that I've not caught it when it occurred and/or didn't bother to call attention to it.  Shame on me. To have set forth expectations of a set behavior yet not enforce said behavior... *sigh*... that IS a mixed message if ever there was one! (And that's just one simple example in this household.)

Anyway, I know this is just some ramblings here on this blog. But in my head the wheels are turning. Is the list of daily chores we've set forth for my daughter a poor excuse for attentive parental enforcement? Something to think about, most definitely.