Principled Education: Ideas

I've been taking a look at Teaching in the Branches again, where Miss Mason lays out a couple of foundational principles of education. It's obvious that she must have spent a great deal of time, not only teaching, but also thinking about teaching: these three principles really are foundational, but like all profound truths, it's pretty easy to go along for a long time without ever really being aware that they're there. The fact that she not only recognizes that education stands on these things, but can also put it into words so clearly, I suspect is the reflection of a great deal of work and thought and time on her part. Which fits with what we know of her, and is why there's a whole educational movement that takes its name from her. But as I'm thinking about it this morning, it makes me think what a truly remarkable teacher she was.

She talks about Authority, which I blogged about last time, and she threatens to talk about Habits, but doesn't actually get to it in the time allotted, and she also talks about Ideas.

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In the matter of the Ideas that inspire the virtuous life, we miss much by our laissez-aller way of taking things for granted.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches

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The leading brethren of the Church have, many times, spoken to this same goal of education as a means for leading the student to the virtuous life.

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The Church stands for education. The very purpose of its organization is to promulgate truth among men. Members of the Church are admonished to acquire learning by study, and also by faith and prayer, to seek after everything that is virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. In this seeking after, they are not confined to narrow limits of dogma or creed, but are free to launch into the realm of the infinite.
But gaining knowledge is one thing, and applying it, quite another. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge, and true education—the education for which the Church stands—is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and God-like character. 
-President David O. McKay,  Moral and Spiritual Values in Education, April 1968

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So again, as I outlined this section of the lecture, I found that Miss Mason had offered several specific techniques for coming at the principle that she's getting at:

Making it Safe to Not Know

I no longer remember precisely what it was that got me thinking about it, but:

It's really important that we create an environment where it is safe to not know something.

Not in a neglectful kind of way, where we're complacently not trying, but in a the sort of way where it's ok not to know yet, and it's so ok to ask questions, to try out incomplete ideas, to say the sentence half in your native language, half in the one you're studying, to take a stab at it, and try -even knowing that your effort is going to be half-baked and incomplete.

Because there is so much learning in the trying.

A Day in the Life

7:30: I hear the kids moving around, pulling out their sketch books and digging for something to eat, and I wake up too. The Daddy has long since gone to work. The littlest comes and climbs in bed with me, and brings a story: Three Samauri Cats. The other two jump (literally) onto my bed, and I read the story from the bottom of a pile of people.

8:00: I remind the kids that they've got about an hour to get ready for school, and go get my yoga mat. There are two Librivox stories going in two different rooms. I can hear them both, but I try to tune them out, and check in on a friend that just had a baby. I sit on my yoga mat and organize a couple of things the new mom needs. And answer some questions. And peek at social media.

8:40: I'm still sitting on my mat, but I haven't actually done any yoga, yet. I glance at the clock, realize how close we are to school time, and get to work on the yoga.

8:50: I mention to the child sitting next to me, chatting and drawing, that school starts in 10 minutes, and they decide to get a shower. "Hurry please." I send another one to get dressed. And attempt chaturanga, but and up doing it with floor support. Next time, maybe.

Come Follow Me: The Nativity

 Ok, it feels... weird to be studying the Nativity in January. I'm all set to be working towards Easter, and here's Christmas again.

But we had this thought in our conversation about Zacharias and John the Baptist (our family's discussion sort of glossed over Elizabeth; not where the kids' attention was, this time around), and I'm still kind of mulling it over:

John the Baptist and Baby Jesus are just about the only baby stories we have in the scriptures. We don't know about Isaiah or Daniel or Nephi or Samuel the Lamanite as infants. Even modern prophets, even Joseph Smith where stories from his childhood are pretty common, they're not baby stories. Hannah's son Samuel, that story talks about the desire for a child, but then pretty quick it's right on to Samuel as a precocious child-prophet in the temple.

My kids love baby stories. They ask for their own all the time. 

So why are these stories in the Bible when nowhere else in scripture do we see the first moments of a prophet's life?

On Classical Education: Embodied Learning (part 1)

This post is part of a series:

Character is the True Aim
Cultivation of Godly Character
What is a Student? 
Make Haste Slowly
Much Not Many
Ordered Affections
Repetition is the Mother of Memory
Repetition and the Habit of Attention
Embodied Learning (part 1) {This Post}
Embodied Learning (part 2)
Songs Chants and Jingles
Wonder and Curiosity
Educational Virtues
Contemplation
By Teaching We Learn
Classical Education is Like a Table



Dr. Perrin, in his Embodied Education lecture, starts out by talking about how education is more than just what happens in the mind: education involves our whole being, and the senses are how we take in our experiences. It is more dimensional than the "rational enterprise" that we think of,  because we are more dimensional than that: we are rational, thinking being, certainly, but we are more than just minds. Knowing that education is primarily about character, and about how we go about bridling our passions and ordering our affections, Dr. Perrin asks about environment:

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Think about our classrooms. Think about your university education, you high school education: what were the hallways like? How were the windows? Did you enjoy your desks? They were "great". How about the parking lot? The whole design of our educational institutions, without us even being aware of it, are shaping our expectations, our hopes, and our ideals. Our affections. 
-Dr. Christopher Perrin, Embodied Education

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That's pretty intense. What did your school experience teach you about the way that the world is supposed to work? When he asked about "my" desk, one of the things that I remembered is that I really didn't even have a desk that was mine: I sat in a different desk every hour, and each teacher changed the seating chart whenever they wanted, often without warning. It wasn't malicious; it was just the way things were; part of the mechanics of classroom management. The desks weren't designed to belong to anyone anyway: there was no storage, no way to personalize them short of defacing them, no privacy, no security. They were just hard plastic chairs, screwed into the frame that held up the writing surface, with a little wire frame underneath in case we had "extra" books. Although I have never known a single person who liked those desks well enough to put one in their home, I remember being excited when I was finally "old enough" to use that kind of desk: it was something of a milestone because only the high school students had them.

What kind of values do our educational institutions embody?
What are the values embodied in our homes?
How do the values differ?

The Family is Central: Central to Happiness

THIS POST IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES. I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO INTRODUCING YOU TO A COUPLE OF GUEST BLOGGERS, ALL OF THEM COMMENTING ON THE FAMILY PROCLAMATION, AROUND THE THEME: FAMILY IS CENTRAL.

~THE FAMILY IS CENTRAL: CENTRAL TO HAPPINESS 
~THE FAMILY IS CENTRAL: A SACRED INSTITUTION
~THE FAMILY IS CENTRAL: CENTRAL TO FULFILLMENT



The family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children -- central to the Plan of Happiness. Families are a gift from God, designed to nurture and protect us here and now, and to fit us for life in His kingdom in the hereafter.

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Individual progression is fostered in the family, which is “central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” The home is to be God’s laboratory of love and service. There a husband is to love his wife, a wife is to love her husband, and parents and children are to love one another. Throughout the world, the family is increasingly under attack. If families fail, many of our political, economic, and social systems will also fail. And if families fail, their glorious eternal potential cannot be realized. 

Our Heavenly Father wants husbands and wives to be faithful to each other and to esteem and treat their children as an heritage from the Lord. In such a family we study the scriptures and pray together. And we fix our focus on the temple. There we receive the highest blessings that God has in store for His faithful children.
-Russell M. Nelson, April 2008

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When I think about our Father's plan, how we lived with Him, and then came to earth to receive a body, to be tested and to be challenged, and all the growth opportunities, the way that we are to live together in love, and when life ends, we are to have loved much and to weep for the loss of those who leave us, and return to Him again. When I think of all that, family is there in every aspect, every step of the way. Family reaches to the very heart of the Plan, so much so that if families fail the earth is cursed, and wasted at His coming.

One of my sisters has sheet music for a song, Keeping Sheep, that compares parenting to shepherding, and talks about all the voices that say that it's not important, it's expendable, it's beneath us. It's a beautiful song, and now that we've got kids, we can't sing that thing without bawling our eyes out. This is my favorite part:

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So many voices say to me,
“A sheep-fold is no place to be.
Your time in there is dull and slow,
And lambs leave very little room for you to grow.”

Oh, If I ever start to stray,
Deceived by thoughts of greener pastures,
Remind me Lord, that keeping sheep
Will lead to happier ever-afters.
Will lead to happier ever-afters.

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God works in plain and simple things. The small, the weak, the over-looked. These are His stock in trade. Like ordinary homes, and ordinary, tired parents. He speaks in a still, small voice, one that you have to actively pay attention to in order to hear. And the value of things that He asks us to do is often like that little voice: easy to overlook.

Children need their families. Not preschools, not fancy clothes, not Stuff in all its assorted forms. They need their parents, their time, their attention. Mine need me, and yours need you. Parenting is intense, and it can be really, really hard, and there's soooo many people who want to tell us that it's not really worthwhile. But when we find the heat of opposition is the hottest, that's where the best work for the Kingdom is done. Satan doesn't oppose the stuff that doesn't matter.

Families matter. The traditional family is key to our Father's plan for our happiness. 

Commonplace Book: June

A commonplace is a traditional self-education tool: as you read, grab a notebook. Write down things that embody Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Write down notable quotes, with or without your own thoughts about them. Write down the questions you have as a result of the text you are reading. You will find the book becomes a record of your own growth, and it becomes a touchstone for memory of things you have studied in the past. These are a selection of the passages that I've included in my commonplace book this month:



Passion does not arrive on a videotape or on a CD; passion is personal. Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart.
-Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv, 158



We mothers have a lot of details to manage, a lot of responsibilities on our plates, whether or not we homeschool.  ...After all, in the end --and even in the middle-- life isn't really about getting it done. It's about serving, loving, and caring for others. We want to do so faithfully, day in and day out.
-Mystie Winckler, Simplified Organization


How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man! And by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried about as differing circumstances present? Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of... Such is the uneven state of human life. And it afforded me a great many curious speculations afterward, when I had a little recovered from my first surprise; I considered that this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined for me; that as I could  not foresee what  the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to dispute His sovereignty, who, as I was His creature, had an undoubted right by creation to govern and dispose of me absolutely as He thought fit; and who, as I was a creature who had offended Him, had likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thought fit; and it was my part to submit to bear His indignation, because I had sinned against Him.
-Robinson Crusoe, 245-246


But it's never too late to be wise...
-Robinson Crusoe, 275



It was characteristic of all his family, Wilbur said, to be able to see the weak points of anything. This was not always a "desirable quality," he added, "as it makes us too conservative for successful businessmen, and limits our friendships to a very limited circle."
-The Wright Brothers, David McCullough, 79


Their nephew Milton, who as a boy was often hanging about the [Wright] brothers, would one day write, "History was being made in their bicycle shop and in their home, but the making was so obscured by the commonplace that I did not recognize it until many years later."
-The Wright Brothers, David McCullough, 113



The best dividends on labor invested have invariably come from seeking more knowledge rather than more power.
-Orville and Wilbur Wright, quoted in The Wright Brothers, David McCullough, 125

Novice Bakers

Tis the season: we've been given a bunch of zucchini. Which means zucchini bread - the kids want more. So, this time, Hero wanted to do the baking, and he's been doing really well with that. We're at the stage where I need to be available, but I'm not to hover; it's his project. So I set him up with the recipe, and I went and checked on some things, and when I came back things were ... interesting.

There was about an inch of oil in the bowl, along with the eggs and sourdough. When we measured, the eggs and oil combined came to just over 3 cups. I couldn't bring myself to just throw it out and start over -- and it would take several hours to get the sourdough ready. So we quadrupled the recipe. Mostly. I didn't have enough sourdough to actually do it, and the measurements were just a little bit, ah, fuzzy. We put it in the stock pot, because that was the only thing big enough to hold it all.

When all the mixing and measuring was done, we had enough batter to make 8 loaves. But we don't have 8 loaf pans; we have 2. So I started digging around. 

Two loaf pans. Check.

Two mini loaf thingys that I always burn. Check.

This time, they didn't burn. Yay! but the dough is so soft - I think we should have had a little more flour - that when I tried to get it out, the tops came off. Very messy. We ended up eating them with spoons out of the dishes. But we ate them, and they were tasty. Win.

Casserole dish. Check. This is a lot of zucchini bread.

Still going. Let's try the square pan. Check.

Finally. We used up all the batter!

So. Maybe it was because his sister was "helping" which could have been a lot for a new baker to deal with, in addition to managing the recipe on his own. Or maybe it was just one of those things that happens; we think he added the 2/3c oil, then looked at the sugar measurement and added that, in oil, as well. Whatever happened, we now have a ton of bread. And he has experience which he just couldn't have had from things going the way they ought to go.

He shared some with his cub scout den and with our violin teacher, who just had a baby. And we froze some. And we ate a bunch.

And it's all very yummy.

Tree Change Doll Inspired Doll Makeover Tutorial

I did this a while back, then got hung up on the clothes part of the make-over and didn't post it for a very long time - more than a year - thinking that I'd get on the stick and do something with the little clothes. But I haven't. So I'll have to figure out what I'm doing. I'm interested in a swap - a re-painted doll for some clothes. Or something like that. Whatever. This is how I did the paint:

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Check out these lovely Tree-Change Dolls, made by a clever lady from Tasmania. She made a few, took some pictures, and posted them on Facebook. From there, social media and the crying need for dolls that look like real girls -- and not trollops-- took over, and the beautiful dolls went viral, gathering hundreds of thousands of "likes" in a few days. She only had 12; for the most part, she's not selling, though she does have an Etsy shop. I'm sure, given the huge demand she's suddenly very aware of, that prices will be high.



But she did do a tutorial on how to get the paint off. And, starting from there, I'm doing a pair of make-overs that are completely inspired by her work. I think it's fabulous, and I'm grateful she's shared it with the world. Redoing existing dolls solves nicely my discomfort with commercially available dolls, which is, for me, well worth the effort. My Tigress adores dolls! "Bay-bee!!"



Actually, there's a lot of tutorials out there. My Tigress showing interest in our friends' dolls, I want to give her some that look like girls I'd be comfortable with her spending time with, were they real.  Image matters, not because one group is better than another, but because the branding people choose tells you things about how they spend their time and the attitudes they have adopted. I want my girl's dolls to encourage our family's values, not normalize things which we find inconsistent with our values.  So here is my process, including the tutorials I have used, all inspired by the lovely Tree-Change Dolls. A couple of my friends asked, so I am sharing the process I use to do this.

This is what my dolls looked like, right from the thrift shop. The one on a left is Bratz brand; I don't recognize the brand on the right. They're both in pretty good condition, though the one of them has a bit of nail polish on her eyes. Shouldn't be a problem, though.

I also grabbed a couple little baggies of mini dolls. Not a bad haul for $7. I tossed a couple, but most of them were pretty nice. They should clean up well. 

And cleaning up is my first step. These girls need a bath, and they need their hair done.  I looked at several tutorials. Everyone seems to agree on the same basic steps that this tutorial shows.

The dolls' hair cleaned up nicely, and both of them had just a few scuff marks on their bodies which also came off nicely. Now, it's time to take off their paint.

And the nail polish remover worked beautifully. I didn't have any, so I got some labeled 100% acetone, and had no problems with smudging, though it is pretty smelly stuff. The Bratz doll was really easy to clean. 

The second doll has teeth as well as lips, and the tight corners were difficult to get into. I used a toothpick to push the cotton puff into the crevasses of her mouth. I think there may be a tiny bit left, but mostly, it all came off. 

While I was at it, I also carefully removed the blush from one of the smaller dolls. She's clearly a little girl, and I didn't think she needed makeup. The q-tip did the job nicely, and I don't think I'll do anything else with her. 

Figuring out what type of paint to use was the next challenge. Sonia doesn't have a tutorial on that part of the process, at least not at this point, so I went and looked at several other YouTube tutorials to see what other doll artists are using, and the consensus seems to be that acrylics are good, and won't damage the vinyl faces. Apparently some paints do. Some people are using the craft acrylics, and others are using the tube acrylics. I already have a pretty good collection of the craft acrylics, so that's what I chose. After my faces were finished, Sonia's husband, John, posted to her Facebook page about what she uses:  Jo Sonja's paints, which seem to come in both tubes and craft bottles, so I'm still not sure what, exactly, she's using. She was able to find a matte varnish, so if I do very many of these, I'll get some, maybe, but the glossy varnish I did use worked well enough that I'm not in any hurry.

I couldn't find a lip tone that said bare, natural lips to me, so what I did was I picked a brown that was as close to the doll's skin tone as possible, in this case, I picked Folk Art's Coffee Latte (I took the doll into Hobby Lobby and held paint next to her until I found one I liked. Happily, it should work for both dolls.) and I mixed it with a red I liked, in this case Creamcoat's Tibetan Sunrise. But the color would depend on the doll's skin tone, I think. 

I went ahead and did the Bratz doll with the same colors. The paint is ever so slightly translucent, so my white dot by her teeth took a couple coats to cover up where it got on the lips, but that's not a problem.

The white dot starts out big -my brush is both almost too big for the job, and also a bit older, so this is what I started with, and I had to cover quite a bit of it up. But I learned on miniatures, touch-ups are a normal part of painting, and it doesn't bother me to do some. Just start with the part that's in there deepest, and work your way out. In this case, there's only two levels: teeth and lips. 

Her lips are moulded to be exaggeratedly big, but they turned out ok anyway. It kind of looks like she's pursed her lips, or is in the middle of saying something, and I can live with that. (If you like, you can do more teeth, like this one, which helps with the weird shape of the Bratz lips. I didn't see that idea until it was too late.)

Next, I needed to put back the eyes. Tigress doesn't like it that they have no eyes. "Eye! Eye!" That's what she's been telling me. One of the tutorials I looked at mentioned that the eyes should be just slightly off-white, which tracks with what I have observed messing around in Photoshop: stark white eyes are creepy. I've used Folk Art's Whicker White, and it's working nicely. 

The second eye is a little more difficult, since I wanted it to be pretty close to the same shape as the first. Both dolls had their second eye-white wiped off completely with a bit of paper towel. The Bratz eye folds also got wiped away once, and repainted. The craft acrylics I am using are really forgiving, and you have a few minutes to mess around with them. A clean paintbrush can also be used to pick up small amounts of excess. The paint isn't hard to wipe away at all, if you need to correct something, as long as it's still wet you're good. 

I did eyelashes and eyebrows next. The paint I got is nearly an exact match for the skin color of the dolls, especially the Bratz doll, which I am doing first, so I mix up a little bit of paint that's ever so slightly darker.

I didn't like the eyebrow on the right. So I did it again. It had dried already; there's not much paint there and it dried quickly. No problem. The same q-tip technique that removed the blush from the little doll earlier this evening took care of the misformed eyebrow. I was just careful not to disturb the eye itself. I also noticed that I'd managed to get white on my thumb and smudge her face. I'm typically a bit of a mess when I paint. Oops. But it just rubbed away, and I washed my hands. Again. The second go at the eyebrow was much more satisfactory. I like the little "corner" at the top of the brow, which was missing on the first try. 

When my friend Jay Fullmer first taught me to draw, he loaned me the book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," and I did about 3/4 of the exercises in the book before I got distracted. The important thing in drawing is to draw what you really see, and not what you think you ought to see. Turning your paper and your reference material upside down can trick your brain to stop seeing what it expects, and start seeing what is really there, and that's how I got the eyebrows as close to symmetrical as I did: upside down, I had to think about angles and line lengths, because it was a lot less "eyebrow" looking. So it was a lot easier that way. Keep an eye on your anatomical reference points, too: how far past the beginning of the eyeball should your line begin? How far into the well of the eye? I recommend you get a reference picture from a doll you like. Use it with your first eyebrow, then copy your own work to make the second one. The second doll had bits of her eyebrows erased several times while the paint was wet, but I managed to avoid the nail polish remover. 

The next task is the irises themselves. So much about these dolls is the same; I think I'm going to give them different colored eyes. Their skin is dark enough that blue doesn't make a lot of sense, so I'll be going with green and brown. 

I grabbed a pencil and sketched in the basics first. My Bratz doll also needed a little touch up where the eyelashes had pushed into the white eyeball, so I took care of that as well. All day, I've been referencing this picture from the real Tree-Change Dolls. I just love the way she turned out. So I had another look to see the details of how her irises have been done. I'm also drawing on this tutorial, which I used to make matching dolls for Tigress and her cousins last December. 

Now, it's time for color. I grabbed the Bratz and the brown. First, I painted the pupil, then the brown iris. I did a dark color for the iris's base, and then a lighter brown to add some flecks. Happily, I found a brush that's a little smaller. The flecks are dry brushed, which means that most of the paint on my brush, I wiped on my paper towel. The idea is to see some of the deep brown under the light. I  need to retouch the pupil on the second eye. You can see here the difference a little dry brushing makes. 

Next, she needs a glint in her eye; glints make the eye look much more life-like. For this, I dug through my box of paint and found the stark white. I looked at my referral picture again, to see how she'd done her glint, since she did it so nicely. You can use the paint to kind of shape your brush a little, depending on how you dab it as you pick up your color. I flattened my bristles into a line, and used that to put the glint in. 

The Bratz, now not so bratty, is almost done with her paint. I'm a little worried that my paint will chip off, so I picked up some Triple Thick at Hobby Lobby while I was getting supplies. It was recommended in this tutorial, here. It's glossy, but that works for lips and eyes. It may be a bit odd for eyebrows, but I doubt that Tigress will notice or care. 

And her new paint job is done! 

The second doll's eyes are just a little smaller, and my green completely covered the black dots I had made, so they will have to be put back before I go on. 

So put back the irises, and used my toothpick to add gold flecks to her eyes, but they're too obvious, so I'm going back with another green, slightly lighter than the rest, to cover them up a little. 

Add the glint, and the varnish, and the second doll is also done with her painting, and both of them are getting anxious for new clothes. So, the next step is to read some of the tips for sewing doll clothes that I've been gathering on Pinterest. Though my girl seems pretty happy with the dolls, even in the old, ugly clothes. She's been showing her Daddy. Do you like her outfit? She found Hero's swim shirt and insisted that she should wear it today. 

Next, I started looking for a tutorial for making clothes. There are lots of tutorials out there for making Barbie clothes, but I knew this could get a little interesting, because these dolls aren't as big as big as Barbies, and, looking at the dress the one doll came with, I can tell that regular Barbie clothes are going to be big. So I started working. First, a skirt, because they are easy to make. I used this tutorial. The waist had to be taken in a little, which I did by starting about 3/4 of the way down the skirt and slanting in from the original stitching as I moved toward the top. It's still a little generous, but it works. Next time, I will make the skirt a little bit smaller, with an elastic that's only 3.5 or even 3 inches long, rather than the 4 inches the tutorial recommends. 

After that, a shirt was in order. The same blog had a nice shirt tutorial, one that goes together very easily, so I went with that. This time, I started with the suggested measurements, but held them up to the doll as I went along, and just sort of snipped off the excess. I have no idea what the actual measurements are, but it turned out pretty well, I think. I still need to add velcro to the back, since I forgot to buy that when I was out yesterday, but even without it, you can see that the doll is starting to shape up nicely. One tip: keep your excess threads to a minimum, and clip them close to the fabric as you go along. I often go back and trim my threads at the very end of the project, but this one doesn't like to do it that way. Being so small, the threads look terrible, and they get in the way as well. Plus, I had some close calls where I almost clipped my little shirt when the layers were all together and I had to go back and clip in between them. Do it as you go along.

It turns out that I don't actually like making doll clothes, and I need to find somebody to swap with, or buy some or something... the clothes just aren't fun. But I could paint for people!

20 Principles: Habit in Religious Life

This post is part of a series. Feel free to visit the series index for more thoughts on the writings of Charlotte Mason.


I've joined a Charlotte Mason study group. I'm already behind. But I'm learning tons anyway, so I'm happy; it's not a race. I've been reading Teaching in the Branches, where Miss Mason outlines some of the principles that underlie the work they did as they were teaching in the various branch schools in her organization. There's a lot of great food for thought, but this really caught my attention:

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The next point we have set ourselves to consider is the laying down of lines of habit in the religious life. ... Let us consider the subject as it bears upon habits of thought and of attitude of life and of speech; though indeed all these are one, for every act and attitude is begotten of a thought, however unaware we be of thinking.

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The Lord has asked us to acquire a number of habits that, taken together, comprise the heart of our relationship with Him: He commands that we pray, that we read, search, and ponder scripture, that we bring Him our questions and problems. Additionally, that which we might describe as "Christian living" is a way of life that grows out of habits drawn from scripture: we are hard working rather than idle, honest, rather than deceitful. We honor our parents and care for our spouses and children. We turn the other cheek, forgive, and are kind. We care for the widow, the fatherless, and the unfortunate. We are hospitable and generous.

All these things are often thought of as morals or values, but it is doing them habitually that writes them on our hearts, that slowly brings about the mighty change of heart and, through the Grace of Christ, transforms us and overcomes the natural man.

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Man is the sum result of what he thinks and does. Habit is the instrument that molds his character and makes of him essentially what he is. Habit can become a monster to tarnish and destroy, yet proper behavioral traits can bring lasting joy and achievement. To say no at the right time and then stand by it is the first element of success. The effect that both good and bad habits have on our lives is all too real to be ignored. 

-Elder Alvin R. Dryer, The Nobility of Man in Choosing Good over Evil

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We don't often talk about it in those terms, but certainly habit plays a big role in our efforts to endure to the end. Many times, the Lord has used the habitual scripture study our family does at the end of the day to speak to me in times of need. And teaching these things, these ideals, habits, and patterns of life to our children is a parent's sacred duty. I think it is our duty because it will give them the tools they need to be strong and resilient and safe in the Lord during the hard times.

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Moral Habits, the way to form them and the bounden duty of every parent to send children into the world with a good outfit of moral habits, isn't a subject so much to the front in our thoughts... The moral impulse having been given by means of some such inspiring idea as we have considered, the parent's next business is to keep the idea well to the front, with tact and delicacy and without insistence, and to afford apparently casual opportunities for moral effort on the lines of the first impulse. 
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches

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Moral habits can and should be at the heart of education because, as David O. McKay said,

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Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end.
-David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, pp. 440-441

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But character is most often a plant of slow growth. Habits of thought are cultivated when we read history and literature with an eye toward noticing the virtues and vices of the characters we encounter. By reading quality literature that shows truly the effects of choices on outcome, we give our children the opportunity to experience vicariously the costs and benefits of different choices, and good books can help us to guide our children toward right living, as well as reenforcing the need and benefit of good religious habit. 

Little Women was the first book where I noticed this effect on myself: the goodness of the March girls left me wanting to become better myself. Since then, I have become much more aware of this aspect of reading, and appreciate the way that a skilled author can inspire without ever preaching. Consistently choosing high quality literature for their education offers our children many opportunities to encounter and admire the results of these religious habits, as well as the lack of those habits - and it allows us the opportunity to discuss it as thoroughly as our children need, without running into concerns about gossip or other difficulties that come with too much discussion of real, live people in our community and acquaintance. Of course, the very best literature is scripture. There is no more direct way path toward wisdom and virtue than by studying scripture, which should hold a primary place in the education of our children.

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"Our children should be indoctrinated in the principles of the Gospel from their earliest childhood. They should be made familiar with the contents of the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. These should be their chief text books, and everything should be done to establish and promote in their hearts genuine faith in God, in His Gospel and its ordinances, and in His works."
-Wilford Woodruff (source)

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Sometimes, dealing directly with the Word can be intimidating, and it is easy to become reliant on devotional books and even church manuals (many of which have much to offer), but none of them can offer our children the strength or depth or power that is in Scripture itself, and you cannot grow into understanding the actual words of the Lord recorded in scripture if you do not meet with and work with the actual text of scripture.

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The habit of hearing, and later, of reading the Bible, is one to establish at an early age. We are met with a difficulty that the Bible is, in fact, a library containing passages and, indeed, whole books which are not for the edification of children; and many parents fall back upon little collections of texts for morning and evening use. But I doubt the wisdom of this plan. We may believe that the narrative teaching of the Scriptures is far more helpful to children, anyway, than the stimulating moral and spiritual texts picked out from them in little devotional books.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches, emphasis added

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This post is part of a series. You can also visit the series index for more essays inspired by Charlotte Mason's excellent work.

Busy Day

Some days are busier than others. 

Today Dragon is very busy. He's building a library. 

It's serious business. They are happy to loan books. Or sell them, so you can keep then forever. I'm not at all sure which my librarian would prefer. But I did borrow one, and his sister promptly demanded that I read it. Dragon doesn't seem to have time for stories today; he has Things To Do.

Next, the library installed sleeping space. Looks a mite cramped to me, but Dragon is pleased. 

Our "Teddy Bear" joined the game (she says she's Daddy's Teddy Bear), and the library had another nice expansion, courtesy of the kitchen chairs.

I suppose I could have interrupted their play for the book learning I had planned this morning, but play is important. So I didn't. They kept at their game for several hours. We'll actually read a few of those books tomorrow; today they are props.