Continuing with my reading, I discussed the different tools that a mother needs in educating her child. I talked about the atmospherenof environment and the discipline of habit. I mentioned that discipline is not about rewards and punishments but is about forming good habits among children.
Have you heard of that saying man is a creature of habit? It's a fact. And it is not necessarily a bad thing. Habits is generally our brain's way of saving all the efforts of thinking and deciding. When you wakr up in the morning, you know to wear your slippers as you get up. And without ever thinking, your feet automatically knows where to step to wear the said pair of slippers. When you eat, your arm automatically knows the angle of which the spoon should be put into your mouth. When you take a bath, your arms and hands know the motion by which to scrub and lather the soap. The list of habits will be a long one if I attempt to put them here one by one. You get the gist.
Humans are creatures of habit. And this is the very thing that could either help or hinder your child's education. But what is the habit that should be developed in a child to help ensure a success in their quest for knowledge? Is there just one habit that needs to be formed?
In my readings, I completely agree with Charlotte Mason when she said the habit of attention is the most important of all. It does not mean that it is the only habit that children should form, but it is important that every child learns how to pay full attention to their tasks. It is necessary that they learn to focus their attention so that retention of ideas will be possible.
I have experienced this with my child. We have neen homeschooling for 3 years (officially) and have been using the Charlotte Mason Method for 2 years already. I am amazed at how my daughter just instantaneously pulls ideas from her head talking about literature and lessons that we tackled a long time ago. She does so well in her exams even if we never do any reviews prior. She can recall the entire story of Shakespeare's plays even if we only read it once. This is the very reason why I am always smiling when it's time to listen to all of her narration videos.
I can share a few tips on how to train kids to develop the habit of attention.
During our lessons, we do oral narration. It is her main performance task for every subject. There are actually many good things we can derive from oral narration. Paying attention is one of them. When I read the lesson, (which is almost always in the form of literature from living books), I read it only once. You should never read it again to them. Even if they miss out a lot of details when they retall the passage, it's fine. Remember, the goal is for them to develop the habit of attention - not for them to give as many details as they can.
What if they continue to not give any fruitful details, what if they end up not understanding the story? No matter what happens, do not read the passage again. What you should do is to read a fewer lines. My daughter and I started with 1-2 sentences only. I would read aloud 1 or 2 sentences from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, then I would stop, close the book, and ask her to retell what she heard and understood about those 2 sentences. Now,I can read 2 or 3 paragraphs depending on the book we are reading and she retells it with 80-90% of the details, using her own words, with fukl enthusiasm. She would often add some side comments about it towards the end of her narration. We still have books that we pause after 3 or 3 sentences because it's a bit too heavy for her level.
Another way to develop the habit of attention is to establish your authority. Now this is once again another word that used to have a negative connotation to me. Being in authority used to mean to me as someone who has the power. But in reality, a person in authority is someone who was deputized and authorized to perform the duties and responsibilities assigned to them. As for me, I am authorized by someone higher than me. I do not have the power to rule over my child, I simply am authorized to educate my child so that she can be a good citizen of the world in the future.
When we are in our study time, I am not only her mother, I am her teacher and I answer to our homeschooling provider, the DepEd, and most of all, the universe who has given me the assignmeng of shepherding my daughter, feeding her a banquet of ideas which she will use fir her entire life. When I set the rules, I expect her to obey them not because I feel like it, but because it is under my duty as her educator. This same expectation is extended to all other rules I set as her parent.
Eliminate all the noise. Remove anything that coukd cause distraction. Gadgetd are mostly the culprits. To my daughter, a new book causes distraction to her. You habe to get to know your child's personality for you to understand what distracts them. Beware though because rewards and punishments come in so many forms. Devoiding them of the thing they love most could divert their attention somewhere else. As for me, I create an atmosphere conducive to learning. I usually just play Bach, Beethoven, or Chopin (we are studying Chopin this quarter) in the background while she does her assignments and keepings.
Consistency and follow through is key to developing the habit of attention. It will be a tough feat at first bust slowly but surely, as long as you yourself as the educator focus on the goal, you'll find that your learner has developed paying attention. Developing the habit of attention is not a walk in the park. With so many things that distract children nowadays, it will take a lot of patience, but I promise you, it will be worth it.
