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Charlotte Mason’s Habit of Attention in Your Homeschool

 

 

One of the best things we can do for ourselves and for our children is to gain Charlotte Mason’s Habit of Attention. When we can truly fix our attention on a matter at hand, we are already over half way to our destination of success.

Here is how you can Charlotte Mason's Habit of Attention in your homeschool. Step-by-step with accompanying resources.

Photo by Amy Law

For those who decide to embark upon the career of habit formation, remember:

-One habit at a time
-One day at a time
-Practice good actions weekends, too
-Nip the weed in the bud because formation is more efficiently accomplished than reformation
  
But be encouraged with this wise old saying “One habit overcometh another”. You may not be able to teach old dogs new tricks, but GOD is able to make all things new again. Isn’t this a great blessing? — the last paragraph of Chap 9 (The Happiness of Habit) on pg 76 of The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

How to Gain Charlotte Mason’s Habit of Attention

I am now focusing on the Habit of Attention with my children and I look with hope towards the day that I will be able to share our victories testimony!!

A couple of things I am doing now to help my children gain this Habit is:

1. Practice only saying something once

2. Stop “talking” so much (no nagging)

3. Become more organized (ex. Work Box System) 

4. Close to door to distractions (ex. Close bedroom door (where the toys are) during school hours)

The Definition of Attention 

 
What is Attention?––It is evident that attention is no ‘faculty’ of the mind; indeed, it is very doubtful how far the various operations of the mind should be described as ‘faculties’ at all. Attention is hardly even an operation of the mind, but is simply the act by which the whole mental force is applied to the subject in hand. This act, of bringing the whole mind to bear, may be trained into a habit at the will of the parent or teacher, who attracts and holds the child’s attention by means of a sufficient motive.—-CM, Vol 1 pg 146 
 
As children get older, the responsibility shifts to them to use the volition of their own will to make themselves focus, even when things try to distract their attention. Children should be taught to feel a sense of triumph at being able to compel themselves to focus. Let them know how thoughts are always flitting in and out of the mind, and they will drift from one thought to another. The struggle and victory is to be able to fix their thoughts on the task at hand. A child who succeeds deserves a reward of a sympathetic look from his mother and her words of praise: ‘You have done well, you’ve done the right thing.’ But keep in mind that a person can only pay attention if he has the intellectual capability to grasp the subject. The importance of attention can’t be emphasized too much. It is within everyone’s reach and should be the mental discipline most coveted. No matter how clever a child is, he can only make use of his intelligence in the proportion that he’s able to focus his attention when and where he wants.–CM, Vol 1, pg 154-146
 
  …habit of Attention, because the highest intellectual gifts depend for their value upon the measure in which their owner has cultivated the habit of attention. To explain why this habit is of such supreme importance, we must consider the operation of one or two of the laws of thought. But just recall, in the meantime, the fixity of attention with which the trained professional man––the lawyer, the doctor, the man of letters––listens to a roundabout story, throws out the padding, seizes the facts, sees the bearing of every circumstance, and puts the case with new clearness and method; and contrast this with the wandering eye and random replies of the uneducated;––and you see that to differentiate people according to their power of attention is to employ a legitimate test.-CM vol 1 pg 138  

 

Here is how you can Charlotte Mason's Habit of Attention in your homeschool. Step-by-step with accompanying resources.

I will leave you with a definition of Attention that I came across one day that I just love but sadly I do not remember where it came from——ATTENTION  is LISTENING with your EYES, EARS & HEART!!! 

Charlotte Mason’s own home school education books (Vol 1) written in modern language

 

More Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Resources

 

Please share with us what you do to exercise the Habit of Attention for yourself or your children.  

Here is how you can Charlotte Mason's Habit of Attention in your homeschool. Step-by-step with accompanying resources.

by Angie first published February 2010

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tricia says

    “but GOD is able to make all things new again” – I love that! and “listening with your ears, eyes and heart”
    Thanks for another great post full of resources.

    Reply

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