“And perhaps it is not too beautiful a thing to believe in this redeemed world, that, as the babe turns to his mother though he has no power to say her name, as the flowers turn to the sun, so the hearts of the children turn to their Saviour and God with unconscious delight and trust. Nursery””
“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.””
“Children should know that such things are before them also; that whenever they want to do wrong capital reasons for doing the wrong thing will occur to them. But, happily, when they want to do right no less cogent reasons for right doing will appear. After abundant practice in reasoning and tracing out the reasons of others, whether in fact or fiction, children may readily be brought to the conclusions that reasonable and right are not synonymous terms; that reason is their servant, not their ruler,”
“Who can take the measure of a child? The Genie of the Arabian tale is nothing to him. He, too, may be let out of his bottle and fill the world. But woe to us if we keep him corked up.””
Charlotte M. MasonCharlotte M. Mason was a British educator, author, and reformer known for her influential ideas on education and child development. Born in the late 19th century, she established a philosophy of educa...
“Therefore, the selection of their first lesson-books is a matter of grave importance, because it rests with these to give children the idea that knowledge is supremely attractive and that reading is delightful. Once””
“our power to conduct our relations with other people depends upon our power of conducting our relations with ourselves. Every””
“It is worth while to point out the differing characters of a system and a method, because parents let themselves be run away with often enough by some plausible ‘system,’ the object of which is to produce development in one direction”
“To bring the human race, family by family, child by child, out of the savage and inhuman desolation where He is not, into the light and warmth and comfort of the presence of God, is, no doubt, the chief thing we have to do in the world.””
“That parents should make over the religious education of their children to a Sunday School is, no doubt, as indefensible as if they sent them for their meals to a table maintained by the public bounty.””
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control”
“She must ask herself seriously, Why must the children learn at all? What should they learn? And, How should they learn it? If she take the trouble to fiind a definite and thoughtful answer to each of these three queries, she will be in a position to direct her children’s studies; and will, at the same time, be surprised to find that three-fourths of the time and labour ordinarily spent by the child at his lessons is lost time and wasted energy.””
“with a child on his first offence, and a grieved look is enough to convict the little transgressor; but let him go on until a habit of wrong-doing is formed, and the cure is a slow one; then the mother has no chance until she has formed in him a contrary habit of well-doing.””
“Let each of the Appetites, so necessary to our bodies, be our servant and not our master, and remember, above all things, that sin and slavery to any Appetite begin in our thoughts. It is our thoughts that we must rule, and the way to rule them is very simple. We just have to think of something else when an evil thought comes, something really interesting and nice, with a prayer in our hearts to God to help us to do so.””
“Ourselves,’ a Vast Country not yet Explored.––When we think of our bodies and of the wonderful powers they possess, we say, under our breath, “Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty.” Now, let us consider that still more wonderful Self which we cannot see and touch as we can our bodies, but which thinks and loves and prays to God; which is happy or sad, good or not good. This inner self is, as we have said, like a vast country much of which is not yet explored, or like a great house, built as a maze, in which you cannot find your way about. People usually talk of ‘Ourselves’ as made up of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul; and we will do the same, because it is a convenient way to describe us. It is more convenient to say, ‘The sun rises at six and sets at nine,’ than to say, ‘As the earth turns round daily before the sun, that part of the earth on which we live first gets within sight of the sun about six o’clock in the morning in March.’ ‘The sun rises and sets’ is a better way of describing this, not only because it is easier to say, but because it is what we all appear to see and to know. In the same way, everybody appears to know about his own heart and soul and mind; though, perhaps, the truth is that there is no division into parts, but that the whole of each of us has many different powers and does many different things at different times.””
“The Sailor-boy’s Gossip You say, dear mamma, it is good to be talkingWith those who will kindly endeavour to teach.And I think I have learnt something while I was walkingAlong with the sailor-boy down on the beach. He told me of lands where he soon will be going,Where humming-birds scarcely are bigger than bees,Where the mace and the nutmeg together are growing,And cinnamon formeth the bark of some trees. He told me that islands far out in the oceanAre mountains of coral that insects have made,And I freely confess I had hardly a notionThat insects could world in the way that he said. He spoke of wide deserts where the sand-clouds are flying.No shade for the brow, and no grass for the feet;Where camels and travelers often lie dying,Gasping for water and scorching with heat. He told me of places away in the East,Where topaz, and ruby, and sapphires are found:Where you never are safe from the snake and the beast,For the serpent and tiger and jackal abound. I thought our own Thames was a very great stream,With its waters so fresh and its currents so strong;But how tiny our largest of rivers must seemTo those he had sailed on, three thousand miles long. He speaks, dear mamma, of so many strange places,With people who neither have cities nor kings.Who wear skins on their shoulders, paint on their faces,And live on the spoils which their hunting-field brings. Oh! I long, dear mamma, to learn more of these stories,From books that are written to please and to teach,And I wish I could see half the curious gloriesThe sailor-boy told me of down on the beach. Eliza Cook.””
“Sun, moon and stars, by day and night,At God’s commandment give us light;And when we wake, and while we sleep,Their watch, like guardian angels, keep. The bright blue sky above our head,The soft green earth on which we tread,The ocean rolling round the land,Were made by God’s almighty hand. Sweet flowers that hill and dale adorn,Fair fruit trees, fields of grass and corn,The clouds that rise, the showers that fall,The winds that blow - God sent them all. The beasts that graze with downward eye,The birds that perch, and sing, and fly,The fishes swimming in the sea,God’s creatures are as well as we. But us He formed for better things,As servants of the King of kings,With lifted hands and open face,And thankful heart to seek His grace. Montgomery.””
“Diluted Knowledge.--But, poor children, they are too often badly used by their best friends in the matter of the knowledge””