Laying Down the Rails

by Sonya Shafer

Discover the secret to smooth and easy days! "The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days."--Charlotte Mason. Charlotte likened good habits to rails on which our children's lives could run smoothly. It is the parent's business to lay down those rails. Here, compiled into one volume, are all the habits Charlotte mentioned in her writings with her thoughts and suggestions for cultivating each one. This work also includes Charlotte's help for breaking bad habits, hundreds of inspiring quotes, and lots of practical tips.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Education, Self Help, Personal Development, Christian, School

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Sonya Shafer is a popular homeschool speaker and writer, specializing in the Charlotte Mason Method. She has been on an adventure for more than 20 years studying, researching, practicing, and teaching Charlotte’s gentle and effective methods of education. Her passion for homeschooling her own four daughters grew into helping others and then into Simply Charlotte Mason, which publishes her many books and provides a place of practical encouragement to homeschoolers at https://simplycharlottemason.com/.

Reviews

[Rachel Yoder]

This book is so inspirational because it takes hard things and encourages you to break them down into practical bite sized pieces. I was so impressed with how the author made me feel ok with where I am now, but at the same time lovingly encouraged me to better my character and lay down the rails of a good character to achieve a smoother time in life. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone looking to better themselves in a do able way.

[Julia]

I enjoy Sonya Schafer's teaching style. Her real life examples speak to me more than a lot of books on habit. Also, she has a clear step by step way of laying things down that clears away any confusion. And finally, she is realistic and encouraging, you feel as if someone who knows and understands you is cheering you on.
Another great resource from Simply Charlotte Mason.

[Renee]

I have mix feeling about this book. I really wantex to like it but I was disappointed. I love the idea of creating good habits but all this reads was still in the "abstract" and not enough in the "how to" apply it

[Kate]

This was a really engaging read! It was helpful in really studying and fine tuning my own habits and figuring out how to create new ones that are in line with my goals rather than continue with ones that were counterintuitive to them.

[Laura]

This is a short, but extremely thorough read on habit training. It’s one I’ll have to pull off the shelf and read again to inspire fresh motivation in future years.

[Tawnda Andrews]

I liked this book. Good thoughts on forming habits but eventually the style of writing began to grate on me. I had to make myself finish reading as it wasn't a compelling read. Also, while I realize the other is a Charlotte Mason devotee, the frequency of quotes utilized started get annoying. The author is little to much Charlotte Mason disciple then seems healthy.

[Jess Stockman]

It’s not a bad book, but just not a lot of substance. It can be repetitive and a little watered down. It gets the point across and is a good intro for someone who doesn’t or hasn’t already been working on things like habits in their life.

[Samantha]

What a helpful resource for parents. If you need to work on building habits yourself this is the book for you!

[Damilola]

Very anecdotal. A good read. I really enjoyed the list in the back of habits that Charlotte Mason constructed. Very thorough for an adult learners and for adult parents or those that work with children.

In reading this book, it confirmed for me the idea that it is good to create habits in life specially when going through formidable and changing times. It is good to have habits so that one does not even have to think about cultivating certain qualities. I definitely see where I have strengths in habits and where I could use more habit training. Great read. Encourages me to map out areas of growth.

[Jacklyn (ReadingBliss)]

Very insightful. An intuitive person might’ve already figured out some of these things without being fortunate enough to have a mentor like a parent, but it’s still an encouraging book to help you stay motivated and validated that you’re on the right track. I also found it to be inspiring to start new good habits and keep progressing forward when you might want to just take a break and stay where you’re at because you’re already been working hard for a long time on other habits/personal growth. I think this was a great read and will probably reread it in the future and have already recommended it to a friend.

[Brittany]

I'm not sure why I'm surprised at how well written, yet concise, this book was since the author is a connoisseur of Charlotte Mason's ways.

Well communicated encouragement and some beginning knowledge on how to move forward in establishing new habits for yourself. As a homeschool parent it's been important to me to work on that which I see are faults of my own, and then be able to help the children by utilizing the same or similar methods.

I'm interested to see how Laying Down the Rails and Laying Down the Rails for Children differ.

[Kaity Tomlinson]

This is a good, basic introduction to developing healthy habits, and inspirational to a point. The heavy use of anecdotes becomes tiresome quickly. I’d recommend reading Atomic Habits alongside this book for a studied psychological approach for developing habits. Laying Down the Rails for Yourself offers good motivation to establish good habits but falls short in the practical advice on how exactly to go about making them.

[Charlene Preg]

I did not think the length of pages was needed for the central theme -- while valuable I felt it kept reiterating the main point. It gave good principals and a variety of quotes from C. Mason. Not sure I would recommend it but plan to read the one for children next - to see how the message is presented.

[Tara Milici]

Great read! It was inspiring and uplifting.

[Heather]

Very practical & helpful guide to establishing good habits

[Bridget]

Great book in easy to understand language and examples of habit training yourself based upon educator, Charlotte Mason’s ideas.

[Sarah DeKoekkoek]

A basic primer on building habits. Helpful but nothing overly earth-shattering.

[Mollie Parrish]

I read this to go along with our habit training homeschool curriculum. It was short, sweet and to the point. Similar to Atomic Habits, but shorter and written by a Christian.

[klagan]

Unable to finish due to health issues. What I read was good though.

[Cool Mom and Collected]

Soooooo inspiring to get goof habits going!

[Heather Bondeson]

slogged through personal story after story to get to the last chapter and found a delightful recap of all the main points. for me, this book could've been 10 pages long.

[Tracy]

Definitely one to revisit, especially the last couple of chapters, which summarize key points and habits. I’m ready to tackle some new habits.

“We must not amuse ourselves that we have done something when we have only formed a good resolution. Power comes by doing and not by resolving.” -Charlotte Mason

trigger>anticipate>action>reward
habits remove the effort of decision

[Emily Tsesmeloglou]

Some really good inspiration for getting rid of some old habits and replacing them with good ones. I tend to overdue it at New Year's or when I'm feeling inspired and try to tackle 18 new habits at one time which of course usually ends in failure, so this book gave me some good strategies to work on one at a time.

[Mgeis01]

I loved this. So many great ideas about building good habits.

[Amy]

so many habits to instill in my children, but first in my own life to provide a better example! argh!

[Courtney Clark]

Only 3 stars because, really, you need the workbook and why didn't they just make it one book since it's really quite necessary? Otherwise it'd be a solid 4. Not life altering but nice and useful.

[Elizabeth]

A book that I'll keep on my nightstand and read a couple times a year. Very useful and encouraging! Good habits make life easier!

[superawesomekt]

Nice perspective on the value of self discipline and habits. The writing is simple and direct, if a little lackluster. Get the ebook as the middle of each page of the printed book has blurred text.

[Rachael]

an excellent work on the value of habits and how you go about forming good habits

[Natalie Votipka]

I actually lost this book before finishing it for a book group but i'm going to cheat and call it finished anyway. It was a fine book for motivating and guiding you in building good habits, but unique only in the abundance of Charlotte Mason quotes. To be honest, these didn't add much for me. They were a bit redundant and unnecessarily belabored the point. The "word pictures" were the same. Regardless, it was a pretty quick read.