Habit training gone wackadoo

Charlotte Mason says that habit training is...

“What you would have the man become, that you must train the child to be” (Vol. 2, p. 15)

For some time now, I have a regular routine of "morning chores"..they all know what I am talking about.  Little habits of neatness that make my day start right.  Little things that make our personal space more, happy?  Is that the word?  I do these things without thinking.  I do these things for visual harmony and also for my husband's relaxation or to induce it anyway even if we have three little indians running wild in through the house when he gets home, atleast it looks less chaotic.  More importantly, there is a time to play/make messes and a time to clean up and start over or change gears.  Anyway, the list is this:

Morning Chores

• Make beds
• Dress/hang up jammies or fold up for the next night
• Feed/water cats
• Breakfast
• Back upstairs to brush teeth/hair

And while upstairs, I get dressed and they play a game like Old Maid or Tangoes or Legos or a Richard Scarry or B. Potter video, sometimes just quiet free play and reading...there are variations on those things depending on the mood.  Sometimes I wonder if farm families really care about all this with all the land and animal chores waiting outside..hummmmm.

This is the wacky part.  For over a month, mostly consistently, the boys have been completing all before they come down for breakfast!!  Great.  Saves time and no hassle for me to lead them through it, right?  Well, this is the really wacky part.  They even make my bed sometimes!  See example below!  Remember, the boys are almost 8 and almost 5 but not yet.  Feeling good about my routine, right?  Now it gets, wackadoo.

Recently, they have confessed (is it really a confession or just they wanted me to know I think) that they get up in the wee hours of the night, get dressed, make their bed and cover themselves with a blanket and go back to sleep.  This way, the boys contend, there is less to do in the morning.  What??  Hold on now.  I do recall, in his bachelor days, their father did something similar and has told them about it.  Did they remember that sage advice?  I am not sure.

I told them that we have plenty of time in the morning since I homeschool so we are not rushing off to school.  We are here to cultivate habits and we can get these things done and they don't need to do that in the middle of the night.  They just look at me.  I have not asked recently if they have done it.  I usually get up before them and occasionally look in on them and so far, have not seen them atop the bed with a blanket and dressed so it does not happen all the time I think.

I don't think they are stressed with my habit training.  They don't get angry or resentful about it but just seem to know, it has to be done so they were being...practical.  I keep it nice, friendly but steady but maybe I am just a wee bit too habitual for my own good!  Now the details of things like putting the lid back on the toothpaste, flushing the toilet every, single time, pick up a toy in your room when finished with it (you know, the kind of toy with a 100 pieces scattered hither and yon)...things like this, well, the training goes on and on. 

I am trying to feel happy about this one gone a little overboard for now and not worry over it. It is really cute, really.

I cannot leave her out on the subject of habit training.  She is not the least bit interested in the potty which is okay with me.  The time will come when she will want to with gusto just like the boys.  She does have a habit of bringing me all supplies to change her though.  I can live with that for now.  She also unloads her dresser drawer to get dressed in the morning..thats a start.  It's fun and funny.

Is there anything you have taught your children that has stuck really, really well?  Please share!  Got ideas on the toilet flushing thing?