I just wanted to send some love to my top ten referrers…thank you all so very much.  You all inspire me!

Here is the TOP TEN:

• aresohappy.squarespace.com
• thewaldorfconnection.com
• untroddenpaths.blogspot.com
• simplicityparenting.com
• ancienthearth2.blogspot.com
• catherine-et-les-fees.blogspot.com
• ourdayourjourney.blogspot.com
• eileenspace.blogspot.com
• chelseab.typepad.com
• blumieboys.blogspot.com

I have been reading those, and here is a spot I have been enjoying as well:  http://www.anthromed.org/  I have also been enjoying re-reading “Kingdom of Childhood” for the Christopherus study.  Is anyone else over there?

And, I am soliciting ideas for what you would like to read in this space.  It is always a bit of a challenge, because some people read this blog for homeschooling, some parents don’t homeschool at all and read it for parenting inspiration….some people read this blog for information regarding Waldorf parenting/homeschooling and some people just skip that…You all keep me on my toes!  I just consider this a parenting blog that melds all my interests, passions and areas where I have some knowledge and I hope some of it helps someone…pretty simple.    Anyway, please do let me know what you would like to read more about.  There are now over 640 posts on this blog, if you can believe that!

Love to you all,

Carrie

Hope your days of Summer are going well!  Here are a few pictures of our favorite Summer activity – thank you to my dear friend Samantha Fogg of Work +Play Dog Training (http://workplaydogs.com/) for taking these shots. 

What you probably cannot tell  is that in the second picture our dog is towing the children back to shore.  Our dog just finished an introductory carting class and will soon be starting water rescue classes.  She is a good dog.  And no one is wearing sun hats in these pictures because no one would keep them on.  Such is the challenge of Summer!

Much love and many blessings,

Carrie

Ah, it is that time of year!  The time of year when I want to flee out of the Deep South and go somewhere else!  (And since we just returned from vacation, I guess that won’t be happening, sniff).  Last year I wrote out some simple steps to help mothers deal with the July Doldrums (yes, this an official name now, LOL).  Here is that back post:  http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/31/down-and-out-the-july-doldrums/  and here are a few more ideas, suggestions and thoughts:

• How has everyone done with establishing a Summer Rhythm?  If you have small children, they really cannot be left to just wander the house in the Summer and “find something to do” – essentially because this leads to the “Summer Bickering and Fighting”.  Summer can be a more expansive time, but please do be sure to plan some daily rest times and predictable bedtimes as well!
• This is a great time of year to connect your children to nature with catching fireflies, swimming in lakes and oceans, hiking and camping.  For some more inspiration, please do catch this back post:  http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/01/celebrating-summer-with-small-children-a-waldorf-perspective/

On the home front, perhaps these posts will give you all some inspiration.  Here are a few oldies but goodies that perhaps you have not read if you are new to this blog:

• How about focusing on your home?  One thing I do every Summer is go through my WHOLE house, the closets, the garage, the drawers, that storage upstairs and try to get everything in order for the upcoming school year.  Perhaps this post will serve as inspiration:  http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/09/12/is-your-home-a-sanctuary/
• Need some parenting inspiration?  How about these posts?

http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/06/16/mindful-parenting-practices-that-every-parent-should-know/

http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/09/08/embracing-and-uplifting/

Need some more inspiration?  Out in blog land, I am  enjoying some of Melisa Nielsen’s posts – this one on patience is worth a look: http://waldorfjourney.typepad.com/a_journey_through_waldorf/2010/07/are-you-patient.html

How about some Arts and Crafts?  The other blog I am really enjoying for all the wonderful arts and crafts ideas is from one of my readers!  Please see here for some great art projects:  http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your Summer! (or Winter as it may be Down Under! )

Many blessings,

Carrie

In Waldorf Education, we have vacation in the month of December, we have two whole weeks around Easter, and we take a true Summer Vacation.

Summer Vacation in the United States seems to almost be becoming a thing of the past.  The shelves of Barnes and Noble are crammed with workbooks so your child will not be “ left behind”; every parenting magazine I pick up talks about reading and summer contests for reading so children don’t lose the ability to read; so many homeschoolers I know homeschool  through the summer months….

Ah, but I think in so many ways it is productive to focus on things other than the eyes as connected to the brain during Summer!   Summer is this time when we gloriously live in our senses and take in Nature and all of Creation in this beautiful running stream!  Why would we not work with this time of year instead of trying to work against it?  Growth occurs in the Summer in the body, in the way we process things through those twelve senses!  There are so many things to be learned in the Summer that  one cannot learn from any book and there are  so many skills to develop!

Here are a few examples:  picking fruit from thorny vines and having the sticky juice run down your arms, traveling to the lake, the mountains or the beach and walking barefoot over the sand or tree roots, weeding in the garden in the hot, canning, building, bonfires on St. John’s Tide, camping, fireworks, eating watermelon, swimming in a really cold lake.

If you must focus on something, my plea is to focus on the physical, the practical.  If your child is over five, can they swim really well?  Ride a bike?  Roller skate? Climb a tree?  Traverse the monkey bars by themselves?  Do they help with canning?  Can they clean?  How can they  help with camping?

Most of all, whilst the children play, this is your time to get your house in order for fall, your time to plan your fall homeschool year, and also your time to be outside making joyous memories with your family.

So, my plea is to make this a true vacation, but also to have a balance.  Please speak with your spouse and have at least once a week (or more!) in which you can plan for fall.  Sit down with a calendar and don’t plan to be out every single afternoon – also plan some time to get your house ready for fall.  Slow and steady wins the race for we adults…

But please let the children be on break!  They will come back tan and tall and ready to learn!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Someone recently asked about how to get everything done and specifically  how I get everything done……You all know I don’t think we should be too hard on ourselves, because small children are only small once and you really cannot get things done with the same efficiency as you did prior to having small children around.  I certainly don’t get everything I want done, and I work in very small chunks of time, ten minutes here and fifteen minutes there.

However, even though we know we cannot get it ‘”all” done, we also know that if we have older children, there are some things that just HAVE to get done.  I do think it is important to plan in homeschooling, especially when you have multiple children that are older.  It is just too difficult to “fly by the seat of your pants” when you have babies and toddlers and older children, and with older children, there are skills to be acquired in their education.  Waldorf is rigorous!  More about homeschool planning in a minute…

From a parenting perspective and from  a Waldorf perspective, we also want to do things that build up our own inner life so we will be better parents and better teachers.  From a Waldorf perspective, we know that working with small children uses up our etheric forces, our life forces.  I think even non-Waldorf parents would agree that taking care of small children sometimes can be challenging and draining.  So one important thing to do in your summer planning is to consider activities that will replenish your etheric life.  In Waldorf, we often think of this as artistic activities:  art, music, handwork, drawing and painting.  Eurythmy  actually takes tremendous etheric forces and should not be done by pregnant women or women with children under the age of three as your etheric forces are so vitally tied to your small child.  Other ways to help your etheric body include warmth in the chest area, warming foods (some would say “rich” foods) and I would add sleep; really getting into a rhythmic pattern for your own sleeping and waking.

I have written many times that I do all my homeschool planning over the summer so it is all done by the time we start school in the fall.  I  mainly do this at night after my children are asleep because I do plan on the computer, or sometimes I get a half hour where the baby is asleep and my husband takes the older children to the pool or the park and I plan then.  I try to plan homeschool things for a half an hour to two hours a week over the Summer, and just work in those small but consistent chunks.

Reading Steiner is an important part of preparation for homeschooling, and if you are parenting, reading books regarding gentle discipline is very important to keep your mindset focused. Reading can be done in very small chunks indeed.  Lisa’s YahooGroups are studying “Practical Advice to Teachers” and also “Bees”…Please see here to join the fun!  steinerstudygroup@yahoogroups.com is the link for the “Practical Advice to Teachers” study group!  Even reading for five to ten minutes a day is better than nothing!  Slow but steady!

The other piece, for me at least, is I go through every single space in my home over the summer and declutter and move things and get everything tidy.  I have a small house, and with three children, “stuff” can really take over and pile-up if I am not consistent with it all.

So, in the summer, pretty much I work on the house in the morning in small spurts between fun with the children, in the afternoon we go to the pool and swim until we are ready to drop, and at night, at least for four nights a week I do homeschool lesson planning or my own work for a little bit before my husband and I spend time together.  We also plan “fun days” of going to the lake, or taking in a puppet show, or berry-picking and canning, but we also spend a good amount of time at home.  I tend to have my husband run the errands, or I do them around dinner time for an hour here or there.  I try to limit errand-running as much as possible!

I don’t know if that structure would be helpful to you, but in this summer I encourage you to think how you could get organized and prepared for  fall.  You will be so pleased how everything will be ready come fall!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Now that our time of renewal is over and Ascension is here, I thought I would just post the “sneak preview” of what is coming up the rest of the month of May and into June.   We will be looking at ways to understand our loved ones, mainly through understanding the four temperaments (and for that you really do need to understand the four-fold human being), but also through the attachment lens of “love languages” and nonviolent communication.  I also would like to write a bit about raising boys.    We also need to finish up “Discipline Without Distress” and move into “Hold On To Your Kids” during June. 

This promises to be a busy  month of things to really think about!

And please, do leave your challenges in homemaking and mothering in the comment box below.  I really do try to answer your questions in blog posts; if you have left a challenge before that has not yet been addressed please do leave it again. I get a lot of comments and email and may have inadvertently missed it! I apologize!

Please also leave a comment regarding how often you like to see new posts.  I am trying to figure out if posting daily is way too much, and would love feedback as to what you would like to see!

Also, you may have noticed that now there is an “archive” feature on the sidebar, so if you have time you may want to pick a month and just scroll the headers for posts and see what interests you.  Mothers tell me there is reading in those back months that really does resonate with them.

Many blessings, and looking forward to the rest of May!

Carrie

This can be a tough time of year for homeschooling mothers; serious burn-out and lack of motivation seems to prevail.  Our minds sometimes are more on our seed catalogs and what to get for next year’s curriculum than the here and now.

I think this a great time of year to stop and take stock of where you are in your homeschooling, where your children are, and what are the essential things to get done before the end of the school year.  I also think it can be a nice time of year to plan some things for outside once your weather cooperates and to think of the DOING and the experiences one could create with your grades children, and how to bring awe and reverence to the younger children.

I think every year it is also wise to look at each child, to look at their homeschooling adventure this year and to decide with fresh eyes to homeschool again.  To really commit to that with a new heart, a new love.  Do you have a mission statement for your homeschool?  Are you happy overall with the way things have progressed in your homeschool this year?  What needs to be different?

If you are not homeschooling, perhaps this is a wonderful time to re-commit yourself to your family.  Write that family mission statement or update it.  Commit to that date at home with your spouse after your children go to bed.  Commit to that Family Game Night with the kids!  Connect with each other and love each other!

And dig deep within yourself; replenish that well.  Spend time in creativity, and with good friends and build yourself up.  Think about what your dreams are, and whilst this season of child-rearing is busy, perhaps there are ways to work toward your dreams in small increments. I just signed up for an Internet course that I am very excited about, for example.  It is a small, do-able step toward my eventual goals.

What are your dreams?  Journal, draw, write it all down.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Blessings,

Carrie