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
The Parenting Passageway 
Hi Carrie, I love a new post every day and very much appreciate your effort with this blog. I still don’t know how you manage your time so effectively!
Love your blog
Long time reader
Vucju
A post a day is not too much – I feel sad when there’s no post to read!
Would LOVE to read more about supporting boys.
Anything about cultivating outside spaces … setting up “play scenes” for your kids to find when they awake… those would be fabulous.
Hi Carrie,
I love your posts, as you know:) I find a post every 3 days or so to be ideal…..you offer so many things to think about and try, that one day is never enough time to assimilate things.
I mentioned once that I would love to hear your thoughts about getting through a difficult pregnancy with little ones at home. I tend to have very nauseous pregnancies and I think I will feel guilty that their life is boring here or that I can’t offer them enough.
Many thanks, Carrie, for all you do! Your recent posts on Christian resources were so helpful. I have started a Beth Moore book after your mentioned her and this study is making a very real change in my life.
MOlly
I really like daily posting, if you’re enjoying it, I vote for keeping it up.
Carrie,
Thank you for the work you put into each and every post. Your thoughtfulness and breadth of the topic are appreciated. I would like to read a post every other day. Sometimes I get backlogged, then find I have many posts to read. IT would help me manage and not feel so behind sometimes. Because your posts are full and detailed, I really want to dedicate the time to each one and not breeze through because I had something pile up.
My biggest challenge is to figure out how to be the mommy I want to be and not the mommy I saw growing up. The nature versus nurture is my struggle. I am learning so much from your site and others on being the mommy I want to be, caring, compassionate, calm, gentle. But those old patterns of easy to anger, yelling, screaming, are hard to break, because it just seems too natural. I see this in my boys and I cringe knowing I put it there. I struggle with this but know it will get better because I am different from my past. It is just a hard, long process.
Thank you again!
I LOVE your daily posting. Keeps me remembering to come back and offers a sort of daily meditation.
I’d love to see you address handling times of transition together as a family. I say this completely selfishly as am almost 35 weeks pregnant mama with a 2.5 year old whose husband manages the business we opened together back in September. Our life has been kind of an ongoing transition since my son’s birth, and I think we have rolled with all of it well. But I would love to read more food for thought on developing and maintaining rhythms together in this sort of context. The times when circumstance, not necessarily a lack of adequate self-care, makes a mama extra tired, LOL.
Oh, and FWIW, yours is the first blog I have ever found myself going back through to read from beginning to end in the archives, so I am mighty grateful for that feature! Such richness.
This blog has made a tremendous difference in my life and the life of my child. It has opened many doors and lead to some wonderful discoveries. In addition, it gives me encouragment to continue traveling the path that I feel is most beneficial to my family. I look forward to each and every post! I love your daily offerings. Thank you!
Jules
I love the daily posts and they are often extremely timely for me – just what I need to hear & work on for that day! Thanks for what you are putting out there and helping me and others like me. 🙂
Carrie, I’ve been combing through your archives for the past month (I think I found you through simplemom?). I have to say that your ideas have helped me tremendously with parenting and homemaking and preparing to try homeschooling again this next academic year (we tried briefly in the Fall and failed miserably, ending up sending our son back to public kindergarten ..but that’s another story). I love your daily posts! They are truly an “anchor” in my day as mama to 3 kiddos ages 6 and under. And I am eagerly anticipating your thoughts on raising boys. We have two very active ones and the energy level combined with the sibling rivalry makes life incredibly bumpy sometimes. So, please write as much as you feel inspired to do so. Thank you for this blog. It is truly a blessing.
Carrie, as many, I love your blog! Thank you so very much for all the time you put into it. It is very appreciated.
I would love to see you discuss how to react to children ganging up and giggling constantly and not responding to the adults in charge. I know we discussed this on the forum and I know you have mentionned many times that it is very important to not get into that them-against-us mentality, but with my twins especially (because they are so connected), it is extremely difficult. I feel like their attachment to each other is stronger than the parental attachment, so it makes things much harder…
Love,
Catxx
Carrie, I love, love, love this blog and your daily posts. I, too, miss it when there is not a post every day. You have made a tremendous difference in the life of my entire family. Everything is so much more peaceful and happy. Much less yelling too, which is an awesome bonus! I’d love to hear more about dealing with the precocious child. Our son — through his own temperament and our not knowing better — is totally verbal and wants to know why, why, why about any and everything. He will be 5 in August and we will start homeschooling then. He is also already reading. I definitely need more advice on how to deflect those questions without ignoring him. He doesn’t really imitate us in our chores much; he always seems to need explanation. Singing does seem to make a bit of a difference. And I have had him outside at least 2 hours per day since finding your blog. Still, he can’t stop with the questions!
Carrie,
I,too, loooove your blog and yours is the first of which I find myself looking back into archives. I love reading everyday, but do think that every other day would be good to process everything you read about. I feel so inspired as a parent and have seriously began looking at homeschooling as the best option for my 3 year old son because of your blog.
I would like to hear more about young boys. I have a three year old and new born, both boys. I’m not sure what specifically yet, but I’m sure it would have to do with their energy, their boundary testing, and the physical expression of intense emotions (e.g. hitting, grabbing and holding tightly).
Thank you thank you for all your hard work!!
Carrie, I am also one who loves your daily posts. I only read your blog and one other on a daily basis as I find they give me just the right inspiration, information, and encouragement. I truly appreciate all that you are sharing. Thank you.
I am looking forward to what you might say about incorporating parts of the Orthodox “Letters of Grace” curriculum with a Waldorf approach. I am planning to rely mostly on Christopherus materials for First Grade but would love to hear your thoughts on how I could incorporate aspects of “Letters of Grace” as I am encouraged by the network of women who put together this curriculum and with whom I share common faith.
–Marianne
I echo what the others have said – your blog is an amazing gift 🙂 I enjoy seeing a post every day, but I also hope you do what works best for you. As far as parenting questions go, a friend and I were discussing grandparents the other day . . . how do we teach our kids to respect them yet still have fun? How involved do we keep ourselves in the relationship? How do we deal with different values – i.e. toys, movies, what we talk about in front of the kids? How do we ask them to respect our family values? Okay, I know this is a big can of worms, and I’m not sure if it’s something we can all figure out, but I’d be interested in your thoughts. Thank you once again.
I just wanted you to know how much I love your posts and I check everyday to see if there is a new one. 🙂 Your words are encouraging and inspiring. Thank you for all you share…I truly appreciate all of the time you take in writing this blog…I know that you are blessing so many families!
Hi Carrie
I want to be selfish and say I enjoy your daily posting and please post as often as you feel to. I admire you for managing it all. But please do not feel pressured from your readers to post everyday. If there is no post for the day I do enjoy looking at your archives, I am trying to read through it all. And there are also so many post I like to re-read and digest.
As so many people mentioned our family has changed so much since I have started to read your blog and I will forever be grateful to you. I too still stuggle to be the mummy I want to be, however I know I have been making great progress.
Altough my kids are still small, I enjoy reading your posts about older children and your homeschool planning. Getting a glimps of what the future holds help me to put the current challenges in perspective. And who knows maybe I will be brave enough to homeschool when the time comes 😉
Hope you ar enjoying some lovely Spring wheather from a very wet New Zealand.
Dear Carrie,
I look up in your blog every day and love to read your posts but some of them are so rich of insights and thoughts that I feel rushed when another comes up too soon! I think it depends also on the effort I have to do reading everything in English and about the american cultural context.
I’d like a kind of rythm: Monday-toddlers, Tuesday homeschooling and grades, Wednesday-books, just as an example.
Then I’d like to know how you manage all this. It’s not envy, I’m not confronting and feeling bad but: writing, reading are intellectual activities that are so difficult to manage with little children. Leaving aside ironing, cooking and all the chores. I’m curious about your family organization like if you have a help for the chores, if your husband works outside the home. It’s not only curiosity, it’s reality. I’m often completely alone because my mate travels a lot for his job during weekends so some things about the weekly rythm are just not realistic for us. I’ve finally learned not to complain about this but to make the most out of it because this is our family and is good as it is. and also to be gentle with myself when I can’t to everything I’d like to.
I went off topic, going back to your question, I’d love more rythm so to keep that predictability as a dayly “meditation” exercise.
ciao
Federica
Dear Carrie,
As all the previous posters mentioned I too absolutely LOVE your blog!
I like it that you post every other day or so, as every day can be sometimes overwhelming, especially since a lot of your posts require deeper thought and re-reading helps me process your posts better.
As it is your blog I probably would write when you feel like it, without any outside pressure, as to keep your creative juices flowing so to speak, the last thing we all would want is to burn you out. 🙂
I also love to re-read your older posts, just to refresh them in my mind.
Thank you for all your hard and very helpful work that you provide your readers with!
Blessings,
Maggie
Thank you Carrie,
Your daily post is something I look forward to. You inspire me with your thoughts and suggestions. I believe I’ve become a gentler mother because of you.
If you wrote a book I’d buy it.
Helen
This blog is a treasure trove covering the practical, spiritual, and scientific. I love to read your in depth analysis and you cover so many things of interest to me. I like the frequent posts, but find myself having to catch up because I can’t read one of them every day. It is a lot to digest and put into practice, so if you cut down that would be just fine too. Thank you for pouring so much of yourself into this blog! I wish it was a book, with a table of contents to top it all off! I’d refer to it often. But, in the meantime, the computer works too. 🙂
I am particularly interested in meshing Waldorf homeschooling with a large(ish) family. I know you’ve written about it before, but it continues to be something that is a challenge. My time seems to fly by in the morning with getting my four children (8,5,2, and 5 months) ready, breakfast, morning walk, diaper changes, nap for youngest, chores, then we try to do songs, verses, and movement activities. Then there is pennywhistle lessons, main lesson block, snack, outdoor free play, lunch, clean up, eurythmy exercises, read aloud, knitting, and on and on… I can’t seem to fit it all in one day! It’s so upsetting because I have so many things I want us to do but time is going by too fast!
Also, your thoughts on Waldorf homeschooling and Christian living/beliefs/studies is particularly of value to me. I know *no* other Waldorf homeschoolers who are Christian. So anything you share within the realm of living as a Christian and having that mesh with Waldorf homeschooling is of great interest to me.
Thanks again,
Sarah
need some of that nonviolent noncoercive language help LOL
Poor Emerson…it’s not her fault we are exhausted and have no patience
I would like some guidance about transitioning grade 2-4 children from unschooling into Waldorf. I look at the vast amounts of formal work that you accomplish in a day, and I am overwhelmed. My children refuse to do more than 5 minutes of table work a day. I don’t know how to rectify this! I can force them to sit there and do the work, and then we are all crying, and I am teaching them to hate borrowing, or to hate writing.
We can get a lot learned away from the table, but my children are way behind in math and handwriting and I simply do not know how to get them to buckle down and do the work without rebelling. Help!
Kay, big topic, I will email you off list. But one of the very first things I will say, besides to point out that Waldorf is very active, is to say that a consultation with Melisa Nielsen or Donna Simmons may be most helpful.
Will email you soon.
Blessings,
Carrie