Anchor: a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay: Hope was his only anchor.
When we work to become the author of own family life, we take on the authority to provide our spouse and children and ourselves stability. An effective way to do this is through the use of rhythm. If you have small children, it takes time to build a family rhythm that encompasses the year. If you are homeschooling older children and also have younger children not yet ready for formal learning, the cycle of the year through the seasons and through your religious year becomes the number one tool you have for family unity, for family identity, for stability.
I wrote about my homeschool planning method of marking seasonal and liturgical ideas down for each month in past posts. I have written monthly anchor points posts for August, September, October, May and now would like to extend our mood of celebration into June!
June is always an interesting juxtaposition for me personally. It is a month where I often feel very inward because it is often during this time I am going through all the closets, drawers, cabinets and garage space in my home. I organize my school room and take stock. And I am homeschool planning for fall. So in some ways I feel so wrapped up in my own little inner world. I am certain I am terrible company for those around me!
Yet, the juxtaposition is all the time we spend outside in the sun – swimming, at the farm, horseback riding, being at the lake, hiking, camping, bonfires, being outside all day. Yes, the days are growing longer and longer.
This is also a month of introspective history. My home state of Georgia has an amazing history for the month of June. Those of you who love history can check out this link: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/june-georgia-history. We are working on some badges through our National Parks system, and my oldest child ( a rising seventh grader) is working on a badge about the Civil War. (http://gastateparks.org/JuniorRanger). Are you any of you doing something like this in your state?
Gardening and butterflies are another big part of summer. We don’t have a garden this year, but we will be looking for the green caterpillars that turn into Swallowtail butterflies that often turn up on parsley and fennel.
We will be celebrating some beautiful feasts this month, including:
The 5th – St. Boniface
The 9th – St. Columba
The 10th – St. Ephrem of Syria
The 14th – Flag Day
The 15th – Father’s Day
The 22nd – St. Alban
The 24th – The Nativity of St. John the Baptist
The 19th also is Juneteenth Day, which is often celebrated here in the South with many community events.
What are your anchor points this month?
Blessings,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 
Thank you, Carrie! Do you have a post where you elaborate on how you celebrate smaller feasts? Our family has wonderful traditions for Christmas and Pashca/Easter, but we are trying to establish ones for namedays and other saints’ days, as well as for less religious days. I would love to hear more about your own traditions. How do you plan to commemorate the days that you listed for June? Thank you again, as always – your posts can be so grounding.
I came to ask something very similar! Mostly out of curiosity — what does this mean that you are observing all these feast days???? It must be simple, since there are so many!
Hi Lydia and Bugorama,
I do celebrate some of the smaller feasts. Some of them are particular to me and my own inner work in that I am reading something related to that saint and trying to model that quality in our family life. Some of them involve reading to the children books about that saint and particular foods, or even poetry. I will try to post as we do something and go along through the months…..
Thanks and blessings,
Carrie
Hi Lydia and Bugorama,
I do celebrate some of the smaller feasts. Some of them are particular to me and my own inner work in that I am reading something related to that saint and trying to model that quality in our family life. Some of them involve reading to the children books about that saint and particular foods, or even poetry. I will try to post as we do something and go along through the months…..
Thanks and blessings,
Carrie
Great post and food for thought! I’m a little lost this June and overall I think summer has always been a little challenging. I usually don’t do a circle time in June/July nor our regular rhythms such as baking, handwork, painting, hiking, etc. because we too are camping, visiting family, hiking, seeing friends. This summer my husband, a high school teacher, will be home with the girls and I. Ordinarily he has worked part-time in the summer and that too has presented us with a new dimension. I’m having a tough time balancing the need for a little bit more rhythm (where to begin since we’re deciding as we go!) with the desire to be spontaneous and open. My girls are 6 in the fall and we’ll be doing K. As a former teacher now homeschooler, I think I gain peace from the planning and resulting routines during the “school year” and just feel a little out of sorts without the weekly plan and circle time. Summer solstice is important to us and I have been doing more feast days this past year. I have not done any in June though and think I might! Long reply–sorry! Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Sheila
Dear Sheila,
I have quite a few back posts – I will see if I can go back and find some for you and post them here, but in the meantime, try the posts under Seasons under “Family Life” in the header bar.
I do find the summer often needs some limits, some rhythm because otherwise we all get too sucked into the expansiveness of summer. I know some mothers that will still plan “out” days with several days during the week to be home, or several mothers I have known have used a home until 2 kind of mode. I have a few friends still that get out in the morning, but they are home by 2 every day (the opposite of some of my other friends!). So, I think you will have to play and see what works for you.
Blessings,
Carrie
Thanks for the ideas and for referencing your other categories. I have not read many under Family Life and what a great world of thoughts there are waiting for me there! I think between a big move in Sept (NC to CO) and my husband being home this summer, I’m trying to go with the flow, but so true that we can get lost in the expansiveness of the summer. I found some summer verses and will try to decide on a few stories as well as plan some crafts for summer table. One of our hens died and we made a red velvet cake in her honor tonight (she was a Rhode Island Red)-told stories about her and one of my daughters said we can do this ever year when we think of Red! So that might be added to the June calendar. 🙂 I plan on squaring time away tonight for some more planning. Thank you again. Sheila
Sheila,
Thank you for sharing; I hope you find helpful words in that section. And, yes, I love the idea of a Big Red Velvet Cake each year – what a family tradition! I am sorry for your loss though.
Blessings,
Carrie