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, which has led to the creation of this series. Now we are extending our mood of celebration into July!
July has always been an interesting month for me. My personal energy has often felt in the realm of doldrums or a bit of emptiness underneath the expansiveness of summer. I think here in the Deep South, where summer starts in May, the height of the heat and sun really sinks in during July. It can be exhausting, and can point to a need for balance along with all the wonderful camping, blueberry picking, and lake swims.
We have beautiful days of celebration to anchor our July.
4 July- the beautiful celebration of America. I hope my American readers did celebrate!
11 July- St. Benedict of Nursia. I love this book by Tomie dePaola here .
19 July – St. Seraphim of Sarov. Here is an Anglican perspective: http://ohioanglican.blogspot.com/2014/01/seraphim-of-sarov.html. There is a wonderful Anglican (from New Zealand) document regarding St. Seraphim of Sarov, but I couldn’t figure out how to link to it, but perhaps if you are interested you can search. In the Anglican tradition, Saint Seraphim is celebrated on January 2nd, but I love to take this day to tell stories about St. Seraphim and the bear and other stories and sayings. There is a sweet book about this saint here on Amazon. This book is on my list to read for myself and also this one.
25 July – St. James the Apostle
Love and happy summering. Please share your ideas for this month or a link to a blog post if you have anchors for your month listed there.
Blessings,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 
I feel like our summer is just starting and I’m not anchored. We schooled until June 21 then my son was in day camp for two weeks. This is the first week we can really relax into summer. And yesterday did not go so well at all….I am looking forward learning what others have for anchor points, especially if we don’t celebrate the saints.
Mary Lynn,
It sounds like what you are talking about is not so much the monthly anchor points, but a daily rhythm for summer. Try this back post: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2013/06/07/summer-rhythm/
or maybe here as well: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/01/celebrating-summer-with-small-children-a-waldorf-perspective/
If you put “Summer” in the search engine box, many posts will come up. Hope that will help you!
Blessings,
Carrie
any book recommendations for st james the apostle???
Bugorama,
Not that I know of….
Blessings,
Carrie
thanks again Carrie! I really enjoy this series (anchor points) …. I love the idea of using stories and books to help provide those anchors through the liturgical year. I imagine there is a book for children covering important dates in the calendar year (saint days, festivals, etc.). I was wondering if you’ve come across anything like that in your experience? Thanks!
Bugorama,
http://www.amazon.com/Once-upon-Saints-Ethel-Pochocki/dp/1883937159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405621814&sr=8-1&keywords=once+upon+a+time+saints and http://www.amazon.com/Around-Year-Once-upon-Saints/dp/1932350268/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405621833&sr=8-2&keywords=once+upon+a+time+saints comes to mind, although I have to confess I don’t love all the stories.
Blessings,
Carrie