This month we are celebrating:

• August 6th – The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Grow Christians has a blog post about this Feast; this Episcopalian blog is one I follow daily and I find it has many good posts about tackling the Five Marks of Mission of the Episcopalian Church within the home and celebrating Feast Days)
• August 9th- The Feast Day of St. Herman of Alaska (this is one of my son’s favorite saints) (we love this book about St. Herman)
• August 15th – The Dormition of St. Mary the Virgin. We will be reading this little book.
• August 21st- the solar eclipse!  Very exciting
• August 22 – our first day of school
• August 31st – The Feast Day of St. Aidan – you could tell the story of St. Aidan and his horse

And, we have two family birthdays in the the month of August for extra fun!

Fun for the whole family:

• If school hasn’t started, the last of beach holidays!
• Physical fun – taking walks and hikes together; sometimes August is a great month for waterfall hikes
• Sunflower crafts
• Making lavender crafts and this has many craft links for lavender if you scroll down

What I am Contemplating:

New Habits – a beautiful rhythm of self -care and rest, culminating in a new weekly schedule for the year.    Rhythm is so important for us this month as we ease from summer into a school rhythm and back into outside activities.

Domestic Life:

Sunday afternoons are my time to prep food, and I am looking forward to this time so we can have healthy food on hand for snacks, veggies and fruit washed and cut up, and the basis of meals ready to go during the week.

Homeschooling:

We are ready to start next week. It is going to be a fairly math heavy year this year – our tenth grader is taking both geometry and Algebra II outside the home and wanted the traditional Waldorf math blocks for tenth grade as well; our seventh grader has some catch-up to do and will be working hard; and our second grader just really likes math.  We have plans for developing  math capacities through blocks and practice that is age-specific and also project-based math experiences where several children can work together.

Second, seventh, and tenth grade will be beginning with a mini-block on Jataka tales (second grade), the life of Buddha and the Silk Road (seventh grader), and the life of Buddha and the development of Buddhism for our tenth grader.  This year focuses on Ancient Civilizations  in tenth grade.  The seventh and tenth grader will be reading “Siddhartha” and we have some creative responses planned with etching, clay, and more.

I would love to hear your plans for August!

Blessings,
Carrie