If you can picture it, think of the most beautiful bubble of light that could surround you and your family. Think of everyone in your family as being happy, healthy, and smiling. This, to me, is the essence of February. It’s a month that is often in the Northern Hemisphere is dark and cold, but if we can imagine a brillance and radiance into it, it can become a beautiful glimmering light. After all, we begin the month with Candlemas, a celebration of light. We think of the first beginnings of light, and a beautiful candle festival helps mark this occasion. There are so many ways to make candles, including rolling beeswax sheets, dipping candles, pouring beeswax into half of a walnut shell (and you can push in a little candle in order to have little floating lights, which are always fun for children), and you can make earth candles where you pour a candle and place a wick directly into a hole into the earth.
More than the visible signs of light, where is the light in your heart and home? Where are your connections with the people you love? Sometimes on the weekends, we have one or two people over just to have a glass of wine and play games. It’s a good way to mark the days in winter. Some of our friends have needed help this year, and we try to be good stewards of our time and resources and help out. It’s just part of being part of community. If you are searching for community, I would love to hear about your journey! Please leave me a comment in the comment box below.
This is a wonderful time to change over your nature table if you have one to mark the seasons. Flower fairies, branches in water that are budding, a single candle, perhaps leading up to the markings of St. Valentine’s Day and then a little Lenten dish Garden to begin the beginning of March, as Lent begins on March 2 this year, are all appropriate. All winter greenery is taken down.
This month in 2022 we are celebrating:
Black History Month – Of course Black History IS World history and American history and should be in every subject we teach EVERY month, but it’s also wonderful to take a renewed look at wonderful books and biographies this month.
February 1 – Lunar New Year for those celebrating and also the Festival of St. Brigid
February – Mardi Gras! (until Lent, of course) Fat Tuesday is on March 1 this year with Lent beginning on March 2.
February 2 – Candlemas and also Groundhog Day.
February 14 – St. Valentine’s Day (you can see this post about Celebrating Valentine’s Day in the Waldorf Home
February 21- Presidents Day
Lovely things to do with children this month:
Make Valentine’s Day cards ; plan little treats and crafts for Valentine’s Day; make window transparencies; dip candles; roll candles; play board games or card games with your children; draw, paint, model; whittle wood; make popcorn together; bake together; play in the snow – build snow forts; have snowball fights; snowshoe; downhill or cross country ski; ice skate on a pond; read and tell stories; build forts inside; take a walk outside in the cold – look for animal tracks or berries or birds or all of the above; knit, crochet, cross stitch, finger knit, spin, sew; sing and make music together – learn some new songs; clean, scrub, dust, work around the house – rearrange furniture; go bowling or find an indoor swimming pool to swim in; write letters to family and friends; write stories together; snuggle on the coach with hot chocolate and marshmellows; cook for a neighbor; find a place of worship to attend and get involved; throw a party; clicker train your dog, cat, or other animal; take care of plants; start seeds indoors when it it is time, grow sprouts in the kitchen or a little microgarden.
Homeschooling –
If you are looking for a little re-boot to your rhythm, please do try the above back post! There are so many wonderful posts about rhythm to look at. So, whilst February is a month in which many homeschoolers can feel in a rut and ready to just give up, try instead to think what would be the perfect reset and recharge for you and your family? Maybe it is a great month for a book study, a project that the whole family can be involved in or something else!
Our homeschooling this month: We are still in Rome and moving slowly! We have used this year to intensively practice on skills including multiplication and division, decimals and fractions, spelling, writing, grammar and more. It’s been a year of progress and improvement in many areas, which is exciting, although I feel like some of our creative endeavors have taken a bit of a backseat in this process . Our sixth grader has learned a lot! So far this year we have covered Ancient Greece and Greek History, Rome, physics, geometry in our blocks.
Our high school junior is at a four day a week high school and we are planning to visit a few colleges this last half of the school year. She made her own list and is driving that process. Our college sophomore is doing well at university and has made the Dean’s or President’s List every semester of college so far, and is still having fun.
I am already thinking about next year and homeschooling seventh grade and I am making a plan. It’s my favorite grade to teach, so more about that in future posts.
Farm Life: Farm life is about mud management of the pastures, thinking of spring seed sowing for the pastures, getting through the winter and keeping weight on the horses, gathering equipment for more bees in the spring, and some seeds. We will be re-doing the outside of our barn in the spring and hopefully some more fencing. There are many projects still to be done in our house, but the outside takes the priority right now for the horses.
Work Life: It’s been a busy season and I have been busy working 3-4 days a week so we have been doing homeschooling on the weekends and during the week. It’s been busy! I have made some lists as for continuing education this year and am projecting abundance. My colleague and I moved into a new office space today and we are excited about that.
#Abundant2022 – it’s real, and I am working with my word of the year. Did you decide on a word this year? How is that going?
I would love to hear from you! If you need any help with parenting or planning, I do consults via phone or Zoom- you can email me at admin@theparentingpassageway.com for your spot!
Many blessings and peace,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 