This is a month of sunshine and sunflowers, lakes, and fun – and here in the deep south, it’s also time for back to school. School here begins this first day of August or the second week depending upon your program. We are beginning on August 19th this year for our 15 year old sophomore (he can be over six feet tall, but he’s still my baby!) – our last child in school! Our other two homeschooled students graduated and are living their lives.

This is my birthday month, which I am very excited about! These are the other things we are celebrating in this beautiful month:

August 6th- The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ

August 8th- My Birthday!

August 10- School starts!

August 15- The Dormition of St. Mary

August 28 – our oldest child will be 24! Doesn’t seem possible! 

Ideas for Celebration:

• Making a  beautiful triptych to celebrate the life of St. Mary.  There are many wonderful ideas regarding this on the Internet.
• We have about another month or two of tubing, swimming and water park availability to us, so we hope to take advantage as we have only been to lake for our youngest to sail and haven’t really done a lot of swimming!
• Camping – it can be super hot here, but I am already making camping in the fall a priority.
• Gazing at the stars
• Walking in the mornings
• Working out. I have had good success doing a mixture of hot yoga, Zumba, and weightlifting.
• Making delicious meals!

The Domestic Life:

This a great time to take stock of needs for fall/winter in clothing, shoes, outside gear, school supplies, art supplies. When our children were little, this was the time I always looked at our woolen clothing. Yes, even down here in the South it can get cold to be outside in the fall and winter, and I am a big believer is preserving bodily warmth for babies and small children.

I also think this a great time to go back to manners.  Children are often in an expansive place with summer weather and may need some help in remembering school behavior, work ethics and manners!  I like opening the first day of school with an introduction to how the space works for homeschooling, expectations and rules in homeschooling and the like.

Getting back into a rhythm that supports school is also a huge help with that.  It provides that balance between rest and quiet and expansive doing for children. Rhythm is a key word for this month and the structure of the rhythm of school for homeschooling does us all good!

Meal planning gets us through because I am too busy to have to spend a lot of time every day planning.  So, I like to plan 2-4 weeks of meals and shop. You can also start stocking up on things for fall and winter!

Homeschooling:

We are jumping into tenth grade (for my third time!)  I am really looking forward to this. We are doing some classes through a homeschool hybrid for high school and will do some of our own blocks and courses. Our son has cybersecurity things and Sea Scouts along with the farm and volunteering to keep him busy. I love the quote from The Waldorf Family Handbook that says that the goal of high school is to prepare them as “free independent individualities and to orient them realistically to the world outside of school.” I have always taken that as the mantra for high school! Be prepared for life.

 This is the year we really start preparing for college admissions as well, so preparing for the PSAT and ACT, looking at possibilities for where to attend, what credits we need, transcripts. It’s easier to do it now and not be behind when it comes time to pull everything together when it is time to apply.

Self-Care and Rhythm:

My biggest priorities right now in addition to homeschooling and working outside the home are my workouts, medical appointments and self care.

I want to hear how August is shaping up for you! How is school looking?  I have been very busy doing homeschool consulting this month! If anyone needs help with homeschool planning or planning for family life, please email me at admin@theparentingpassageway.  My rates for a half hour phone call are super reasonable and I have helped lots of moms this month!  Please let me know if I can help you!

Lots of love and many blessings,

Carrie

It’s almost back to school time for many of us here in the south. This seemed so strange to me when I moved to Georgia in the 90s as in New York school always began the Tuesday after Labor Day. And honestly, the start date has crept further and further toward the beginning of August over the years I have lived in different southern states. It used to be more towards the end of August, but now the public schools down here begin August 1. It hardly seems fair, but then I remember we get out of school in mid- May. So there’s that!

I am taking a serious look at the calendar. I have to look not only at my commitments (hello, work) but also when we are homeschooling at home, when my son has outside classes, and the balance of homemaking and farm duties. And, to be honest, I have a few more appointments these days for general upkeep in my 50s than when I started homeschooling in my 30s!

The farm routine is set in terms of when horses need to be fed or go in and out. The apiary is easily checked on a weekend. I know what days are office visits and what days are outside classes. I know when I would like to get to the gym. The more wild cards to fill in are home visits for folks, which I often don’t know until the day before, and general things that come up all of the sudden on the farm.

I have penciled in the times to work with our high schooler as he can do much of the work on his own, but there are things we need to work on and do in order to count for high school credit as well. There are some things this sophomore year of high school I would like him to read outside of assigned material for outside classes as his interests are primarily cybersecurity and computers, boats and possible military. We also need to do a fine arts credit and some electives this year and next year in addition to some of the things he is doing in core outside classes.

I generally plan two meal prep days to keep us going, and tidy every day plus more major cleaning two to three times a week. Farm life is generally messy and the house can get quite dirty! I like to put appointments as much as possible on Fridays, but sometimes I don’t have a choice as to when some of my check ups can happen and they are about an hour to an hour and a half away, so sometimes that’s just life.

So basically a revolving circus much of the time, but I like to pretend I have a structure! It sure was easier when our children were young and we were home more!

What’s your best way for organizing your week? I would love to hear from you!

Blessings,

Carrie