Hello Friends and subscribers!

I am so happy to be here with you in this space. I posted very little over the course of this year as I dealt with months of treatment for a life- threatening health issue, and I just am happy to feel cozy and snug and looking forward to replenishment for 2024. I love January – the possibility of cold and snow, the bright days perfect for walks, the many possibilities of decluttering the physical environment and the body and the soul in January!  It’s going to be a terrific month and year, and I hope you feel the same way about a New Year on the horizon.

Here are some of the days we will be celebrating in January:

January 1 – New Year’s Day

January 6– The Feast of Epiphany and Epiphanytide that stretches until Lent begins on Wednesday, February 14 this year (and Easter is on Sunday, March 31st for those of you planning ahead!)

January 15 – Martin Luther King, Jr Day – also celebrated January 15 and April 4 in The Episcopal Church

Janaury 18– The Feast Day of St. Peter

January 25 – The Feast Day of St. Paul

Replenishment - Rhythm is strength, so I am working to create new weekly and monthly rhythms for 2024. A lot in life changed this past year, so this feels like starting anew. The things I want to coordinate mostly include time around things I need to do for my health; time with family and friends who are like family; homeschooling our youngest who is finishing up eighth grade and will be entering high school in the fall; daily, weekly, monthly farm and animal care; daily, weekly, monthly homemaking; and of course work. I still work for two different companies providing physical therapy and lactation services plus have my own business. It sounds like a lot, and maybe it is, but I find if I work in smaller stretches with lots of margin I can do many things so long as I keep things simple.

Creating is high on my list this year, including writing more, seasonal crafting, and watercolor painting. It feels really nice to have enough energy to be back in that space! I even got some new paintbrushes for Christmas. ❤

I usually pick a word of the year instead of making resolutions, and I almost picked “Create” for this year but instead I am going with “replenishment”. I still have some residual fatigue and strength to build back up, so I like the idea of nourishing myself in whatever form that might take for the day. Do you have a word of the year to bring you focus and clarity? My past words have included words such as radiant, abundant, vibrant, and bold. 

These are a few of the things we are enjoying this month:

• Daily outside time – when our children were small and we lived in neighborhoods, this was mainly in the form of a daily walk, and park time. Now it is mainly in the form of barn chores!
• Puzzles and board games
• Green smoothies and juicing
• Making some freezer meals
• Exercising as I can
• Creating
• I have been having fun using Duo Lingo for French
• Going out as a couple – my husband and I are getting away for a few days to celebrate the beginning of 2024 (and maybe to catch up a little from not being able to do anything for our 31st wedding anniversary this past year).
• Playing with our horses, dogs, and cats
• Learning more about beekeeping. They really were not tended from May onward, so this will be a rebuilding year.
• Indoor and outdoor gardening
• Baking
• Indoor microgardening!  So fun – and having bulbs blooming in the house
• Decluttering the entire house and creating space. As often happens with illness, things get behind. So I started small yesterday with decluttering the master bathroom/master linen closet and unsubscribing from email and youtube channels and have a plan to move forward with every room of the house. I am very excited about this! For me, order is life giving and helps me so much!

If you are looking for fun things to do with children, these are things we have enjoyed:  Cut out paper snowflakes, including really cool 3-D snowflakes; 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 marshmallows; 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

On the parenting and  homeschooling front, our oldest graduated from Clemson University this month and will be living and working about an hour from us. She got her dream job in medicine so that’s exciting! Our middle child left her university (equine studies) because she got her dream job working toward becoming a professional rider. She lives about six hours away from us, but will be spending a decent portion of the year traveling to show other people’s horses at large venues, so it will be fun to go see her work in different places. 

Our little (very tall) fourteen year old is finishing up eighth grade this year. We used a hybrid school (which is still legally homeschooling in our state and we do a portion of the teaching at home), We normally use something like this for outside classes for all or part of high school, but I needed help this year. For high school in the fall, we will be using a combination of homeschooling with classes from a hybrid school and dual enrollment at our local technical college starting in tenth grade. It’s exciting to see him start working towards goals for his future. So, I still have homeschool planning/facilitation and transcript keeping for future college to provide, but nothing as intensive as previous years.

I would love to hear your plans for 2024 and for January plans! Wishing you all the best and brightest things for this New Year!

Blessings and love,
Carrie

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Earlier this year, my stepmother was rapidly declining in her health and rather abruptly was admitted to a memory care facility. As part of this transition, I flew up to the area of my childhood home, drove north, and worked on cleaning out her house so it could be put on the market.

One thing that I noticed and loved was the variety of hats in her closet. Sun hats of all types, plus fancy hats to go see the horse races. All different colors, shapes, varieties, with and without decoration.

How many hats do we wear as mothers? We so often are not only mother, but wife and partner, daughter, sister, volunteer, friend, homeschooling teacher, perhaps a professional role outside the home as well, a homemaker with all the different jobs that entails, and perhaps also a homesteader or farmer or a creator and artist. So many roles!

When I remember looking at the hats scattered across the floor, it made me think how we pull out a hat for a specific event the way we pull out a specific role in our day. I have a practice treating new mothers in both pelvic floor health and in lactation and many new mothers tell me the sheer number of roles feels overwhelming. They are trying to mother, be a wife, be a homemaker, work outside the home and be productive at work in the same way they were before they had children….and perhaps in the process forgetting or not having time for the most important role: that of themself.

Taking care of ourselves in whatever way that looks like to us is so important. Some mothers are easily overstimulated with noise or the number of children talking to them at once. Some mothers are overwhelmed with the idea of working and being productive in an outside job all day and coming home to be “on” to a job within the home.

What ways have you found to cope with overwhelm in different roles or what ways have you found to take care of yourself? You can only be so much to so many. Be easy with yourself.

Blessings,

Carrie

The days are shorter, the nights are colder, and the leaves on the deciduous trees have fallen. We are headed toward winter, a time of deep rest, a time of projects, a time of wonder at snow and lights and the beautiful winter sky with the skeletons of trees etched against the horizon.

I love the anticipation of a cozy, candlelit December. We are coming into the month of December, a month of anticipation and preparation in the Christian Calendar but also a month of cozy anticipation for many as winter arrives. We can set up a seasonal table with snow white and pink silks, crystals of quartz and amethyst, glass vases, paper snowflakes or an beautiful Advent tableau with a dark blue silk with candles and gold paper stars. The traditional Advent wreath can come out.

We are moving from a time of mourning and remembering our ancestors, the saints, those who have gone before us to passing through the winter to a new year and a new path. We are preparing for what is to come. What are the deepest longings of your heart for the coming year?

Advent can be a time of fasting and preparing and contemplating for this new beginning. I have already chosen my word of the year for 2024 (for more on that tradition, see back posts)..I think this is going to be a restorative year, so I chose the word CREATE. I will have one child finishing college this year in December, another child who is now living on her own many states away, another child beginning high school in the fall of 2024, and we will have been on our farm for three years in the spring. I have also dealt with a major life threatening health challenge this year and treatments are wrapping up, so I think 2024 is going to be an amazing year for renewal and restoration for myself and my family and also for creating all kinds of things to help others. I am looking forward to this so much.

This post talks  Advent from a Waldorf perspective.  If you are from another faith tradition and are blogging about this month, please leave a link to your blog below so my readers can find you!   I am Christian and therefore can only write from the perspective of our life, but so appreciate other perspectives. One thing I am thinking strongly about is how we as a family make a very conscious effort to slow down, not speed up, this holiday season.  You can see my contemplation about that in this post about the  simple holiday season.  and this post which holds  answers to parents’ holiday questions.

Here are some things we are celebrating this month:

December 3- First Sunday in Advent

December 6 – St. Nicholas Day –please do see Christine Natale’s tremendous post here St. Nicholas Day and starting new holiday traditions  and  favorite stories for St. Nicholas

December 10 – Second Sunday in Advent

December 13 – Santa Lucia Day

December 17 – Third Sunday in Advent

December 24- Fourth Sunday in Advent

December 24- Eve of the Nativity

December 25 – Feast of the Nativity, and the first day of the Twelve Days of Christmas  – there are many back posts on the Twelve Days of Christmas if you search under “Family Life” and “festivals” or use the blog’s search engine.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, December 25- January 6th

Our traditions include walking an Advent Spiral, crafting and baking.  If you need gift ideas for this season, please see  last minute gifts to make  and more last minute gifts to make.  There are many wonderful ideas our readers submitted as well in the comment sections.

I would love to hear from you – what holiday traditions are you creating, what are your goals for the next year, what are doing with your homeschooling. I can’t wait to learn from you all and create with you!

Blessings and love,
Carrie

I have seen the many different paths that former homeschooled young adults take, and I think there are multiple ways to define success in homeschooling. This might be something as nebulous as “being socialized” (whatever on earth does that mean?) or perhaps it could be measured in terms of holding a job and being able to support themselves and/or attending higher education.

However, some of the things I enjoy looking at as indicators of long- term homeschooling success might be more along the lines of:

They can adult! They have what it takes to be independent within where they are. Some who have graduated from high school still live at home due to finances, but that is true for many young adults who have had more traditional schooling as well right now due to cost of living. However, they can cook,clean, run a household, and are responsible with their work in and outside of their homes.

They know who they are, and this is not readily swayed by a peer group.

They have a passion and they are out chasing their dreams in whatever form that looks like.

They have successful relationships inside of and outside of the family.

They choose to participate in their community.

How do you measure homeschooling success? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings,
Carrie

The colorful leaves are still hanging on the trees where I live, but I can tell in just a few days they will all be on the ground. The air has a crispness to it that we don’t see much of the year, and I smile because although things may be more dreary outside than at the beginning of this season, I enjoy the opportunity to slow down.

To dream of the holidays and my children being home.

To dream of next year’s spring garden.

To dream of the new horse showing season.

To dream of what my word of the year will be (Instead of doing a New Year’s Resolution, I always pick a word that I want the next year to embody).

On a bigger scale, I dream of things for my adult children and for our community and the world at large. Slowing down and getting cozy with this season is a natural way of life. I am trying to burrow into this coziness like a small mammal hibernating for winter.

I have some medical treatment this month that will take me into January, and I am so looking forward to fresh, clean, unwritten 2024.

These are the things we are celebrating this month at the farm:

This month we are celebrating:

• November 1 All Saints Day
• November 2 All Souls Day
• November 10/11  Martinmas and Veterans Day
• November 19 St. Elizabeth
• November 23 Thanksgiving
• November 27  I have it in my calendar to make Advent Wreaths in preparation for the first Sunday in Advent, December 3rd.  (Hard to believe Advent is almost upon us!  If you want a little peek ahead, try my Advent Pinterest Board)

Learning and celebrating ideas for those of you with children or grandchildren at home:

• Learn songs for a Martinmas Lantern Walk
• Use transparency paper to make window silhouettes and transparency cut-outs and lanterns.
• Bake bread on the cold days
• Look for bird’s  nests as the trees lose their leaves; make feeders start to be filled all the time, make treats for the birds
• Dip leaves in glycerin or beeswax and preserve them
• Cook things with cranberries, corn, and pumpkin.
• Learn some Thanksgiving songs and practice so you can play them after Thanksgiving Dinner!
• Find a place to volunteer to serve Thanksgiving dinner
• Make Thanksgiving Baskets and leaving them on your neighbor’s doorstep!
• Gather greens and natural items to use for an Advent Wreath.  We do this at church from the areas surrounding the church and it is quite lovely!
• Find books, cozy blankets and pillows, and mark off half days for just reading and lounging around. Pull out candles, homemade Martinmas lanterns, salt lamps  and scatter them around.  Cuddle up and read aloud with some fabulous tea or hot chocolate.
• Find handwork projects that you will love and get started.

Other Ideas for this month:

• Get a small jump on gifts for the holidays. Here is my Pinterest Board of holiday gifts to make
• Make sure you are still getting your Vitamin N and get out in nature! Move your body!
• Dream a little about the next school year in homeschooling ❤ I am looking at high schools for our last child at home, and I see our homeschooling chapter coming to a close which is bittersweet.

Just a few notes from my corner of the world,

Carrie

Welcome, September! This is one of my favorite months because it is a month of new beginnings, which I love. Cooler weather, harvest, leaves turning colors, long walks and bike rides, apples and pumpkins, acorns, getting the house organized for fall, searching for things to make for the holidays, fall decorating!  So many wonderful things to love about September! 

September often seems to be about new beginnings.  Here in the South, the school children have been back to public school about a month, so perhaps it is not “new”, but  it still has that feel to me and my Northern upbringing (where we always started school the day after Labor Day) , that it is a time of possibility and change.

Two of our three children are finished homeschooling and are at out of state universities. One will be graduating college in December and the other is just beginning college. Our eighth grader is still homeschooling, but in a hybrid program this year as I have been having some serious health challenges. So it is a beginning that looks different than any of the other years we have been home learning, but it is still that autumnal feeling marked by the mood of Michaelmas.

The season of Michaelmas, for me, really lasts from a few weeks before Michaelmas until a week or so before Halloween.  In honor of this occasion, I have been reading the words of Rudolf Steiner from his lectures  collected and entitled, “Michaelmas and the Soul- Forces of Man”  In the fourth lecture, he relates the four major festivals of the year:  Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter and St. John’s.  He says, “ Easter: death, then resurrection; Michaelmas: resurrection of the soul, then death. This makes of the Michael Festival a reversed Easter Festival. Easter commemorates for us the Resurrection of Christ from death; but in the Michael Festival we must feel with all the intensity of our soul: In order not to sleep in a half-dead state that will dim my self-consciousness between death and a new birth, but rather, to be able to pass through the portal of death in full alertness, I must rouse my soul through my inner forces before I die. First, resurrection of the soul — then death, so that in death that resurrection can be achieved which man celebrates within himself.”

You can read these four lectures for yourself here:  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MichSoul/MiSoul_index.html  There is also this really interesting collection of articles, lectures, verses and stories all about Michaelmas available in  Waldorf Journal Project #15, edited by David Mitchell.  You can find that here:   http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/WJP15.pdf

I love this festival as one that illuminates the soul into the winter, takes up the challenges in front of us as we wind our way ahead in the dark to help us find that small space of courage and bravery that lets us know we are not defeated yet. We have not given up yet. Imagine a humanity where this was the theme before us of overcoming, of bringing new into the world. I may be attacked along the way of this new birth and new bringing, but I am not decimated. I can move forward.

Here are the things that we are celebrating this month:

• September 1 – Labor Day
• September 8 – The Nativity of St. Mary, the Theotokos
• September 14 – Holy Cross Day
• September 23 – Autumn Equinox
• September 29 – The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels

Ideas for Celebration:

For Labor Day, we are enjoying a day on our farm complete with riding and dreams of new projects to get completed before winter. Tomatoes are still coming in, and I am planning some fall and winter canning projects.

The Nativity of St. Mary and for Holy Cross Day, for us, are days primarily for celebrating in church and through prayer and  literature.  There are some lovely books about St. Mary and St. Helena for Holy Cross Day as well. 

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels is of course a big feast day in the church and also in Michaelmas in Waldorf Education.  You can see my Michaelmas Pinterest board for some ideas I collected: https://www.pinterest.com/carriedendtler/michaelmas/

The Domestic Life and The Home Mood

This month we are busy getting ready for winter on the farm – planting a fall/winter garden, gathering supplies for winter for the animals, decluttering. We will be hosting Thanksgiving this year, so I am already thinking about that.

To me, the fall becomes a time of turning inward; a time of gratitude and reflection.  How do my words, my actions, reflect my gratitude toward my Creator and toward my life?  How do I interact with others in order to show this?  There is a quote I often think about from Dr. Rudolf Steiner that talks about this. He says;

The cultivation of this universal gratitude toward the world is of paramount importance.  It does not always need to be in one’s consciousness, but may simply live in the background of the feeling life, so that, at the end of a strenuous day, one can experience gratitude, for example, when entering a beautiful meadow full of flowers……And if we only act properly in front of the children, a corresponding increase in gratitude will develop within them for all that comes to them from the people living around them, from the way they speak or smile, or the way such people treat them.”  Rudolf Steiner from “A Child’s Changing Consciousness As The Basis of Pedagogical Practice”

How do I really permeate this mood and carry it, even when things are overwhelming, is for this season of overcoming and courage as we head toward the longer nights of Winter. I think this is especially pertinent for those of us with teenagers and young adults who often are in the throes of figuring out who they really are, what turn their life is going to take as they launch. It can be a daunting time requiring inner strength on the part of the parent to really hold space.

One way I am working with the mood of autumn and MIchaelmas is through drawing and painting. I hope to be able to share some of this work on Instagram in the future. I am also able for the first time in decades to attend a weekday Bible Study, so I am looking forward to that.

Ideas for the Home:

• The seasonal table is transitioning to yellows with dried flowers, seed pods, bunches of oats or wheat or corn that are dried, cornucopias, nuts, acorns, leaves and little “helicopters.”
• I am going through and taking stock of fall and winter clothes and purging what we do not need. When the children were small, this was a time we often stocked up on woolens and hats.
• Fall menu planning – a time of chili, soup, stew, warming dishes. I am putting together some freezer meals for my husband and eighth grader.
• Crafting – I have some autumn crafting ideas on my Pinterest board, but I think I am going to start with Michaelmas crafts  and autumn lanterns. https://www.pinterest.com/carriedendtler/autumn/

Ideas for Celebrating this Month with Littles:

• Quick Autumn Ideas for Waldorf Kindergarten
• Favorite Fall Tales for the Waldorf Kindergarten
• Fall Stories for Puppets
• Cook, bake, and preserve with apples
• Crafts with leaves, although down here sometimes we don’t get the best color to our leaves until October
• Sing favorite Autumn songs

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Older Children:

• A Beautiful Back to School Ceremony
• Start working on homemade holiday gifts
• Celebrate an attitude of kindness and gratitude
• Celebrate apple picking and cooking with apples
• Knit fall projects!
• Long bike rides and walks in the cooler air

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Teens:

• Find great theater, museum, and festival events to attend
• Longer hiking, camping, and backpacking trips
• Bake and cook fall dishes
• Work on fall organizing and cleaning
• Stargazing
• Find new activities outside the home that your teen will adore
• Find  new knitting, crocheting, sewing, woodworking and woodcarving ideas to try

I would love to hear how you are finding September and working with the seasonal changes in your area of the world.

Blessings and love,

Carrie

We are back in the summer heat of the deep South and I am enjoying seeing all the life bursting around the farm. Our blueberry bushes are heavily laden with fruit, the tomatoes and other vegetables are growing (we got a late start), apples are already shaping up to be a good season. The bees are busy. I thought they all absconded over the cold winter, but there is definitely hive activity in a few of the hives, so I will suit up and go check it out soon.

Many people I know are traveling right now since here in the States we are coming up on the Fourth of July. We can’t travel this summer as my health isn’t permitting it right now, but I am making plans in my head for next July. My husband and I are talking about going to Alaska – suggestions are welcome! I am also busy looking ahead to harvesting our garden and then also what I will be planting for fall since I love cabbage and kale!

Our oldest daughter and I were talking this morning about the joys of being content at home and being busy in the home. What a blessing to be joyful in all circumstances and within our own place. So, this July, here are the things we are celebrating:

4- Independence Day

22- Feast Day of St. Mary Magdalene

25- Feast Day of St. James the Apostle

26- Feast Day of St. Anne and St. Joachim, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Are you thinking about summer menu planning?  I have a back post on July Menu Planning to grab!

I am looking forward to sunflowers, catching fireflies, and the possibility of a new little kitten to join our household!

Things to Do With Children:

• Fourth of July decorating; patriotic crafts
• Find traditional patriotic American music to listen to!
• Go to Independence Day parades!
• Sunflower crafts
• Drying herbs and making things from herbs
• Picking produce; canning and preserving
• Earth looms and weaving could be lovely; see my summer Pinterest board for even more craft ideas

Here are a few of my favorite things for small children:

• Fourth of July decorating and crafts – there are some ideas on  my
•    July Pinterest Board
• Telling Summer stories and creating the Summer nature table
• Swimming
• Gathering wildflowers
• Gazing at stars
• Catching fireflies

Here are a few of my favorite things for older children/teens:

• Swimming and sliding on rocks in creeks; maybe even venturing to a water park or splash pad
• Catching fireflies
• Gazing at stars
• The Magic of Boredom

Things for the Home:

• Going through the school room or school area and cleaning out
• Ordering art supplies and new resources for the next school year
• Making new seasonal things for the home
• Changing out toys if you are on a toy rotation for smaller children
• I am going to be working in our basement this month – so much to clean up down there and I want it neat and tidy

Homeschooling Fun!:

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all the readers I had consultations with this June!  It was incredible to talk to people from all over North America!  I love you all and it was my pleasure to talk to everyone!  I hope everyone is pulling together their planning!  

Our children are finishing and beginning! Our oldest is finishing up her nursing degree and will graduate in December. Our middle child will be beginning university for Equine Studies out of state. And our youngest will be beginning eighth grade this year. It’s hard to believe!

My main goal for our eighth grader this year, outside of academics and all the work that goes into our farm, is to help facilitate a close group of friends and to help him identify areas of outside interests.

Inner Work:

I feel like being on the farm has brought me back around to the inner work of the family life. Here is a back post that I am working off of: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/12/10/my-plan-for-personal-development-as-a-homemaker/

I hope you have a blessed July!

Warmly and with many blessings,

Carrie

As we are getting so close to Summer Solstice (Wednesday, June 21), I was thinking about how we bring life into our homes. This is the ordinary time of growing in the summer – plants, children, everything is growing!

Does that permeate into our homes?

Our words that we use with our children so matter. Stop telling them they are high needs or that they are demanding. Speak words of life into their character! Traits such as persistence, follow through, initiative are going to serve them so well as adults.

Use your words like the pearls that they are!

I have said this in other blog posts, and I will say it again:  Children do not need sarcasm at ANY age.  Small children do not understand sarcasm (but they will imitate it, and then parents wonder why their children are speaking to them so disrespectfully!)  Teenagers have enough of it on their own without you adding to it!  Children and adults of all ages truly need you to use your words as the pearls they are!

I have a challenge for you today:

Just for today, let’s think about communicating in real ways with our children, our spouses, our family members and our friends.  Let’s eliminate sarcasm and speak to one another they way we should. 

Let’s tell each other directly what we need.  We are all unique individuals and  no matter how well we know one another, we cannot expect others to fully understand our own individuality and read our minds!  Ask for what you need from others!  Make a request!  All that can happen is that person may say no!

Just for today, let’s try to listen more than we speak.  Let’s try to let people come to their own conclusions and ideas rather than force-feeding a solution.  Let’s help children who under the age of 9 come up with solutions to problems with other children through modeling, through example and through help rather than just telling them to “work it out”.

Just for today, let’s try to be compassionate and open to the world and not so jaded.  The world is still a beautiful place, even if you have forgotten that it is so.

Just for today, let’s slow down enough so we have time with our children.  Let’s ask for help so we don’t have to take our children to 4 different stores to run errands.  Schedule time to just be present.  Play a game with your children, and enjoy them!

Just for today, let’s evaluate whether or not the amount of things we are doing inside and outside the home is truly feasible for any one human being and let’s brainstorm ways to stop.

Just for today, let’s limit our time with the screens and go be with our family members. 

Just for today, let’s use our words with each other like pearls and remember that we are all tender and precious human beings.

Breathe life into your home and into yourself and your family members with positive affirmations and loving kindness. Your home and the world will be a better place for it!

Blessings and love,

Carrie

It’s that time of year again in my area of the world – time to wrap up one homeschooling year and get planning for fall! Are you planning as well?

I always like to take stock as to what worked well this year, how was our consistency, where are our skills- academically, socially, emotionally, physically, spiritually. All these areas matter in homeschooling because our homeschooling reflects our family life!

I have homeschooled two of our children through to graduation, although for high school we did use either a combination of outside classes with homeschooling at home or a hybrid school. Our youngest is now coming up to eighth grade, so high school is on my mind again! So, I guess a good question to ask yourself for the coming year is – are my children getting what they need so they can be functional adults? Is homeschooling meeting that goal or do they need something different? What are my options?

If homeschooling is the right option, then I love to look at website of Waldorf schools around the world to see what they bring for the grade you will be teaching and find the “hallmark” blocks. These blocks, to me, are the ones that match the soul development of the child, such as the Man and Animal Block in fourth grade, or Rome in sixth grade. If you feel you are short on time, those are the blocks you want to make sure you tackle! I like to plan a monthly seasonal calendar and also a weekly and daily rhythm for consistency and nourishment of the family.

Then I like to match resources to my block. Typically, I would go to the library and get out all the books on that block and sort of synthesize those into a block plan and then scan the Internet for artistic images I wanted to work off of. I realize this is a lot of work, but it’s the only way things are super personalized to your child. If not, there are premade curriculums that you can use and jump off of. I have used bits and pieces of both Live Education and Christopherus in the past.

I also really like to get a good stock as to what our children need to do socially as they age (past 9 year change) in order to stretch themselves in building character, in building community, in building themselves spiritually as these areas often take other people to help expand these areas. I think it is really important as children age into high school that they have at least a small peer group as the right group can be very helpful in their striving toward adulthood, and some areas of passion and purpose.

How are you planning your homeschool year?

Warmly,

Carrie