Category Archives: Family Life

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Halloween and More

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People who know me well know that Halloween is actually my least favorite holiday.  I am a complete Scrooge about it all – well, at least as far as the unhealthy candy, and creepy stuff – as it  just doesn’t fill my bucket.

However, I love the FALL HARVEST aspect of Halloween and my favorite of all,  pumpkins! Who ever knew that a round orange vegetable could be so lovable?   I look forward to every October to begin doing circle times about pumpkins, games with pumpkins, songs about pumpkins and harvesting, cooking with pumpkins (and moving into cranberries in November) and using All Hallow’s Eve to prepare for the festivals I do love, which is the Feast of All Saints (All Hallows), and the Feast (Commemoration) of All Souls Departed.  These are huge feasts in my religious tradition and I love it.

I also love the bright colors, fireworks, and festive food of Diwali.  Our neighborhood has been celebrating Diwali and it has been so joyous to watch and be a part of!  So many wonderful things to love this time of year!

Here are a few of my favorite things about Halloween, The Feast of All Saints ,and the Feast of All Souls Day.  Maybe you will find a few of your favorite things on this list too!

  • Using All Hallow’s Eve as a springboard to talk to my children about our upcoming religious festivals
  • Experiencing Halloween as this beautiful transition point between Michaelmas and Martinmas.  I love what the book “Festivals With Children” by Brigitte Barz says about this:  “The candle inside the pumpkin or turnip, both fruits of the earth, is like the very last memory and afterglow of the summer sun with its ripening strength.  Then for Martinmas a candle is lit within the home-made lantern; this is the first glow of a light with a completely different nature, the first spark of inner light.”
  • Carving pumpkin lanterns; roasting pumpkin seeds; shadow puppet shows; bobbing for apples; celebrating Guy Fawkes on the fifth of November!
  • Tapping into the sacred and the significant in this time; if this is the time of blurred space and time where the sacred connection between what was and what is,  what am I doing to be a part of the solution toward connectedness and love?  Where is my spiritual food coming from that will nourish me for the winter months?
  •  There is a sweet little Halloween Circle in the book, “Dancing As We Sing” that one could really flesh out with terrific songs and fingerplays such as “Five Little Pumpkins” and more (see the book “Let’s Do Fingerplays” by Marion Grayson);  pumpkin games.
  •  Christine Natale’s story called “The Littlest Pumpkin” – great for wet on wet painting or beeswax modeling or to tell before pumpkin carving! One of my favorites!  I also like the story about the little hobgoblin.  Do you all know that story as well?  Suzanne Down also has lovely stories for the younger set.
  • These posts on Halloween,   All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day,  and thinking ahead to lanterns for Martinmas!
  • For The Feast of All Saints today, I used many of the ideas from over at Loyola Press.  For The Feast of All Souls tomorrow, we will be making soul cakes.

Please share with me your favorite things about this significant time and transitioning to Martinmas!

Many blessings,
Carrie

 

October Rhythms and Meal Planning

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I love October.  I love the temperature dropping, the leaves turning color and falling down, I love the golden rays of the Southern sun.  October is also when I feel the outdoors beckoning us, and the beautiful changes of seasons scatters us.

It is a perfect time to re-think rhythms and meal planning and perhaps get a little more grounded in the process.  Lately I felt like being outside, but at home and in our own neighborhood, so I think it is a good time to look at the things in our home as we head into cooler weather and  the autumnal rhythm.

Rhythm:

Well, if I had tiny children, I would be totally focused on warming meals, layers for outside, and rest and outdoor play, and work around the house.  My rhythm would be simple, lovely and held.  I urge those of you with tinies to get some old watercolor paintings and cut them into pieces and write your daily rhythm on it.  Turn off the screens for yourself and your child (if any are on during the day) and sink into the warmth of nourishing your home and each other through play, song, work, and warmth.

I find it much harder with teenagers and the spread of ages we have. So, I have settled into

  • Warm Breakfast and Discussion about the day
  • We try to start around 8:30 or 9.  This is our littlest first grader’s time.  We try to start by going outside and doing most of school outside if possible.  Make sure high schooler and sixth grader are starting with music practice and any work they can do on their own.
  • Check in with high schooler about Algebra or Spanish or other work.
  • Sixth grader’s time with me- we will be moving into Roman History before Christmas, and I want to start our time together with the idea of being a Roman soldier.  So, hearty movement and then main lesson.  Work in handwork into our read alouds and invite first grader in.  High schooler usually has work that she is trying to get done, so it has been difficult to not honor that during this time, but I am hoping to get into a better rhythm with this so my high schooler has time to do handwork too.  She has gone back to crocheting for making some holiday gifts, so that has been fun.
  • Check in with high schooler and if time, start Biology. Sixth grader and first grader do chores around the house; walk and play with the puppy.
  • Warm Lunch and Rest
  • High School Time.
  • Finish sometimes between 3-4 in the afternoon
  • We have planned  several wonderful field trips a month.
  • I have planned one main lesson period for our first grader and anyone who can join in solely for nature/seasonal crafts in the backyard or neighborhood each week.
  • What I would like to see:  my goal is to free up one afternoon a week for “open studio time” where we can complete Main Lesson Book pages that need extra time and care.
  • My other goal:  toward mid to end of November, we plan to free up entire afternoons for crafting holiday projects. 🙂

This is more complex than I would like it to be, but I guess that is life with a high schooler, middle schooler, and first grader.  It is what it is at this point.  I could spend eight to ten hours a day on schooling stuff, and it just isn’t feasible for my own sanity, so this is what I do.  We start early and try to get done!

Menu Planning:

I love, love, love Heather Bruggeman’s Whole Foods Freezer Cooking Class and am doing that now and re-working some of our menu plans.  October seems like the perfect time to think more about crock pot meals, stews, baked goodies, and heartier meals (even though it has still been rather warm here during the day!)

For breakfast, lately  I have mainly been making eggs in tortillas with avocado; oven puff pancakes;  french toast; oatmeal in a rice cooker with apples and cinnamon or baked bananas over the oatmeal; buttermilk banana pancakes; frittatas.  There is a recipe for morning millet that I want to try.  I always offer fruit as well; sometimes we juice.

For snacks we have been having hummus and carrots; muffins.  And three words:  pumpkin pudding cake.

For lunch, I have mainly been making green chile chicken enchiladas; caesar salads;  kale salads; leftovers from dinner, pot pie

For dinner, I have mainly been making fast meals such as marinated pork loin (olive oil, whatever citrus I have on hand that I can juice, thyme); chicken in many forms in the crock pot or grill; shepherd’s pie; beef stew in the crockpot, and still am grilling. I always serve at least two vegetables, salad and fruit salad.  I think as the weather gets colder we might add in some rice or potatoes. I am loving roasted veggies right now –  beets, butternut squash, cauliflower are my favorites.  And I just picked up cranberries in the store, so I am excited about making cranberry sauce!

Rhythms of Self-Care:

  • Rest. I find rest and just being able to do nothing an important part of my own rejuvenation during the school year, especially as we head into winter.
  • Making time to be with  family and friends who love me.
  • Making time to exercise and cook nourishing food.
  • Participating and being a part of the life in my parish.  It encourages me and helps me so much.
  • Learning things!

Please share your rhythms of October!  I am always looking to learn from other mothers, and usually get so many wonderful ideas when we all share.

Blessings,

Carrie

 

 

Scattered October

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Every year, I tell myself that  I should  plan a fall break in October. And every  year, by May or June of every year, I totally forget this intention and don’t schedule it into our school year.

But October has a way of working it out without my help.  Because, October, you scatter us so.

Out into the cooler weather and into the sunshine to play, ride horses, be with the puppy , camp, and dream.

Out into the heating up of outside the home activities that our teenager so wants and needs.

Out into the golden yellows, reds, and browns of the leaves.

October, you scatter my brain.

This month I have felt so slow.  All the children are sleeping later.  We are all looking for play and sunshine due to the cooler weather.  We are looking to change up the routine.  And we are moving so slowly in our blocks that I pretty much decided to call a vacation last week.  I didn’t tell the children that in so many words, but I told MYSELF that so I wouldn’t feel “behind” (although the whole notion of “being behind” in homeschooling  is rather  ridiculous.  Slow and behind compared to what?!  You would think I would know this after so many years of doing this!) .  We are finishing our first block of ninth grade (although I only have five blocks planned for the whole year on top of our all year round classes); our sixth grader is in the midst of her second block; and our first grader is starting his third block this week.  Our teenager is also moving through Algebra I and Spanish II and Biology (we are finishing up cellular respiration right now and will move into cell reproduction soon!) pretty well.

Maybe, after all of these years of homeschooling,  I should realize that this is a  fairly normal pace for us.  Not all of us are speedy  homeschool families,  some of us are more snail- like and distracted by bright  shiny fun than others (!!), but I always remind myself that we are steady and we do keep learning. And every year, at the end of the year, I am always surprised by how much we material we really have covered, how much the children have grown, and how another school year has gone by and how all of it just keeps integrating and overlapping and circling around again.

This year, the scattering forces of October’s golden rays  has reminded me yet again, stitched into my brain yet again,  that we might sometimes be slow  but that we try so hard as a family to learn.  We love the diversity in our world and to have our children be lovers, encouragers, and hopefully action-takers in humanity.  Let’s just go slow, and deep, and steady, and have fun.

October, maybe you scatter us in all the right ways.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful, sparkly, golden Autumn.

Many blessings,
Carrie

 

The Laying Down of Love

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Quite a long time ago, I wrote a post about “Loving Children In Their Language” and a follow-up post, “How To Work With The Love Languages of Children.”   These posts were based upon the seminal work of Chapman and Campbell called, “The Five Love Languages of Children” (there is an adult version too).

I have been thinking a lot about this recently in the context of parenting and homeschooling.  How am I laying down love on my children?  How am I connecting with them? How am I finding joy in our connection and love?

The reality is that children grow up and relationships change over time.  Perhaps what filled my children’s cups when they were so very tiny no longer applies very well; perhaps I need close observation to see in their becoming how I need to love them and what makes them feel loved.  And in doing this, I see what makes me feel loved in turn.

I love the ideas of the five love languages and that children need to be loved in all five ways – quality time, words of affirmation, touch, acts of service, gifts – and how we need to be sure not to use the child’s love language against them.  For example, “time-out”, can be devastating for a child whose love language is quality time and may not be the most effective way to  guide a child ( time- out as a punishment is different than having a child take a quiet down time when his or her emotions are high).

How do use this?  How can I lay this love down?

For me, it is trying to use connection in the  love language that helps the most in the moments that are hard.  It is having more fun and more joy in the day through this connection.  It is about letting go and being together in that moment.   It is about loving myself and knowing what makes me feel loved exactly so I can be more present for them.

Boundaries are a part of love for me. Without boundaries, my children would not feel as secure and safe as they do.  They need to know how things are held and they in turn can spend their energy holding themselves instead of trying to control the space around them or trying to control me.  Boundaries and love are intertwined in a beautiful, peaceful way.  Teenagers may not always love boundaries, but they do know and understand their value as they themselves experiment with boundaries with their peers and with their parents.

But most of all, I just hope to lay down the love thickly.  May it insulate them in the times when I am not present, may they know that I carry them in my heart, may they know that through their family’s love for them they can find love for every person and be ready to help in times of need.  May they be generous and kind from that kind of love.

I guess that is the ultimate goal of parenting:  to lay down the love so it shimmers unbroken like a light in the darkness.

Many blessings tonight,

Carrie

 

 

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: October

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October is absolutely one of my favorite months – apples, pumpkins, crisp fall air, hiking, the promise of the holidays coming, fall clothes, leaves turning colors and crunching under my feet, days spent outside playing!  October is a wonderful month.

We are celebrating this month:

  • October 1- The Blessings of the Animals at our local parish. We get to bring our new puppy to meet our priests!
  • October 4- The Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi.  If you are looking for books about St. Francis, try this post by Elizabeth Foss.  There are so, so many St. Francis books listed there!
  • October 9 – Our littlest one’s birthday!
  • October 18- The Feast of St. Luke
  • October 31 – Halloween  – Halloween actually is not my favorite holiday, but we do usually go out in our neighborhood with our dog and go house to house.  Usually everyone is out in the street or in their driveways and it can be fun in a community sense. If you want some ideas about celebrating Halloween in a Waldorf home, try this back post.
  • Of course, we are also getting ready for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day as well.

Celebrating October with small children:

Celebrating October with grades-aged children:

  • Pumpkin Picking
  • Gathering acorns and leaves and making nature mandalas
  • Painting little rocks and leaving them as treasures to be found in the garden or park – so many resources for this!
  • Fall Handwork – knitting, crochet for those in third grade and up, cross stitch, embroidery
  • More fall crafts here
  • Work on making holiday gifts; more ideas here
  • Hiking, camping, backpacking, kayaking

Celebrating October with teenagers:

  • Star-gazing – October is one of the most clear months to star watch in the Southeastern United States
  • Work on making holiday gifts
  • Hiking, camping, backpacking, rock climbing – adventures of the heart!
  • Celebrate National Teen Read Week

Homemaking:  I am very excited to be a part of Whole Foods Freezer Cooking , which starts October 17.  It always feels good to be re-vitalized in the kitchen.

I am in the midst of going through winter clothing and winter outerwear for the children to make sure we have what it needs, since I am the strange Southerner who is always wanting snow in the winter!  Come on snow!  This winter, we hope to take the children to a neighboring state and ski/snowboard a few times, and I am very excited about this!

We celebrated Michaelmas at home and then the next day with friends, and I am hoping we can do the same for Martinmas, so I have a little bit of time this month to work on that!

Homeschooling: Let’s see….  Most importantly, we have some field trips planned to our local museum to see a new exhibit, a trip planned to a neighboring state, some camping planned, and plans to be outside every day in the fall weather with a new puppy!

Other things in the works:  First Grade – we finished two blocks of first grade (Form Drawing and Qualities of Numbers), and we will be moving into our first letter block. In sixth grade, we completed astronomy and are in mineralogy right now.  I hope to move into a little introduction of European Geography by the end of this month and then into Rome.  In ninth grade, we are doing Algebra I, Spanish II,  Living Biology, and finishing a block on Native American/Colonial American history. Our next block will be Comedy and Tragedy, which will be fun.

Self-Care:  (No affiliation with any of the links below, they are just products and consultants that I use, and I love to support small mom-owned businesses.  Don’t you?)

  • One thing I like to think about with fall and winter coming is making my skin more radiant and nourished.  I am a big skin care fan.  What I like now includes Beautycounter’s Nourishing Cream Exfoliator – none of those little beads that are bad for wildlife down the road!  I like to moisturize, so have been playing with a number of body and facial moisturizers.  And, I like soothing charcoal/clay masks –  again, Beautycounter has one (no affiliation, I just like their products!  You can try this Facebook page for deals) and I have found clay masks from Earth Kiss at markets such as Sprouts.  I also have been looking at fall makeup.   I like the makeup from Beautycounter as well, and I also love the glam looks from Younique by Fallyn.
  • I am also looking forward to re-vamping my wardrobe.  Somehow, I have ended up with sweaters, a pair of jeans, a pair of pants….and not much else.  It is obviously past time to invest in some fall/winter clothes!   I am headed to my friend’s LuLaRoe business to pick up some leggings and dresses.  Their leggings are so soft, most of the people who have them seem to love them and live in them, so I am looking forward to trying on and finding some of my own!
  • And, with the colder weather, time to pick up hiking and even foray into more walking and running.  One thing I would love to do this year is backpacking on the trail (when I camp, I usually get a tent campsite), so backpacking would be a new adventure.  We also have some tent camping planned as well.
  • I have been also planning some time with the mom’s that I love – mom’s night out! 🙂

Hope your October is full of magical surprises and fun!

Blessings and love,
Carrie

Motherhood and Michaelmas Bravery

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Brave and true will I be.

Each good deed sets me free.

Each kind word makes me strong.

I will fight for the right.

I will conquer the wrong.

Today is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels in the Western Church; more commonly referred to as Michaelmas.  I love this day because not only does it shine like a beacon for me to look ahead to the coming months of winter and how I can fortify myself for this seasonal change, it powerfully reminds me of the choices I have to be brave and good.

Motherhood in and of itself is often an act of bravery.  The responsibility of having a beautiful newborn and introducing them to a beautiful world is an act of bravery, and especially if we don’t feel the world is beautiful.  When we, as adults, can see it marred by racism, oppression, injustice, it can be an extreme act to show our children through the only eyes they know that the world can be a good and beautiful world and there are good and beautiful people.

Motherhood can be physical acts of bravery.  From sleep deprivation to dealing with bodies that feel different after giving birth or having multiple children, it can take courage, bravery and persistence to nudge ourselves back to health and not give up.  Fight to treat yourselves right by taking care of yourselves!  Be brave, mothers!

Motherhood  can be brave when we choose to forge ahead on paths that are different than the norm, knowing that this path is right for our children and our family.  It is courageous to make rhythms to our world in a time and place where chaotic busyness is the treasured theme of the media and everyone.  “How are you?”  “I am just SO BUSY!” says nearly everyone you meet.  Why?  Why is this treasured like a badge of honor?  I think the real badge of courage is to stay home more, relax and laugh more, teach our children that they don’t need pages of acheivements in order to be human.  Instead, teach them about forming relationships.  Teach them about how people treat each other.  Treat them to be upstanding human beings who do the right thing.  Teach them to do the things that matter, and that our energy is finite.  There are only so many things we can juggle at one time and be sane and healthy.  That is bravery.

Motherhood can be brave when we are raising teenagers on the verge of driving, preparing for college, preparing for their own intimate relationships. We can be brave and true and wise in helping to guide our teenagers whilst also preparing them to make choices that nourish themselves and also set the tone for a different world. Help our teenager to change the world by being different, by being brave and true – by being beautiful.

Motherhood can be brave when all the children are gone and the house is empty.  That transition of being older and all that experience of being brave brings something to the world!

Happy Michaelmas!

Blessings and love,
Carrie

 

Parenting From A Place Of Calm

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Being calm and modeling that for our children will do more for them than any class at school or any extra-curricular activity.  Being calm shows children and teens a way to approach problems, a way to carry an inner confidence and the strength that we need to get through life. What a wonderful start to give children and teenagers!

Many parents ask me how can I parent from a place of calm?  And I ask them, what prevents you from doing that?  Sometimes the answer is MY CHILDREN! LOL. With that in mind, I would like to share with you some of the ways I help myself come from a calmer place.

  • Understand developmental stages – This might be the number one thing to help you realize that “this is a stage, this too shall pass” and “I can help guide, but it will most likely work out!”  Understanding developmental stages makes you feel less stressed, and more connected to your child.  It is much easier to connect and have empathy if you know this is a normal developmental stage.
  • Let logical consequences prevail.   I see too many parents bailing their children out of small things that really their older children need to fail and learn from that failure.  One prime example is homework and projects, where the child procrastinates and waits until the night before it is due and then is screaming for help to get it done.  Failure, and the ability to know that one can come back from failure and know one can triumph is a far bigger lesson than whatever the project was.  Let them fail!  Making restitution is an important part of logical consequences, no matter what the age of the child.
  • Get the energy out.  Many parents say their children prevent them from being calm and my guess is most of the time the children just have too much energy. Get the energy out!  Be active with them, and most of all, get rid of the screens.  The screens do nothing to get energy out and to help everyone be calm.  Which leads to…
  • Be outside. Most things are calmer outside.  Especially if you have children under the age of 14, you should be outside every afternoon in some form of unstructured play.    Teens need this too, but the reality is many teens do have commitments at that point and cannot be outside every afternoon like that.  However, do make it a priority for those under 14.  You will never, ever get those under 14 years back.
  • Limit activities outside the home and plan for rest and downtime. Do not go out every day, even if it is fun things!  Be home!  A child and teen needs to know that the home is more than a launching pad to get to a class or activity, and that being home can be fulfilling too.
  • Understand that energetic and calm are not contradictory.  You can have and be both.  This was important for me personally to understand when I looked at all those soft-spoken, quiet Waldorf teachers.  I am energetic and dynamic.  I like to work and play hard, and it was super important for me to understand being energetic wasn’t a minus and calm is carried in your heart.  Being a calm parent could mean you are quiet and soft-spoken but it could also mean you are energetic and fun.
  • Have a plan for inner growth and development.   This is another complete game-changer.  If you profess to follow a religious or spiritual path, and yet invest no time in that at all each day, then you aren’t growing toward compassion, calmness, and all the things you profess to be important.   The inner path sets the inner stage for calmness. It can take as little as ten minutes a day, but DO SOMETHING.
  • Have something outside of your children as they get older.  As children grow, you do hit a point where you have time for some of your own interests or pursuits or to have a date night out or whatever it is that it time without your children.  However, the caveat is that no matter how many children you have, they will fill your 100 percent UNLESS you really put the effort into saying, no, this is my time.  I find this is especially important to do this with the early teen group who want to be driven a lot of places.  I am here for more than just driving and sitting and waiting.  Please show your children there is more to the world than just them.  
  • Know your limits and what you need for self-care! This is the most important one. If you are absolutely empty, then you cannot fulfill being calm.  Self-care means different things to different people, so figure out what makes things nurturing for you.

How do you come from a place of calm?

Blessings,
Carrie

A Month of Michaelmas

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A beautiful month of Michaelmas is upon us!  Don’t you love the call of the spiritual path that this time of year brings forth?  Let us engage in this longing and searching for the good to triumph over evil, for our inner light to shine over our baser passions, for our love for the world to expand in our deeds and responsibility toward all of humanity?

Here are some ways to prepare. If you have older children and ESPECIALLY teenagers, they should be part of preparing these things for younger children and I have included some suggestions for older children and teens directly.

1-   Make a little dragon for your nature table or place to display in the house.  My favorite little dragon pattern/kit is here at Mama Jude’s Etsy shop.  It is called Little Dragon Friend.

2 – Create shooting stars for Michaelmas.  Rhythmic Silence blog has suggestions as to how to dye and wet felt some beautiful balls for this (and add a tail!).  Perhaps you could make them and then hand them out on the day of the special festival celebration.

3 – Learn Michaelmas verses.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Michael the Victorious

Thou Michael the Victorious,

I make my circuit under thy shield

Thou Michael of the white steed

And of the bright, brillant blade!

Conqueror of the dragon,

Be thou at my back.

Thou ranger of the heavens!

Thou warrior of the King of all!

Thou Michael the victorious

My pride and my guide!

Thou Michael the victorious

The glory of mine eye.

And:

I rise through the strength of Mi-cha-el

Light of Sun

Radiance of Moon

Splendor of Fire

Swiftness of Wind

Depth of Sea

Stability of Earth

Firmness of Rock.

Mi-cha-el!

4- Find depictions of St. Michael the Archangel in art to display.  Some show St. Michael as a dragon-fighter or holding a  balance scale.  Different works of art show different aspects of St. Michael.

5- Stress doing good for others during this four-week period.  In the book, “Festivals With Children,” Brigitte Barz talks about bringing a balancing scale into the children’s space with dark stones on one side and helping the child choose a task each day to  help the archangel.  In this way, different stones can be added to the other side of the balance and hopefully by Michaelmas, the scale will be in complete balance.

7 – Make kites to fly.  This has been associated with Michaelmas for some time.

8 –  Make a dragon out of clay or modeling beeswax

9 – Decorate a candle with a Michaelmas theme with the thin modeling candle wax.

10- Tell fairy tales to the grades-aged children that fit into Michaelmas:  The Devil With The Three Golden Hairs, The Drummer, The Crystal Ball, The Two Brothers, Sleeping Beauty are all suggested.

11 – For children ages 9 and up, find Christine Natale’s story “The Golden Soldier”.  You can find Christine’s work here.

12 – For even older children, Parsifal is read in eleventh grade, so those 16 or so may enjoy this tale.

13 – Tell stories about St. George, a brave knight, who is a human symbol of this conflict of slaying and taming dragons; the personification of carrying inner light at a time when the outward light is diminishing

14 – For tiny children, try Suzanne Down’s story “The Brave Little Knight” or  the story “The Far Country” in the back of the book “All Year Round” for those five and up.

15 – Make plans to make “dragon bread” or a Michaelmas Harvest Loaf.  There is a story to go with this in the book “All Year Long”

16 – Learn Michaelmas songs.    There are some good ones in the Wynstones Autumn Book and yes, also on You Tube!

17 – Gather Michaelmas daisies.

18- Build an obstacle course that requires courage and bravery.

19 – Make a Calendula Courage Salve.

20 – Gather flowers to dye silk capes yellow for the big day.

21 – Make wooden shields or swords; have a knighting ceremony.

22 – Create a community gathering.

23 – Meditate on how we bring imagination, creativity, and fearlessness to the colder months ahead.  How do we overcome anxiety or fear? How do we bring more love into the world and how do we help others?

24 – Angels can be a lovely theme for this month.  I like the Paraclete Treasury of Angel Stories for reading aloud.

25 –  Make a Michaelmas drawing for your chalkboard

26- Learn a Michaelmas fingerplay for the littles.  See this post over at Little Acorn Learning

27  – Make a window transparency.  You can see an example on my Michaelmas Pinterest board.

28 – Make shadow puppets of St. George or the archangel and the dragon.

29  Michaelmas Day – shape your celebration in the way that feels most fitting to you and your family or community.  Over the years we have done simple soup and bread sharing; puppet shows; obstacle courses that involve courage, bonfires and singing.  I think it just depends who you have with you and what wonderful gifts you can share with each other.

Many blessings on this time.

Carrie

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: September

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September, I love you so!  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 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.  Things are full of fun and new life over in our house as well.  We  recently got a brand new cute little rescue puppy, and she has energy and fun in her, but is also pretty calm.

We are three weeks into school, and finishing up our first blocks of first and sixth grade, with our first block of ninth grade planned to take about six weeks.  We have been going on a few field trips, (and I hope to talk in another post about field trips!)

This month we are celebrating:

September 5 – Labor Day – I have written before about trying to find a Labor Day parade or going to take your small children where something spectacular was built and finding out the history of how it was created and built.

September 8- The Nativity of St.Mary, the Theotokos

September 21 – The Feast of  St. Matthew

September 29 – Michaelmas

There are a host  of wonderful Celtic Saints to celebrate this month in Anglican tradition as well – really to many to choose from. St. Cyprian, St. Hildegard, and St. Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury.  I hope to at least read about some of these Saints to our children.

Some of our Field Trips this month may include:

  • Apple Picking

Ideas for Celebrating this Month with Littles:

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Older Children:

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

Homemaking:

  • Getting our rhythm down. I often have to make changes and tweak things a few weeks into school.  This year has been busy with some outside things ( judging events in 4-H, taking care of a puppy down the street, etc) so once some of those things  have ended, I think it will be simpler.  You all know how it goes – hard to garner a fanstastic rhythm if the time is just being broken up.
  • I have plans to really go through the children’s toys.  Some things need to be refreshed and moved around for our soon to be seven year old, and some things just need to be weeded out.  The Konmari In The Waldorf Home group on Facebook has been very inspiring to me.
  • Planning landscaping.  This house had the bushes planted during construction and we would like to do something more and get back into having a fall garden.  Not a lot of this has happened since we moved into this house.

Homeschooling:

  • I am feeling pretty settled into what we are doing, other than my children in general move rather slowly when it comes to the “doing” part of putting anything in our Main Lesson Books (but that isn’t new).  It can be a real juggle to teach three children, and I find I am often teaching fairly non-stop between 8:30 and 2:30 or so.
  • One thing I have been contemplating so much is the loss of people homeschooling in general as children grow older; the loss of older children in Waldorf homeschooling in particular and the development of academic skills within the Waldorf curriculum that children around the fifth grade and up mark really and truly need to be successful at the high school level.  I just don’t think there is enough emphasis regarding the HOW to develop skills in the upper Waldorf curriculum and Waldorf high school  – whether that is increasing artistic skills or academic skills – for homeschooling parents to really sink their teeth into.  More on that at some point in the future!

Self-Care:

  • School starting has really thrown off my self-care routines, but I feel it coming back to the surface after several weeks of putting myself on the back burner.
  • Spiritual studies are taking on a new life for me.  I took part in a really wonderful prayer event for homeschooling, and am  looking forward to adult Sunday School beginning at church next week.  I have been rather inward focused this summer, and feel a new period of growth coming on.  There is also a study I am taking part in through our local Waldorf School, and another one on-line.   I like to feel my knowledge of Waldorf Education expanding.  Even things as small as picking out new verses for the children’s grade to open the day and picking out verses for me to focus myself for this school year has seemed significant.

I would love to hear what you are up to  this September!

Blessings,
Carrie

My Top 5 Tips – Thriving in Homeschooling and Homemaking

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We are starting our third week of homeschooling this week and I was reflecting on the fact that I have been homeschooling for ten years (I am counting my oldest child’s six year old kindergarten year forward to ninth grade this year).  I was trying to think the other day of what really helps hold everything together for me as a homeschooling mother in terms of also being a homemaker, since as homeschooling families we are moving in both overlapping circles continuously.   When children are smaller, the academic demands are less and I think easier to work into homeschooling, but as children get older these arenas become more separate in some ways.  After some thought,  I found five things that help me homeschool and make a home:

  1. Accept some mess will happen…If you look at my house on a homeschooling day, yes, it may have papers and colored pencils and clay and main lesson books and projects in both our homeschool room and in our breakfast nook. Our high schooler tends to work in the breakfast nook, and the other children tend to work in our homeschool room so that is why we have two places.  The garage, where we do a lot of movement, can also get messy.  However….
  2. Accept that mess can be cleaned up within a half hour window.  That is sort of my barometer.  Can everything be tidied up within half an hour?  If it can, then the part of me that is extremely sensitive to visual clutter rests a little easier.  Everything everywhere just doesn’t work for me.
  3. Do things as promptly as possible and have a rhythm.  For me, the prompt part means doing dishes after we eat, sweeping up when the puppy drags in mud and grass on her paws, throwing in a load of laundry every morning, etc.  Of course, having a rhythm really helps with many of these pieces. What day do we change the sheets on the bed, clean the bathrooms, dust?  At what points during the day do we tidy up and clean up?   I cannot always free up hours on end to these things consecutively, but all of  these things can get done within in the course of the week.
  4. Elicit help. All members of the family can help, and i notice the more upper level grades I am teaching and the more subjects I am teaching, I  simple need more help because I am spending more time teaching and then older children may have activities they need to be driven to after teaching is done. I need everyone to pitch in and help, and at this point, our older two students are adept and independent in many areas of housemaking.
  5. Think ahead and streamline. For me,  things such as menu planning; sitting down and figuring out doctor and dentist appointments and field trips for two to three months at a time; deep cleaning at various points in the school year actually ends up saving me time in the long run.

I would love to hear your best tips for homeschooling and homemaking together.

Blessings,
Carrie