Category Archives: Family Life

Monthly Anchor Points: May

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Anchor:  a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay: Hope was his only anchor.

When we work to become the author of own family life, we take on the authority to provide our spouse and children and ourselves stability.  An effective way to do this is through the use of rhythm.  If you have small children, it takes time to build a family rhythm that encompasses the year.  If you are homeschooling older children and also have younger children not yet ready for formal learning, the cycle of the year through the seasons and through your religious year becomes the number one tool you have for family unity, for family identity, for stability.

I wrote about my homeschool planning method of marking seasonal and liturgical ideas down for each month in past posts.  I have written monthly anchor points posts for August, September and October and now would like to extend our mood of celebration into May!

 

May is such a beautiful month, Continue reading →

In Honor Of Screen Free Week

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This week, May 5th through May 11th, is Screen Free Week.  I have a few links I would love to share with you all to inspire you to change your family’s viewing habits, plus three simple things you can do to keep this momentum going if being screen free is new to you and your family.

 

Here is the official website for Screen Free Week:  http://www.screenfree.org/

 

Here is great article by a psychologist about the risks of screen time.  Her thought is that it is not the message (ie, whether or not the show is “educational”, but the medium of the screen itself).  This is an interesting article:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-wealth/201404/screen-free-week-is-just-around-the-corner

 

A great You Tube video for adults  about “Looking Up”.  British rhyming tells a truthful message:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

Top Three Ways to Continue the Momentum of Screen Free Week:

1.  Play Outside!  Children need lots and lots of unstructured play.  In this day and age, we seem to hover over our children and getting them outside can be a chore as opposed to what it was when we were growing up – we went out to play after school until the street lights came on and we were called home.  Or, we consider the fact that our children are in active sports to take the place of play.  Nothing takes the place of unstructured play.

 

Children even need risky play.  Here is an article from Psychology Today that talks about why:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201404/risky-play-why-children-love-it-and-need-it?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Freedom-to-Learn+%28Freedom+to+Learn%29

 

Inspire yourself with folks who love to get outside.  Try the Children & Nature Network:  http://www.childrenandnature.org/  and also Renee’s blog over at FIMBY as her family hikes the Appalachian Trail: http://fimby.tougas.net/a-family-hiking-the-appalachian-trial

 

2.  Have a list handy of things to do without a screen:  http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/blog/who-needs-screens-70-ideas-family-fun

If you have small children and you know they melt before dinner whilst you are trying to cook and you are depending upon a screen for entertainment (this is the most common scenario I get in my email), have a plan.  Salt dough can work well, as can providing jobs to help the work of the family.

 

3.  Set new rhythms that do not involve any screen time.  Many mothers have told me over and over that it is much easier to cut the screens for their children out completely than to “wean off” or set a small limit, because then when the screen goes off there is arguing.  Cut down your own computer time.  Do you really need to be on social media sites for two hours a day?  What else could you do during that time? 

 

Blessings,
Carrie

May: Time To Plan

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Usually one of three things happens during the homeschooling year:

Life intervenes and the entire year is rather chaotic.  Yep, that happens.

The school year starts off strong, and then life intervenes and is rather chaotic.  Yep, that happens too.

Everything goes as perfectly planned.  Nope, that really doesn’t happen too often.

 

Homeschooling calls for flexibility, an ability to work with life throws at you, often an ability to juggle different roles of being a parent/spouse/homemaker and to juggle children of a wide spread of ages and stages and temperaments.  All of this really requires an ability to get organized and work with planning as a tool.  This is important especially for Waldorf homeschooling.  Planning is everything in Waldorf homeschooling, and it really can help save you when life intervenes.

 

So, how is it coming with planning?  The last posts in this series were in February and March (you can see March’s post here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2014/03/27/march-time-to-plan/)

 

This is where I am so far in planning a five year old kindergarten year, fourth grade and seventh grade:

I planned my start and finish dates and vacation dates based off of the two counties where my children have friends on different school schedules.  I didn’t do that this year and ended up regretting it.

I marked out “teacher time”.  Plans made over the summer often need adjustment, and at any rate, one needs to look things over and live into the material before the block begins.

I went through all the months of this past year and wrote down any details I wanted to remember – which months did life hit us hardest, how I felt inside, how the children seemed to feel, seasonal details about each month or details related to feasts of the church.

I thought very seriously about extra-curricular activities and how many days we can really be out of the home each week – and what time we will finish school each day and really can realistically make it out to something.  The out of the house rhythm I have discussed with my husband, because whereas I am a “yes” kind of girl, “yes, let’s do that!” he is much more practical in terms of looking at how much time we can sustain outside our home.

I made out a sample daily rhythm for all three children.  That, to me, is the hardest part, as I often don’t feel as if there are enough hours in the day to meet everyone’s needs with three separate ages of children – early years, mid grades and late grades.

I created my “wheel” of the year – you can see details about that in the March back post.  I go mainly around the calendar of the Anglican Communion and have to plan in our feast and fast dates and dates where we will be out of the home due to church.  Remember, the cycle of the year is what holds all of your different ages and stages together for your homeschooling adventure!

I sketched out what blocks I think will go where in the year and how long those blocks most likely will be.  Subject to change!

I ordered most of my resources and started gathering various titles to get at the library.

I put together notes for two blocks for my seventh grader by day (but have not done any of the artistic work for those blocks ahead of time yet, which is often that part that takes me the longest after I read the resources and get an idea for the order of what to present when in the flow of a block).

I put together some general ideas about work each day of the week for my kindergartner, and ideas about stories for each month, crafts and handwork for festivals.

 

That is a start, but there is certainly a lot, a lot more to do!  I have to start now to really plan it all and fit it all in.  Most of this work is being created by me from scratch using different resources, as I am certain it is for you as well.

What are you planning?  I would love to hear!

 

Blessings,
Carrie

Celebrating Lent and Holy Week With Children

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Holy Week is upon us!  I wanted to share a few ideas with you all about celebrating Lent and Holy Week.  Lent is such a beautiful time.  I love what Orthodox Christian priest Anthony Coniaris writes in his book, “ Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home”:

It is significant that Lent happens to coincide with Spring in the northern climes.  I think there is a wonderful lesson for us in this happy coincidence.  Lent should be for all of us a period of placing ourselves in the position where the best things can happen for us.  That position for Orthodox Christians is the presence of Christ, where the Sun of His love and power can shine into our arid souls to bring about a real awakening, a real springtime of the soul.

 

Here are some brief suggestions for celebrating Lent and Holy Week: Continue reading →

Children First, From the Start

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With interest, I read this 35 paged report called “Putting Children First”  available here:  http://www.savechildhood.net/putting-children-first.html.  This is a United Kingdom publication, but the challenges these children are facing are similar to here in the United States:

 

Young children today are subject to a range of cultural pressures that were simply unknown to previous generations. Family life has significantly changed, they live in a rapidly advancing digital world, they are much less trusted and more controlled, they have fewer freedoms and significantly less access to nature, they are highly vulnerable
to the dangers of commercialisation and sexualisation and the quality and depth of their learning in the early years has moved from being intrinsically connected to family and community to become increasingly seen as primarily a preparation for later schooling. Child wellbeing in the UK has been the subject of increasing concern. Currently one
in ten children is being diagnosed with a mental health disorder,4 one in three is clinically obese,5 one in 12 of our adolescents deliberately harm themselves and nearly 80,000 children and young people currently suffer from severe depression including 8,000 children aged under 10 years of age. This is a deeply worrying situation that needs to be
tackled head on.

 

We are dealing with a pandemic crisis in childhood.  If this was bubonic plague attacking our children, the government and every citizen would be concerned.  But to hear of isolated cases of a mental health disorder in a teenager,  or isolated cutting and additive behaviors,  isolated cases of obesity within one area – no one seems to really be paying that much attention on a national level.   There have been different movements in the United States focusing on different aspects of children’s health and education, but no one movement that encompasses the many branches needed to bring healing to this generation has taken place.  I have not seen any public health campaigns for the things that I think would make the most lasting impressions upon helping our children.

 

What would it look like to really help our children get the best start?  Here some ideas, but there are certainly many more areas so feel free to add yours in the comment box below! Continue reading →

Interesting Links to Start Your Week

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I love this post, (and the book referenced as well!):  http://charmingthebirdsfromthetrees.blogspot.com/2014/03/make-most-of-beautiful-moments.html

This post stirred up a little bit of controversy on The Parenting Passageway’s Facebook page.  It talks about banning hand-held devices for children under the age of 12 and why, including a chart regarding media by age at the end of the article.  Check it out here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned_b_4899218.html

The disturbing trends of kindergarten: http://tablet.olivesoftware.com/Olive/Tablet/GreenwichTime/SharedArticle.aspx?href=TGT%2F2014%2F02%2F23&id=Ar00907

And lastly, an article about teens and texting and how it ruins romance:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-d-anderson/teen-texting-the-ruin-of-romance_b_3763576.html

Many blessings,

Carrie

Inspiring Links For The New Year

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This is  such a holy and sacred time of the year.  It is a time to go inward and to reflect and also, I think to plan a little for the year ahead.  In that vein, I have to share just a few of my favorite things for the new year.

First of all, I am very content to see Heather offering a “Hibernate” on-line workshop.  I signed up for it when the announcement first came out, and am so looking forward to it.  You can find more details about that here:  http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/beauty_that_moves/2013/12/hibernate-online-workshop.html

 

I am also happy to see what Sheila wrote here about envisioning her year through a single word:  http://sureastheworld.com/2013/12/16/word-2014/

 

I am pleased to see some more blogging about homeschooling from the Tan family over at Syrendell.  For those of you homeschooling, are you ready for the last half of the school year here in North America, or are you already busy thinking about next year?  Here is a blog post from Syrendell about fourth grade:  http://syrendell.blogspot.com/2013/12/return-to-homeschooling.html

 

I would love to hear what you are focusing on these holy days and nights of Christmastide.

Many blessings,
Carrie

Celebrating Christmastide

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Merry Christmas!  Today is the second day in Christmastide, a wonderful season that begins on Christmas Day and continues until the eve of Epiphany.  Freya Jaffke, in her wonderful book, “Celebrating the Festivals With Children”, writes:

During the twelve or thirteen Holy Nights that follow Christmas, the events of Christmas continue to resonate; and it is a lovely custom for children if candles are lit each day, with singing, music making and perhaps a reading.  This period is set apart from the rest of the year, and can be a time when we gather our strength for the year ahead.  Nothing urgent needs to be done, and we can really take time for things.  Children are deeply satisfied if mother or father sits down beside them with some craftwork, or perhaps join in a game now and then.  In contrast to the summer when we like going outdoors, we feel very comfortable at home in the warmth – apart from winter walks and the fun of snow when it comes.

We can celebrate the twelve days of Christmastide with children by using candles or a ring with twelve hearts or a simple Advent type calendar adapted to the twelve days of Christmas.  This becomes a nice way to bring children down gently from Christmas and to continue the joy and wonder society too often associates with just a single day.

Instructions to make a Christmas ring can be found in both “All Year Round” and “Celebrating Irish Festivals”.    There are instructions to make a “postcard” calendar for the twelve days of Christmastide, each window representing a month of the year, ie, the first card would represent January and be opened on the first day of Christmastide, the second card would represent February and be opened on the second day of Christmas.  I would like to do this and follow the Church Year calendar to be represented on these cards.  Maybe I can do this in time for next year!

Today is also St. Stephen’s Day, and in Ireland and other places this is a time of fasting, a day to visit friends, a time to walk and feed the birds.  “Celebrating Irish Festivals” talks about the custom of the Wren Boys in Ireland and the mummer’s play.   Today is a wonderful day to make treats for our feathered friends in honor of St. Stephen!

If you are careful to celebrate Advent as a preparation, this time of Christmastide in its fullness can hold such incredible joy and fun.  Each day the family can gather around the Christmas tree for singing and readings and to play old-fashioned games.  Some families like to  craft window stars, rose windows and transparencies during this sacred time.   Many families also spread out their gift-giving and acts of generous kindness to other family members amongst the twelve days of Christmas, which is another wonderful tradition. 

Many blessings to you as you celebrate these days,
Carrie

Last Minute Gifts to Make

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Happy Holidays! I know many of you are in a flurry of crafting and baking right now, but I know some of you are also looking for last minute ideas for gifts to make.

 

Here are a few suggestions:

I have a friend entranced by peg people, which got me thinking about those little people again!  One of my favorite Pinterest sites has this to offer:  https://www.pinterest.com/queenslace/peg-dolls/

 

My oldest daughter and I have been making straw stars.  I think this is a great project for children who are middle school (ie, age 12) and up.  Here is a link to order supplies:  http://www.germanplaza.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=280

 

Here is a list of 10 Waldorf Christmas crafts.  I love “cinnamon ornaments” and think having little ones make these for a grandparents Christmas tree is always lovely:  http://www.valleywaldorf.org/10-waldorf-christmas-crafts-kids/

 

Here are free projects from The Silver Penny: http://www.thesilverpenny.com/FreeProjects.html

 

Wee Folk Art also has much to offer:  http://weefolkart.com/

 

Last year, my last minute gifts included peppermint bark, savory salt, and grain free granola.  Things one makes in the kitchen are always good gifts!

 

Please do share what you are making this year!

Blessings,

Carrie

The Simple Christmas

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Christmas begins on December 25th, and continues until January 6th.  Christmastide is a beautiful season with simple pleasures. 

 

I think we have to be so careful to not raise our children with a sense of entitlement, but with a sense of gratitude.  Gratitude begins with us, and with how we are gracious and grateful with less material things and more with the connections the seKason provides.  Kim John Payne talks more about this important topic here:  http://www.themotherco.com/2013/12/a-simple-holiday-less-toys-and-more-time/

 

I have my own suggestions for slowing down and enjoying Christmastide.

 

  • Go media free if you are not media free already. 
  • Get outside.  Hike, ski, skate, and enjoy the season and the great outdoors in your area.
  • Have a Christmastide party with your close friends and  family members.
  • Have a board game night or a night of playing cards together.
  • Have a crafting night.  You can make rose windows, straw stars, window stars, paper lanterns, dip candles, or roll candles.
  • Visit something seasonal in your area – a winter wonderland, ice skating, a cultural celebration.
  • If you are religious, attend your place of worship for the wonderful feast days that happen during Christmastide.
  • Take a night to make popcorn and tell tales.
  • Do sweet and kind things for each other throughout the twelve days of Christmas
  • Say thank you often for the small things in life, and model this for your children.

 

Please leave a comment in the comment box regarding your favorite traditions for Christmas. 

 

Many blessings,

Carrie