Nurturing the Home in Autumn

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I know it is still summer, but since down here in the South school has already started, young adults are back at college and some of us are longing for cooler weather, I have been thinking about how to nurture and nourish our home for autumn.

Because, the reality is that whether I am working outside the home or not, whether children are in the home or not, I love homemaking. I love our home to feel peaceful and warm. I still love to celebrate all the autumn festivals, which for me look like Michaelmas, Martinmas, All Saints and All Souls.

Now is a great time to get organized. I have to plan around homeschooling and work outside the home, but I love to put autumn adventures and self -care on the calendar. My self care coming up includes acupuncture and massage plus exercise and inner work. We are trying a new church tomorrow, so that is exciting.

We have a strong daily and weekly rhythm at this point, so mainly I am thinking about how I can make our house cozy? We got some new porch chairs and I got sunflower pillows and a throw and freshened up an autumn wreath we had. I am anticipating porch sitting as the temperature goes down. We will be in the middle of a barn addition on the farm as we head into September, but I am already looking forward to new paint and flowers for around the barn when the addition is complete.

In the home, I am mainly thinking of decluttering, pulling out puzzles and cozy pillows and throws, and having a bar for tea and hot chocolate set up. Bread baking and baking in general will come back more and I am excited for that!

What kinds of things are you doing in your home as we head into September?

Blessings,
Carrie

Joy in the Home

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“We must make the mother happy, as the child thrives on joy!” – Michaela Glockler

In this time where I see parents more and more searching for right answers, (convinced there is a “right answer” in matters of parenting), increasingly time- pressed and pressured from the economic side of life, with perhaps less differentiation between children and adults, there often can be little joy in parenting.

The smallest interactions with your child have the potential to be joyful, if one slows down long enough to experience this. All children, but small children especially, need the gift of time. Some have labeled this “slow parenting”, but this wisdom used to not need such a label. This does not mean they are shut off in their rooms for long periods alone and with technology but instead of infusing into the life of the family through a continued call to come and be held by the warmth and joy in the house.

Early years children need just the smallest flexible rhythm around diapering/bathroom; eating; playing and working; rest and sleeping with warmth infused in a happy and stable rhythm. Middle years children need heartfelt guidance of what to do with emotions, how to participate in an expanded community life and with expanded rhythms and responsibilities. The adolescent needs to begin the work of discerning right judgment, right initiative, right independent thinking – among other things. Four years in high school goes by rather quickly.

The backdrop to the developmental tasks in hand of the parent is that of joy. How can you bring more joy into your homes and into your attitudes in parenting? How you nurturing your own path? This is important not only for tiny children who notice so many small details in their world, but even for the teenagers who will notice the home cooked meal, the flowers on the table, the smile when they enter the door and more. We can hold this space throughout the stages of development.

Our third child is now fourteen and entering ninth grade, the first year of high school in the States. We are embarking on this journey for the last time and I am thinking and meditating in regards to how to help guide him in the best possible way toward his future. At this point, we also have coaches, mentors, other parents of his friends, to also assist us and to love him. This is invaluable. Your community is so important and helpful in this time.

How are you planning your new parenting and homeschooling year to bring joy?

Love to all,

Carrie

Happy August

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I love August so much! It’s the beginning of another trip around the sun for me and this year I will be 54! Last year could have gone a different way when I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive disease, but here I am this year again thanks to the wondrous combination of modern science and holistic care, celebrating my birthday! I went out on the lake this morning to enjoy some stand up paddleboard yoga, and am reveling in all the summer glory of the farm. We have six horses here, dogs, cats, and bees along with blueberries and apples. I am so looking forward to seeing this place grow even more over the next two years. We have big plans!

This is a month of sunshine and sunflowers, lakes, and fun – and here in the deep south, it’s also time for back to school. School down here begins this first week of August or the second week depending upon your program. We are beginning on August 20th this year for our little 14 year old (he can be six feet tall, but he’s still my baby!) – our last child in school!

The things we are celebrating in this beautiful month:

August 6th- The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ

August 8th- My Birthday!

August 10- School starts!

August 15- The Dormition of St. Mary

August 28 – our oldest child will be 23! Doesn’t seem possible! 

Ideas for Celebration:

  • Making a  beautiful triptych to celebrate the life of St. Mary.  There are many wonderful ideas regarding this on the Internet.
  • We have about another month or two of tubing, swimming and water park availability to us, so we hope to take advantage!
  • Camping – it can be super hot here, but I am already making camping in the fall a priority. We went in June and it was hot but fun!
  • Gazing at the stars
  • Walking in the mornings
  • Working out. I have had good success combining gym memberships so I can do some HIIT workouts and some yoga based activities. Super fun!
  • Making delicious meals!

The Domestic Life:

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

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

Getting back into a rhythm that supports school is also a huge help with that.  Rhythm is a key word for this month and the structure of the rhythm of school for homeschooling does us all good!

Meal planning gets us through because I am too busy to have to spend a lot of time every day planning.  So, I like to plan 2-4 weeks of meals and shop. Generally over the summer I have been shopping less in bulk as there have been people here with the numbers varying daily. However, I will say I think leading up to the election that I am guessing that prices will rise, so I am stocking up on things for fall and winter now. 

Homeschooling:

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

Our other two children are adults and living their own lives. 🙂 They have jobs and are still super involved with horses. Both are back in our area which is so wonderful to have them close.

Self-Care and Rhythm:

My biggest priorities right now in addition to homeschooling and working outside the home are my workouts, medical appointments and self care. The other thing I have penciled on my rhythm for fall is Thursday mornings to meet with a group of ladies from my former place of worship. We have a new church that is closer to the farm, but I am happy to be part of this group too. This helps anchor me for life!

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

Lots of love and many blessings,
Carrie

Read Along With Me – “How the Future Can Save Us”

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We are on page 20 of this wonderful book by Stephen Sagarin, who is a faculty chair, cofounder and teacher at the Berkshire Waldorf High School in western Massachusetts. It is so fun to read his musings on Waldorf Education, and I hope you are enjoying reading along!

We are in Section 7 of the “Method” section and the author talks about how so often we begin Waldorf Main Lesson with this idea of dancing, singing, eurythmy and bean bags. Rudolf Steiner himself said in Soul Economy (by the way, one of my most favorite set of educational lectures compiled and often overlooked by people) that “while a person is engaged in limb activities that simulate the metabolism, thoughts that were artificially planted in the head during the previous years are no longer there. When children jump and run around and are active in the limbs and the metabolism, all thoughts previously planted in the head simply fly away.”

Many homeschoolers have complained for years that they would take the family for a walk prior to school, and then by the time they come back, everyone uses the bathroom and has a snack, half of the morning is gone! Sometimes we have limited time and we really just need to get to work in the grades.

Section 8 discusses taking notes. Those in my generation often wrote down nearly word for word what our teachers were saying, especially in high school and college. We were fast writers! LOL. Sagarin says perhaps this isn’t the best tactic, and he often teaches without having the students take notes and then the next day he comes in and writes a very concise summary on the board that students can copy without having to listen. Think about how you want to approach this in your homeschooling, especially as you move up in the grades. Section 9 is about the value of doodling.

What do you think of this book so far? Here in the States, the school year is fast approaching, and I hope this book gives you some thoughts for your new homeschooling year.

Blessings,
Carrie

A July To Remember

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The best summer memories usually are not the big things like a flashy vacation, but instead the slow and ordinary moments that make up the days of summer. Picking blueberries and eating them off the bush or eating tomatoes off the vine. Sunrises and sunsets. Watching the fireflies.

Farm life is busy and content this time of year. We split a beehive last week, got two horses in (one is a sale horse), and are busy with summer farm life. We don’t have a garden, mainly because where I want to put it still needs trees removed, but I am hopeful to have some raised beds built in time for fall.

I used to get July Doldrums – it was so hot and miserable at times with small children with endless days of park and pool (fun, but exhausting by the end of a hot month). Now our children are almost 23, 19, and 14 so summers look different. Jobs and adult responsibilities, and farm chores and activities for our 14 year old who is still at home.

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! You might also love this ebook of Waldorf School recipes! https://www.waldorflibrary.org/online-library/ebooks/ebooks/a-collection-of-recipes-from-shepherd-valley-waldorf-school-ebook

I am looking forward to sunflowers, catching fireflies, and watching our adult girls show their horses. I hope you are looking forward to something as well! Also, August is so close and that is my birthday month so I am definitely looking forward to that.

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:

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
  • We are getting new towels, which might not seem that exciting, but who doesn’t love soft and fluffy towels?

Homeschooling Fun!:

Our children are mainly finished with school. Our oldest is a pediatric intensive care unit nurse, and our middle daughter just started a business buying, training, and selling horses. She moved back to our area this past week after working and living on her own for a year out of state, so it is nice to have everyone in one area. The first night she came back we had dinner at the farm with their boyfriends and it has just been fun to have them and their friends around this week!

My main goal for our ninth grader this year is to have a strong academic year, to keep him physically fit with kickboxing and boxing (and farm work), to keep him busy building and doing things on the farm, to have him enjoy volunteering as a helper/apprentice at his former middle school boys only program and to grow into leadership, and to branch out into Sea Scouts. He thought about doing naval JROTC but wasn’t quite ready for the commitment of weekend drills and overnight drills, so he decided Sea Scouts would address some of the skills in swimming, boating, sailing, boat mechanics that he is interested in. He is also still interested in computer programming as well, and is working through some things on his own with his dad’s help and then can use dual enrollment to pursue that further in eleventh grade.

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/

This is my current Waldorf book – have you read it? https://www.waldorflibrary.org/online-library/ebooks/ebooks/an-examination-of-children%E2%80%99s-senses,-the-damaging-effects-of-the-media-and-the-therapeutic-possibilities-of-puppetry-ebook

And this is worth a re-read every year before school starts: https://www.waldorflibrary.org/online-library/ebooks/ebooks/and-who-shall-teach-the-teachers-ebook

I hope you have a blessed July!

Warmly and with many blessings,

Carrie

Read Along With Me: “How The Future Can Save Us” – Method

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Section Three of “Growth” is about “Back To Basics” or teaching according to Steiner’s methods. It begins with a view at a main lesson. The author suggests that the beginning of a two hour main lesson is devoted to “Memory”. We remember things from yesterday’s presentation or demonstration. We talk about it in conversation. We don’t ask them to recall or retell in a classroom setting per se but lead and facilitate a discussion. We present new concepts next and involve the child’s whole being. This can take five to ten minutes for small children and no more than thirty minutes for older children. Next, is a piece called imagination. This is where we think of a main lesson illustration, but it could be working with something concrete such as for math.We work with more questions about the subject and involve their imaginations, which extends the time we are discussing a new topic by another thirty to forty five minutes. This should be active; it could be movement. In the author’s view “Don’t begin with a movement lesson; end with it, if you must.” We then close the lesson with a question to think about or a statement about what is to come tomorrow. Then the main lesson ends with a story – a story we have memorized for younger students or a story we read to the older students. Then we sleep on all of this.

Section Four is talking about “telling tales in Waldorf Schools.” Two passages from Steiner (one from the lectures in “Kingdom of Childhood” and one from the lectures in “Practical Advice to Teachers”) are compared both for and against the “recall” or “review” practice that is done in many Waldorf schools and homeschools. The author concludes from the passages the following really interesting observations:

  1. That the primary point of retelling and review is not the development of memory, but the development of speech. There is more to this idea in the book – it has to do with cultural differences and the time in which Waldorf education was founded.
  2. The author questions if Steiner really meant we should tell the same story over and over – look at your student.
  3. The first portion of a lesson, “the review” has many points of interest elucidated in “Education for Adolescents” and other places). There is no mention of circle time, a three day rhythm, or a three part lesson of “thinking, feeling, willing” mentioned.
  4. The progression Steiner outlines is on page 17 of this book.

Section Five of this talks about teaching to the top – that in a classroom setting, it is easy to “teach to the top” – the smart, motivated students who practically teach themselves. However, teachers are really needed for the students for whom the subject does not come together well. The author writes: “So please plan your classes and lessons for the “best” or “Smartest” students in your class. Keep the pace high, and introduce topics- and write quizzes and tests – in a way that makes it possible for the weaker or slower students to pass, but really challenges the smartest or fastest students. ” He also talks about giving a range of assignments from direct and easy to complex and challenging. This is really the art of teaching, isn’t it? This is what homeschool teachers develop as we go through the grades and through teaching multiple children or in a homeschooling co-op.

He also talks in Section Five about beginning the school year (again, for the grades) with a “bang”! Introduce a topic in a way that will fire your student’s interest and imagination. For this, he uses an example in precalculus at the high school level, but I think this can be true for grades 3 and up. Start with something that makes the student really feel as if they are learning something (I say grades 3 and up because students in grade 1 and 2 generally are not that self aware yet).

Section Six talks about how good teachers ask questions and WAIT for the students to answer. This is definitely trickier in the home environment as we work one on one with our student, and it can feel very aggressive. However, it is important to let students think and to make those connections. I think for older students a good way to do this is to have a new way to review information – I like giant butcher paper sized maps on the back of the school room door and math in practical life situations to think about as quick examples.

Love this section, and there is still more to go! Grab your copy of this book and follow along!

Blessings,
Carrie

Read Along With Me: “How The Future Can Save Us” – Growth

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The section of this book entitled “Growth” has three different sections to look at. The first section is entitled “Protection and Leadership” and begins with a poem from “Leaves of Grass” about how a child went forth and became the first object he looked upon….leaving author Stephen Sagarin to write that our children are being pressured to grow up too quickly. They become consumers from an early age and are being asked by advertisers to grow up faster, to buy products, and that without these products they should not be confident.

He writes, “….teens are in that in-between place, that nowhere land in which they have enough freedom, power, maturity, mobility, and intelligence to make choices, but not the developed judgment to always make wise or rational decisions.”

Side Note : I was talking to a high school sophomore and just newly graduated high schooler today and I was telling them that France passed a ban that bans smartphones and tablets for kids between 3 and 15 years of age (I believe just at school). They said they wished that was the case here. “It would have to be a law though,” they both said, “Because if some people have it (phones) and some don’t, that’s when there are problems. But it’s not good for your brain.” Even teenagers know that it isn’t great for them to consume, but they feel pressure to keep up with what other teens are watching. This conversation was interesting timing, considering reading this essay!

The author goes on to point out that America’s image around the world is essentially adolescence and youth, and perhaps this points the way toward our jobs (as teachers, as parents) should be to protect children from growing up too quickly. He points out that Rudolf Steiner spoke about this in “Balance in Teaching,” mentioning protection, enthusiasm, reverence as ways to provide good teaching for children.

But protection doesn’t last forever. At some point it our job to help children go through adolescence and go on to become thoughtful, ethical, creative adults (my paraphrase). Rudolf Steiner wanted education to help develop a “free human being.” Sagarin quotes a passage from “The Spiritual Ground of Education” and talks about how adolescents need freedom of their own intelligence and how without the assistance of adults, they may not only flounder or flail, but not survive. The ages between 12 and 16 are a “vulnerability gap” – named this by famed Master Waldorf teacher and author Betty Staley. This is the time to encourage freedom but ALSO responsibility.

Section 2 of “Growth” is “Growth and Learning in Three Easy Graphs!” “When you are very young, and most of your energy or life force is going into your physical growth, you don’t have as much energy available for intellectual growth. But, as your physical growth slows, you are increasingly capable of turning your mind to whatever you choose.” The last graph neatly shows how these areas intersect. While sometimes Waldorf students are seen as “behind” in the early years or early grades due to beginning academics around age 7, they typically catch up and surpass their peers around fourth grade and accelerate their learning in adolescence, where it should be accelerated. This puts the emphasis, in my opinion, upon the health of the whole child.

What did you think about this section?

Blessings,

Carrie

Foundation of the Year: June

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June is one of my favorite months of the year! It’s a time of berry picking, summer rhythms, summer decluttering, and new projects in my head and on paper.

In the midst of scurrying around, and work, there are memories to be made this June. Some of the things we are looking forward to:

Boating on the lake

Going to the beach on the lake

Kayaking and camping

Berry picking and making jam

Planting and harvesting veggies and flowers

Experimenting with new recipes

Spending time together as a family!

This month we will be celebrating:

The Slow Summer – think lakes and pools, tubing, horseback riding, camping, spending time with family and friends. All of my favorite things in one month!  Here is a wonderful guest post by Christine Natale, Master Waldorf Teacher and author about creating the magical summer

14- Flag Day

16 – Father’s Day AND – 

Wed June 21 is Summer Solstice

24 – The Nativity of St. John the Baptist/ St. John’s Tide (see this back post for festival help!)

29- The Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul

Summer Homeschooling and Development:

I am planning an entire (nearly) social-media free month in June and we are kicking off the month by going camping. Do not fear, I will still be posting here on the blog and we will be following along chapter by chapter with our new book to read, “How The Future Can Save Us- Fresh Perspective on Waldorf Education-Principles, Methods, Curriculum” by Stephen Keith Sagarin.

Also look for a few posts on self -care and how to use self- care as the bedrock foundation of your homeschooling and parenting journey.

I am running back to basics this summer – it’s been a crazy few years on the farm with a lot of changes! So I need the basics in my life back, beginning with Gratitude: Eight Facets Of A Healthy Family Culture | The Parenting Passageway and Finding Rhythm With Grades-Aged Children | The Parenting Passageway. If you have littles under the age of 7, you might like this back post: Finding Rhythm With Littles | The Parenting Passageway

Our oldest two children live on their own and have their own lives, but I am busy planning ninth grade for our youngest child. He will be attending a two day a week hybrid school, but we have some blocks and things to add in for his high school transcript. He will be volunteering one day a week at the homeschooled middle school boys outdoor/adventure program he went through and graduated from, and he has plans to start working on areas of interest throughout high school in order to be college ready, which is his goal.

Looking forward to hearing what all of you are up to!

Blessings and love,
Carrie

Read Along With Me: “How The Future Can Save Us” Introduction

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Teacher and author Stephen Sagarin based the idea of this book around a quote from Rudolf Steiner’s last lecture compiled in “Education As A Force For Social Change” that states: “Nor should we allow them to teach before they have gained an idea of how the past and the future affect our culture….and how that undefined rebel of the future can save us.” (Lecture given on August 17, 1919). This was three days before Rudolf Steiner traveled to Stuttgart, Germany to train the first teachers for what would be a “Waldorf School.” However, at the time, he most likely was addressing teachers everywhere. Prior to the above quote, Steiner talked about how teachers needed to know about “forces that determine human fate…..the nature of archangels.”

Our personal angels give us strength and help us on our journey and must never be mistaken for the greater spiritual influence (versus the angels that are here to help us personally). In other words, we have to learn to discern what is meant for us, from our angels, and what is meant for the world (or the children in front of us that we are teaching!). Angels, for Steiner, being mediators between us and the spiritual world. You might be wondering what that has to be with education, if you are new to Waldorf homeschooling. This is important because every time we work with a child, we are engaging and working with the archangels and the child as a spiritual being, helping the child unfold into their path.

Waldorf Education should never be seen as this static, Eurocentric educational method. I think this is often what homeschoolers view Waldorf Education as because of the few curricula available and quite frankly most of the curricula on the market does not have a basis in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner but instead has gone with the outer trappings of nature and math gnomes for first grade and the like. If you do not take the time to consider the child in front of you, to look at this time and place, and at the development of the child, you may be stuck further into practices that Steiner probably never wished on children and practices that he never would have dreamed to become so entrenched in this idea of “this is how we Waldorf educate.” In this respect, I feel you should read this book and take notes if you are a Waldorf parent or Waldorf homeschooling teacher. You should be working with living ideas and what students today need and I this book will help you sort that out based on the picture of the developing human being.

Sagarin points out that, “I don’t believe that Steiner was particularly interested in founding lots of schools. His interest was transforming education to make it practical and healthful for students in the industrialized world, particularly, in the aftermath of World War I, so that they could grow to make the world more peaceful and just.”

This idea of making parenthood and education more healthful has always been a particular interest of mine and this blog. I came to Waldorf Education by reading Rudolf Steiner’s educational lectures, and because I had a deep interest in child development and child health. This interest has never waned since I began working with children in 1998. I still work with families, new mothers, babies, children, teens and people in their 20s and 30s in the healthcare sector. This has given me an eye into the issues that people in their 20s and 30s are facing today, the types of stresses that they are under, how friendships and relationships are flourishing (or not) and perhaps a sense of what we can do about it by having a foundation for people younger than these ages. This is important, because I am seeing a lot of differences in even “micro-generations” – is, the difference between those in their early twenties versus those you are still teenagers.

Sagarin states that his hope for homeschooling parents with this book is to “find an open-minded, thoughtful approach to Steiner’s work that demonstrates the intensely creative but nonprescriptive mode in which he thought, wrote, and spoke.” This book does challenge such things as circle time, math gnomes, main lesson books, blackboard drawing, Norse myths. I think it is a very interesting read! The author writes “….that does not mean that there’s only one way to look at what we do in Waldorf schools, or that we cannot continuously , conscientiously examine and alter and improve our practice.”

So, I really hope you get a copy of this book and follow along with me!

Blessings

Carrie

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One thing that the changing of the months and years brings us is this steadiness.  In an ever changing life and an ever changing world, the months, seasons, and festivals will always be turning round and round.  It can bring us and our families peace and stability if we choose to embrace it.

There are so many glorious things to celebrate about May:  flowers and greenery, bees buzzing, spring time alive, and the activity of children everywhere perking up.  The world is ready to be outside in May in the Northern Hemisphere, and we feel the liveliness and promise of Spring.

What we are celebrating this month:

May Day – May 1

50 Days of Eastertide

Ascension Day – May 9

Mother’s Day – May 12

Memorial Day – May 27 ( a great time to look at summer plans)

Other things on my mind:

  • De-cluttering and deep cleaning with natural cleansers
  • Skin care (yes, skin care).  Time for radiant, dewy skin in May!
  • Spring tales for children and puppetry for small children
  • Gardening
  • The lake and the pool. Our pool is opening for summer this week, and the lake is beckoning
  • Spring menu planning!
  • Exercising. I exercise 5 days a week and it helps keep me sane.

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

  • Hiking on The Feast of Ascension, watching clouds
  • Making Pentecost crafts
  • Gathering for May Day and dancing around a May Pole!
  • Making crafts for Memorial Day, Memorial Day parades
  • Pedal toys – trikes and bikes! Have your own Memorial Day parade

These are a few of my favorite things for grades-aged children:

  • All of the above, plus
  • Swimming and miniature golf
  • Playing in the water and sand
  • Observing all the dragonflies, bees, and butterflies
  • Calming rituals for rest times and the end of the day.  

These are a few of my favorite things for teens:

  • All of the above, including screen free week
  • Spring cleaning and spring decorating of the home, gardening tasks
  • Spring cooking, making special treats for The Feast of Ascension and Memorial Day
  • Planning surprise May Day baskets for neighbors, and doing things to serve others.
  • Picnics at the lake
  • Later night walks in the warm air – great time to talk after the smaller children have gone to bed

These are a few of my favorite things for myself:

  • Celebrating our family with family meetings and family game night.
  • Celebrating our marriage (32!) with a night out.
  • Drinking lots of water and herbal teas.
  • Acupuncture

I would love to know what is on your mind for this month of May.

homeschooling/education:

Our older two children (22 and 19) have graduated from homeschooling have jobs and live on their own. Our rising high school freshman will have classes two days a week, and will be volunteering one day a week at his former middle school homeschool program to assist the teachers and mentor younger students.

We will have some blocks of learning at home as well, so will be happy to post those plans as we go.

where is the blog these days?

Well, unfortunately no one really reads blogs anymore.  Compared to its heyday, readership here and in blogs in general,  is super low.  I write mainly for myself at this point, I think, and still hope to compile all these posts into ebooks at some point in the future.

For the most part, you can find me on IG (I am on Facebook as well, but I don’t always like the negativity and divisiveness of FB and therefore think about getting off Facebook daily, so IG may be your best bet to follow me).  I will continue to write here as well, but I do wonder if it will drop off to be just IG in the next few years.

The other place you can find me is on the  wonderful forum that The Child Is The Curriculum.  It is an amazing place, and has all your curriculum shopping needs, discussion groups, book studies, and everything all in one place!  I love it, and hope you do as well.

Lastly, you can always email me admin@theparentingpassageway.com to set up a consult by phone – I have half hour and full hour paid slots. 

Can’t wait to hear what you are up to in May!

Blessings,

Carrie