Tag Archives: homeschool

A Rhythm Snapshot!

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This is a snapshot of our rhythm right now, and because it involves working outside the home and having only one tenth grader at home (other two children have graduated), it looks vastly different than when all three of our children were young. However, I think this sort of rhythm can also be the reality of many in these economic times and we are all striving towards more calmness, beauty, and order in our homes.

First of all, if you have small children, let me be very blunt in that I think if it’s at all possible, children should have their days based at home. I think this is important for neurological development, and I think in general the day care, school days, and after care are far too long for children under the age of 14 because the United States is not geared to families, working families, and children. I think the hours away from home are just too long. We are not like countries where children walk home for lunch in the middle of the school day and therefore I think the hours at school and work should be shorter. I don’t think children should have to be in daycare from 7 AM to six thirty at night. That’s my opinion, and realistically being home and having children not in daycare or preschool or longer school days with after care isn’t possible for many people with the way the economy is. If, however, you feel really led in this direction, I have numerous back posts regarding this matter. I also think it is vitally important that families feel supported in this endeavor of being home, and not feel isolated. Families at home need community and to feel that their children have community, and this seems to be a tall order these days. So, for many of us, we are at an impasse with meeting these needs.

For our family right now, a general week looks like the below (outside of farm chores, which are multiple times a day. Farm chaos or work emergencies can also bring things to a halt). Some of this varies if my husband is home or traveling as he definitely can jump in and drive our son to any outside class or activity and he and one of the children handle the vast majority of farm chores without me. I could not work outside the home if this wasn’t the case. It’s a team effort between us all, including our adult children too. I also put notes about where I want to go in terms of rhythm for the future. I am a work in progress and striving, just like many of you!

The most important thing to do is to treat ourselves (we mamas juggle a lot!), our spouses and children with a lot of love, kindness, and compassion. The best way to live a simple life is to simplify our attitude. This is going to look really busy to those of you that work at home and stay at home, and it probably will seem familiar to those of you that work outside the home and homeschool. It’s a juggle.

Sunday –Church and yoga day or just stay at home ❤

This is a day to reset the nervous system, and a day to meal prep. Sometimes everyone (grown children) is available for dinner so that’s always fun. This month I am doing more of a “Crocktober” month and that really cuts down on meal prep. Sunday is a good day for our son and I to catch up on any homework for outside classes. It can also a good night for my husband and I to see friends. Every now and then I have a patient emergency, but for the most part this is a guaranteed day of rest.

Monday – Homeschool and work day! I work on Mondays doing pelvic health physical therapy, and work with our son in the morning and at night after dinner and the gym. It’s also a good day to clean for a little bit! I like the Home Blessing Hour from Fly Lady to hit the high spots and then try to work the FlyLady zones for fifteen minutes the other days. At night, we like reading or puzzles.

Tuesday- Baby visits in the afternoon for work, and outside classes for homeschooling! On this day, I usually have a few pediatric/ lactation home visits in the afternoon and our son has outside classes. We go to the gym at dinner time if the rest of the family can handle the horses (unless I got to the gym in the morning).

I want to turn part of this day into more of planning day and setting goals for the week; a day for writing, making art or projects, or doing my online continuing education courses in the morning. We usually go over schoolwork in the late afternoons, specifically math, and at night as needed on this day.

Wednesday – Work, work, work and outside classes for homeschooling. This day is often my longest physical therapy work day, and our son has outside classes and Sea Scouts, so not much honestly gets done.

Thursday – Baby visits in the morning! I work in the morning with lactation and pediatric PT patients. Our son has Spanish class in the afternoon and he is usually busy in the morning with work for his outside classes. I try to run errands on this day while he is at class, and we usually we go to the gym on this night. Sometimes I get to see a friend during this time!

Friday – Homeschooling Day and get ready for the weekend! Sometimes our adult girls are at a horse show, either competing or catch riding so my husband might be hauling horses or doing something like that. This is a day where I try to put my own appointments if I need to, because our son can work independently enough that I can run and do something and come back.

I definitely like to reserve the late morning and afternoon as much as possible for being home, cleaning up, and preparing something yummy, almost like Shabbos cooking of my Jewish friends so we that we can have a restful night and peaceful Saturday. Our son works fairly independently during this time to get a jump on things due in his outside classes for the next week. He can also hang out with me in the kitchen and I can help while cooking! Sometimes we will do work at night if he has a sailing race the next day or the weekend is just busy.

Saturday – Reset and relax! Sometimes our son has sailing races, or we have a horse show, but usually this is the day is to be with family and at home. If I have to take an emergency lactation patient, I would rather do this on a Sunday than Saturday even. I just enjoy having some options on Saturday, whether that is to be outside on the farm or doing what I want inside the house. Or just relaxing!

As you can see, there is not a lot of margin with working outside the home and homeschooling. There isn’t really a ton of time to hang out with friends or date nights or take a whole day to go hiking like we did when our children were young. The horses have to be taken care of around dinner time, (and all the other times LOL) so that’s a barrier for sure, along with the fact that the week is just busy.

I am working on changing some of this with very set hours for outside work, but over the late summer and the beginning of the school year there really wasn’t a full day I was home, not even on weekends with continuing education, conferences, and patients. That was exhausting! The home visits that patients love can be very taxing on me and my family due to long drive times in my area so I am limiting my geographic radius for now for those visits. Charting also takes a lot of time. Getting stronger boundaries surrounding what I can and can’t offer should be helpful as we head into these last few months of 2025.

That’s just the way it is, and maybe you feel this way too about your own brand of controlled chaos or that you are evolving like me. I think my reality is the reality of what a lot of people are juggling. I would love a link to your blog or Instagram post about rhythm to help inspire all of us here. Of course, if you have small children, your rhythm will look much different than mine, I hope, and I am sure mine will change again when our youngest graduates high school as well. Then we will officially be empty nesters, and my husband actually mentioned retirement for the first time ever this summer! Very exciting!

Take your seasons in stride and enjoy the ordinary days that so often make up life. There is joy in lighting a candle at dinner, snuggling together after a long day, watching the sunrise or sunset, petting the animals, and knowing that life is beautiful every day. ❤

Warmly,
Carrie

Glorious August

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

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

August 6th- The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ

August 8th- My Birthday!

August 10- School starts!

August 15- The Dormition of St. Mary

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

Ideas for Celebration:

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

The Domestic Life:

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

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

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

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

Homeschooling:

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

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

Self-Care and Rhythm:

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

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

Lots of love and many blessings,

Carrie

Organizing The Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,

Carrie

Options in Homeschooling High School: CLEP and Dual Enrollment

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I was super excited to speak a few weeks ago at a homeschool round table about homeschooling high school. People tend to get nervous about homeschooling high school. I think this is for good reason, as it should be a time of expanding social circles, expanding independence, and learning advanced ideas, but homeschooling high school mainly takes planning more than anything else. It’s really not any harder than homeschooling the other grades! I promise!

In the states, there are many different ways you can approach homeschooling high school that will also decrease college tuition. These include CLEP testing and dual enrollment. I haven’t honestly used either option with our other graduates (our oldest had AP credits), but I may with our current high schooler.

In general, it’s a good idea to know what the requirements are for public school graduates in your state (it varies state to state) and what the colleges your student wants to apply to require. Some colleges will not accept some dual enrollment or CLEP credits depending on the institution or major. For example, some colleges may say that the student has to take biology at that institution in order for it to be accepted. So, it is very important to know from the beginning what is accepted and what is not.

CLEP tests stand for College Level Examination Program, offered by the College Board (other tests by the College Board include the SAT, ACT, PSAT, AP) , which allows students to earn college credits by passing exams that cover introductory college material. It’s been around for 50 years, so it is not new, and the only fees are the testing fee and possibly a proctoring fee. There are 34 CLEP tests available, and close to 3000 universities and colleges accept CLEP credit. Each CLEP test looks like its currently around 97 dollars, which is of course a fraction of what a three or six credit college course would cost.

Dual enrollment is another option. Dual enrollment allows high school students to enroll in college courses and earn college credits while still in high school. The credits count both toward high school and college credits, which is why it is dual credit. In my state, for example, the state will pay for college courses for eleventh and twelfth graders who are dual enrolled. Usually the courses are the typical College Freshman English 101, etc. This can be a good option if your child is going to go to an in-state school as sometimes an out of state public or private university may or may not accept the credits. Dual enrollment are true college courses and usually one last for one semester, so credit is earned by taking a class for half of a typical school year.

You don’t have to use any of these options. In all states of the United States, you can decide what constitutes the requirement for high school graduation when you homeschool. However, if your child is looking at college, these could be valuable additions that will save you money on college tuition!

Blessings,

Carrie

Spectacular July

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As I sit writing this, it is a beautiful humid and sunny day here in the deep south. Our kids are all off doing things, and my husband and I will be keeping tabs on our horses, dogs, cats in the midst of fireworks. Our county just passed an ordinance to not have fireworks within 200 yards of any farm, so we will see if that does much of anything. At any rate, I am enjoying July! It was sort of a longer, less hot spring and month of June, so I don’t feel like I am hitting any July antipathy. For those of you who have been reading this blog for the past ten plus years,  you know July sometimes was not my favorite month.  The heat of July can be oppressive where I live, the air can feel still, time can seem to stand still when you have small children with endless days of trying to beat the heat.  I even wrote posts about July Doldrums and More July Doldrums. However, July is definitely feeling glorious to me this year!

We went to Alaska in May and it was such a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to go back and see more National Parks. I didn’t mind the weather at all or the sunlight and I loved seeing all the animals. We saw orcas, humpbacks, sea lions, seals, dolphins, Dall Sheep in Denali, moose, caribou, bears, porcupines, all kinds of birds and more. My husband and I generally don’t vacation without the children or leave the farm for very long, so it was a rare treat.

So,in the mode of gratitude and celebrating, this is what we are celebrating in July:

4- Independence Day

22- Feast Day of St. Mary Magdalene

25- Feast Day of St. James the Apostle

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

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

I am looking forward to sunflower festivals, catching fireflies, being in the pool and lake and at the beach. We don’t have a pool near us anymore, so I have to do a better job planning to get us there in the midst of working!

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 – you can also see my July board on Pinterest as well!

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

Homeschooling

This summer, our rising sophomore (10th grade) is working a little on writing (he is reading Orwell’s 1984 and some writing in response) and working on cursive. I think if his cursive was better it would help him take notes better and faster at his hybrid school in the fall. Other than that, he’s been busy with gathering hours driving, spending time with friends, and Sea Scouts. We are going to take him to the beach to fish and he is excited about that!

In the past, July typically was a month I really pushed in homeschool planning – how are you all coming along? I usually wanted about 75 percent of my planning done. Tenth grade in Waldorf Education is a year of change as many teens in Waldorf Education are turning sixteen years old during this year. Here is a peek at that stage in development: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2016/08/15/development-of-the-tenth-grader/

Typically, Waldorf high schools include “track classes” for tenth grade – ie, English, Math, Spanish, etc and also blocks such as Ancient Civilizations, The Odyssey, Poetry, Ancient China, Trig, Embryology, etc. Our son is in a hybrid homeschool program where he goes two days a week and it is already going to be an more intense year with American History, American Literature, Geometry, Spanish I and Biology, so I am contemplating carefully how I want to bring the themes of traditional Waldorf tenth grade to him but not overload him.

Our other two children are adults and busy pursuing their own lives – one child is investigating advanced schooling in her profession and the other one is in a program right now for equine massage therapy.

Farm Life

The farm is busy! We just had a horse leave and another horse is going just down the road as a lease for a young lady to help further her riding. Hopefully we will get a few in to train and sell. Other than that, the bees are buzzing and I am enjoying my first grand dog. LOL

What are you up to this month?

Warm Regards,
Carrie

Eastertide Joy

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Happy Eastertide!  I love the season of Eastertide, which began on Easter Sunday and will last until  Pentecost Sunday (which is on June 8th this year).

I find it comforting that the spiritual journey of Lent, often hard and arduous, gives way to an even longer period of joy and yes, even fun.  There are forty days in Lent, and fifty in Eastertide, which to me signifies and marks the very adult needs of beauty, fun, and play.

Oh yes, to play.  Adults need to play!  Play is not only the realm of children. We need it as well!  Play is often the creative wellspring of adults.  I am also convinced that it is a key to adult  mental wellness.   We often seem to forget this in our drudgery of work, traffic, children’s activities, cooking meals and changing diapers and cleaning the house over and over, but  our need to play (and rest and relax) is every bit as real as our need to work and help each other.  The child inside of us is never far down if only we reach for him or her.

In this fifty days of Eastertide, I challenge you to play, to rest and relax, and to notice beauty. Find and take your joy in the ordinary moments.  They are there, even amongst the chores of housekeeping or holding tiny children.  They are there, even in the times of your teenager dealing with end of semester tests and finals.  They are there, even with your children who are feeling the call of spring and nature to be wild and untamed.   They are there, even in traffic and whizzing cars.  Find those moments and hold onto them for what they are; the seeds of creativity and relaxing love.

I am using this Eastertide to do fifty days of physical activity that nourishes me – walking and exercising, getting out in nature. My husband and I are headed to Alaska and I am excited about that!

I have also been making a list of spring meals for meal prep. I am finding this to be a very important part of the week with working outside the home and on the farm.

If you are looking to celebrate Eastertide with your children, here is a list I shared in 2018 and am sharing again for family activities:

  1. Visit a sheep farm where the sheep are being shorn and then wash, card, and dye some fleece.
  2. Make projects having to do with sheep – I have an entire Pinterest board devoted to to wool and knitting here
  3. Spring clean your house (deep clean)
  4. Get rid of things you no longer use; paring down in the spring feels so good!
  5. Re-vamp your diet to include even more fruits and vegetables and meatless meals.
  6. Take great care of your skin
  7. Cleanse your rhythm from things outside the home that are no longer serving you or your family
  8. Look at our bee and butterfly friends in the garden, in books, and in crafts.  There are some ideas on my spring Pinterest board
  9.  Clear your life from people who bring you negative energy
  10. Make time to spend with those you love and trust – family and friends
  11. Think carefully about new endeavors.  What are you growing for this season?
  12. Find a wonderful new book to read!
  13. Go hiking.
  14. Go camping. If your spouse doesn’t like to camp, gather a moms and childrens group to go.
  15. Spend time in nature every day.
  16. Add some puppetry to your life
  17. Try journaling 50 days of gratitude
  18. Change your priorities so you have time for self-care.
  19. Slow down and rest
  20. Learn some beautiful new songs for spring for circle time or to sing as a family
  21.  Carefully investigate your spiritual path and find a way to deepen your inner work
  22. Go easy on yourself and give yourself space
  23. Find an app to help you meditate or visualize
  24. Go swimming
  25. Get a massage or sit in a sauna.
  26. Spend time with animals.
  27. Get to know your local farmers and enjoy local foods.
  28. Create art
  29. Plan ahead…or not. Whichever brings you joy in your homeschooling!  Here is some inspiration for planning high school and here is some inspiration for planning the grades.  Also, here is  a whole Pinterest board devoted to the  Early Years
  30. Learn some new Waldorf verses
  31. Pick fruit
  32. Plant a garden
  33. Create something beautiful for your outdoor space
  34. Plan new adventures in travel –
  35. Have a May Day festival shared with friends
  36. Plan for Ascension Day
  37. Plan for Pentecost through these musings
  38. Make some rock art
  39. Create, cook, and sing for Pentecost
  40. If you celebrate Pentecost as a family, consider a gathering for Pentecost
  41. Encourage someone or become someone’s mentor.
  42. Drink more water
  43. Set up a new exercise plan
  44. Catch up on your doctor and dentist appointments
  45. Take naps
  46. Walk in nature
  47. Watch a sunrise
  48. Go slow and enjoy spending time with your children.  If you are homeschooling, less books and more play.
  49. Have a picnic
  50. Dye eggs and try your hand at some spring crafts

Happy Eastertide, friends!

Blessings,

Carrie

Forward February

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If January is a month of reflection, then I think of February as the time to act and to start putting into action the things we discovered in January that could be helpful to ourselves and our families this year. This might be things about our health, our relationships, our families, our homeschooling, our jobs and finances.

If you can envision a wheel divided into categories such as health, friends and family, your significant other, spiritual/personal growth, fun and joy, your home, your career, money – are all these things divided equally? There are some seasons that one category may outweigh the other. However, I have found over the course of parenting that if one sector is neglected too long, it makes for an unbalanced household and an unhappy parent. We can create our own attitude and our own reality through those attitudes. Hold the positive. It’s not the negative doesn’t exist; it always will in some form as that is just the yin and yang of life so to speak, but to able to flow with those opposites and find the balance in the middle is so important.

If you can picture it, think of the most beautiful bubble of light that could surround you and your family. Think of everyone in your family as being happy, healthy, and smiling. This, to me, is the essence of February. It’s a month that is often in the Northern Hemisphere is dark and cold, but if we can imagine a brillance and radiance into it, it can become a beautiful glimmering light. After all, we begin the month with Candlemas, a celebration of light. We think of the first beginnings of light, and a beautiful candle festival helps mark this occasion.  There are so many ways to make candles, including rolling beeswax sheets, dipping candles, pouring beeswax into half of a walnut shell (and you can push in a little candle in order to have little floating lights, which are always fun for children), and you can make earth candles where you pour a candle and place a wick directly into a hole into the earth.

More than the visible signs of light, where is the light in your heart and home? Where are your connections with the people you love?

This is a wonderful time to change over your nature table if you have one to mark the seasons.  Flower fairies, branches in water that are budding,  a single candle, perhaps leading up to the markings of St. Valentine’s Day and then a little Lenten dish Garden to begin the beginning of March, as Lent begins on March 5 this year,  are all appropriate. All winter greenery is taken down.

This month in 2022 we are celebrating:

Black History Month – Of course Black History IS World history and American history and should be in every subject we teach EVERY month, but it’s also wonderful to take a renewed look at wonderful books and biographies this month.  

February 1 – Lunar New Year for those celebrating and also the Festival of St. Brigid

February – Mardi Gras! (until Lent, of course) Fat Tuesday is on March 4 this year with Lent beginning on March 5.

February 2 – Candlemas and also Groundhog Day.

February 14 – St. Valentine’s Day (you can see this post about Celebrating Valentine’s Day in the Waldorf Home

February 21- Presidents Day

Lovely things to do with children this month:

Make Valentine’s Day cards ; plan little treats and crafts for Valentine’s Day; make window transparencies; dip candles; roll candles; play board games or card games with your children;  draw, paint, model; whittle wood; make popcorn together; bake together; play in the snow – build snow forts; have snowball fights; snowshoe; downhill or cross country ski;  ice skate on a pond; read and tell stories; build forts inside; take a walk outside in the cold – look for animal tracks or berries or birds or all of the above; knit, crochet, cross stitch, finger knit, spin, sew; sing and make music together – learn some new songs; clean, scrub, dust, work around the house – rearrange furniture; go bowling or find an indoor swimming pool to swim in; write letters to family and friends; write stories together; snuggle on the coach with hot chocolate and marshmellows; cook for a neighbor; find a place of worship to attend and get involved; throw a party; clicker train your dog, cat, or other animal; take care of plants; start seeds indoors when it it is time, grow sprouts in the kitchen or a little microgarden.

Homeschooling – Do you need a little check in? Try this back post!

The February Homeschool Rhythm Re-Check

f you are looking for a little re-boot to your rhythm, please do try the above back post! There are so many wonderful posts about rhythm to look at. So, whilst February is a month in which many homeschoolers can feel in a rut and ready to just give up, try instead to think what would be the perfect reset and recharge for you and your family? Maybe it is a great month for a book study, a project that the whole family can be involved in or something else!

Our homeschooling this month: Our older children are out living their own lives and long since graduated, but our 15 year old is still home and a freshman in high school due to where his birthday falls for our state. He is at a two day a week school, which still legally counts as homeschooling in our state, but our curriculum and work is largely dictated by the hybrid school. It’s a classical school, so definitely different than Waldorf Education, but still having good discussions and debating and learning to think.

Farm Life- We have been doing a bathroom upstairs in an attic space, which is coming along, and we completed the addition to the barn right before the cold weather set in. We have six horses now, and cats and dogs and bees. Still hoping for a garden space this spring!

Work Life- Work is always busy, although summer is the busiest time in general. I am still doing a mix of pediatric physical therapy patients, pelvic health patients, and lactation patients, so some days it feels like I am all over our metro area. I am working towards a certificate in Peri/Menopause Coaching and next up is delving into fertility to help patients working with fertility issues have a more holistic approach and to fill in the gaps of Western medicine.

#Commit2025 – my word of the year! Mainly I am committing to myself and to showing up for myself. That means exercising, nourishing food, bookstore and library dates, painting and writing, and being out in nature. It may not sound like much, but when every day is busy taking care of other people and farm animals, it can be a challenge. The whole day can go by without really any thought of myself at all! I made a vision board and I have a prayer list and prayer meditations to go with my word, so I am working on this daily. Commit and show up!

I would love to hear from you! Drop me a line at admin@theparentingpassageway.com!

Cheers,

Carrie

A Happy New Year of New Beginnings

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I so love the start of a new year, all fresh and sparkly in my mind. I have been so enjoying not only the holidays and Christmastide, but a feeling of energy and new beginnings in the quiet coziness of the holidays. I was running with work hours close to the last minute of the holidays, and in fact, we only got our Christmas tree up on December 22nd! But since then, I have had some time off of work and have had time to think and dream and plan. It’s been so refreshing and nourishing.

I had a health crisis in 2023 and have spent much of this year working a lot and feeling as if I was trying to catch up to something -maybe the someone I used to be – before I got sick. Slowly, we emerge from things in life differently than we were before but still ever joyful. I realize I could have died in 2023, and am so grateful I am here still. Thank you all so much for your support. I am ready to re-emerge with some new content for you this year and sending you all some love in this season of new beginnings. I love the more introverted vibe of this season – nesting with blankets and hot drinks and inside fun, but still being able to go outside for a walk in the rain or bright sunshine with colder temperatures!    I am always delighted with the possibility and prospect of snow as well.

January is one of my favorite months of the year. Suzanne Down had a beautiful little story in her most recent newsletter, and I found the public domain version of it here to share with you: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/165/buttercup-gold-and-other-stories/2902/the-little-new-year/. It would be a lovely one to tell with puppetry for your children but it is also worth a read if you have older children or are an empty nester to remember the spirit of Christmastide and new beginnings all around!

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

January 1 – New Year’s Day

January 6– The Feast of Epiphany and Epiphanytide that stretches until Lent begins on Wednesday, March 5 this year (and Easter is on Sunday, April 20 for those of you planning ahead!)

January 18 to January 25 Week of Prayer for Chrisian Unity https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/resources-for-the-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-2025

January 20– Martin Luther King, Jr Day – also celebrated January 15 and April 4 in The Episcopal Church

Janaury 18– The Feast Day of St. Peter

January 25 – The Feast Day of St. Paul

Rhythm is strength, and I have things in place for the house with outside the home work, farm work, and homeschooling our ninth grader this year. I will be detailing this and how I run the house and farm this month in this space. I still work for two different companies providing physical therapy and lactation services plus have my own business so the days can vary, but I am finding it easier to balance everything than it used to be.

The farm is at six horses right now that require care multiple times a day, and two beehives plus our indoor dogs and cats (and an outdoor cat that has decided to live here part time). We put an addition on our barn this year, and I am looking forward to expanding the apiary in the spring, and planting a garden. We still have many renovation projects to go in the house (we are starting with adding a bathroom upstairs this month), and landscaping and pasture pieces to fulfill, but slowly we are getting there. This house and property has been an incredible project. We were lucky to find this during the pandemic, but it has been a ton of work with literally not one thing from insulation, plumbing, water lines, heating, etc needing to be redone up through the pastures, barn, etc. It can be overwhelming at times, but then I remember how much I wished and prayed for this place and get my gratitude on again!

Creating is high on my list this year, including writing more, seasonal crafting, and watercolor painting. It feels really nice to have enough energy to be back in that space! I even got some new paintbrushes for Christmas and have plans to paint monthly with a friend. ❤ I decided that after I take my beekeeping class this year, I am going to enroll in an art class. Our son has less extra curricular things than his sisters did at his age, so I think I can find the time to do these things!

I usually pick a word of the year instead of making resolutions, and this year I chose the word “COMMIT.” I am committing to myself and my health this year. The things that need to be done are going on the calendar and I am blocking time out as I need to. Do you have a word of the year to bring you focus and clarity? My past words have included words such as radiant, abundant, vibrant, bold (2023) and last year was replenishment.  This year, I have really sat with a planner, a vision board, and a prayer board and just thought about how to bring pieces of “COMMIT” to life this year and what types of support I will need to make that happen. I can’t do it by myself, but I have a team assembled to help me commit to my health, along with family and great friends that are family. I am very lucky and grateful.

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

  • Daily outside time – when our children were small and we lived in neighborhoods, this was mainly in the form of a daily walk, and park time. Now it is mainly in the form of barn chores but I also am starting to walk again. I actually don’t generally mind the colder weather.
  • Puzzles and board games
  • Green smoothies and juicing
  • Making freezer meals
  • Exercising – this includes at home with Bodi (the former Beachbody), the gym, walking, and some events at our local yoga studio.
  • Creating
  • Going out as a couple
  • Playing with our horses, dogs, and cats
  • Learning more about beekeeping. I am excited about my beekeeping course. I found a great mentor last year who came and helped me, but I am looking forward to being more knowledgeable on my own!
  • Indoor and outdoor gardening
  • Indoor microgreens!
  • Decluttering from digital spaces (social media), and decluttering the garage and basement.
  • I am taking a beekeeping class this month through our county’s beekeeping club!
  • We found a sweet new parish closer to the farm – our old parish was just too far away and we always have to do things around the horse schedule. This new parish is a small country church, and it’s adorable. You can see a picture on my Instagram stories!

If you are looking for fun things to do with children, these are things we have enjoyed:  Cut out paper snowflakes, including really cool 3-D snowflakes; dip candles; roll candles; play board games or card games with your children;  draw, paint, model; whittle wood; make popcorn together; bake together; play in the snow – build snow forts; have snowball fights; snowshoe; downhill or cross country ski;  ice skate on a pond; read and tell stories; build forts inside; take a walk outside in the cold – look for animal tracks or berries or birds or all of the above; knit, crochet, cross stitch, finger knit, spin, sew; sing and make music together – learn some new songs; clean, scrub, dust, work around the house – rearrange furniture; go bowling or find an indoor swimming pool to swim in; write letters to family and friends; write stories together; snuggle on the coach with hot chocolate and marshmallows; cook for a neighbor; find a place of worship to attend and get involved; throw a party; clicker train your dog, cat, or other animal; take care of plants; start seeds indoors when it it is time

On the parenting and  homeschooling front, our oldest lives and works about an hour from us but comes to farm frequently because her horse is here. Our middle child is working towards her own business in the equine industry, and our youngest is a freshman in high school. He is enjoying being on a cybersecurity team and being in Sea Scouts. Homeschooling doesn’t look quite like it used to when I was homeschooling three children Monday through Friday, but we still have days of homeschooling in addition to several days of classes at a local hybrid high school.

THINGS TO LOVE THIS MONTH!

Things to love this month:

The January Book Box

Warming Meals

The most wonderful new resource from Raising Little Shoots is here! My Christian readers will love the gentle wisdom in this collection: https://raisinglittleshoots.com/word-for-the-way-a-new-year-devotional/ I just LOVE this! Definitely go check it out!

The other thing I am really enjoying is Hearth & Home for all things homemaking. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do: https://www.myhearthandhome.com/

I hope you are a member of The Child is the Curriculum for seasonal living, Waldorf homeschooling, Waldorf parenting, and support! I just renewed my membership, and I hope to see you over there: https://www.thechildisthecurriculum.com/subscriptions/?register=1

Lastly, if you love a good book club I am doing this one: https://everyday-reading.com/the-2025-everyday-reading-book-club-list/ You can follow along on Instagram, which makes this really appealing.

Looking forward to celebrating throughout the year with you and supporting you on your parenting and homeschooling journey!

Many blessings to you,

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

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