Winter Solstice 2011

"Last night was the longest night of the year.  But, starting today, the days will be getting longer.  The sun will be getting stronger and climbing higher in the sky.  This is also the time that we celebrate the birth of the Son of God—He who is the Light of the World, who gives us light and strength.

"Taking turns, let us walk to the light and light our candles, and then share our light with those who come after us."

Thus began our celebration of the winter solstice: our advent spiral.  This was the first year we had celebrated with other homeschool families, and it was our biggest spiral ever.  (Maybe a bit too big, since it took a long time for each child to walk all the way in and out!)

Cream of Butternut soup for our solstice feast!

It may be our family's last spiral celebration, since D decided he didn't want to walk this year.  (He did help to build the spiral, however.) Perhaps he has outgrown it.  But I always welcome the chance to think about light and what it means.  Jodi Mesler, another Waldorf mom, recently shared her insight that the fall equinox to the spring equinox is the time for inner work:  prayer, meditation, planning.  There is less light outside, so we find it within ourselves.  Spring equinox to fall equinox is the time of outer light and outer work--implementing our thoughts and plans of the darker time.  From now on, this is what the advent spiral will mean to me.

May Day 2010 at Camlann Village

Our family and several friends traveled to Camlann Village--a living history town from the middle ages--to celebrate May Day.

L and N had to have costumes, of course, including enough hats for all of their friends.

And the MAYPOLE!

Candlemas

One of our favorite holidays is Groundhog Day. Did you know that it’s about halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox? So the sun is growing stronger (hence we have the tradition of looking for our shadows). It’s also the day in the Catholic church when they bless the candles for the coming year.

So this is the day that we’ve chosen to make our own candles.

Every year we gather the wax that drips from burning candles or candles whose wicks are gone. Anything usable we sort by color. Then we melt it all and make new candles from old. Some years we dip candles, if we’re ambitious. This past year we used small milk cartons and cardboard juice cans as molds to make pillar candles. We bought our candle wicking at Paper, Scissors, Stone.

Happy Candlemas 2010! I hope you make some beautiful candles.

Our 2009 Christmas Spiral

Somehow our Christmas spirals never turn out the way I plan them, and this year was no exception. It was, however, a happy success.

The weather cooperated for once, so I was able to make a BIG spiral that looked beautiful! (Our house is small, so we have to make our spiral outside under the carport. This year's didn't have to be totally under cover, though, because we didn't have rain or wind.)

Several of D's friends helped me carry and arrange the branches. They got so excited just looking at what we were making that I impulsively invited them to come. Seven to nine year olds seem to enjoy this tradition more than anyone. One of the boys did end up joining us.

My older kids were not extremely enthusiastic about another spiral (this is our third), so I told them they didn't need to walk but I would appreciate their singing. B--my 25 year old--not only wanted to walk the spiral, but he made himself a torch! (I'm sure you can see where the unexpected comes in here!)

The evening turned out to be very fun. I talked a little at the start about how we were in the season when the light was coming back and how we would soon celebrate the birth of Jesus--the Light of the World. I think only the little boys were listening though, because everyone was anxious to get started.

In spite of their misgivings, everyone walked the spiral except for Ju who was taking pictures. My grandson even did it twice. (These little ones can really feel the wonder of the season and the candlelight!)

While they were walking, we sang some reverent Christmas songs--"Still, Still, Still"; "Stars Were Gleaming"; "Shepherd's Carol." When B skipped around with his torch, we sang "Torches Here, Jeanette Isabella"! (That is actually one of my favorite songs.)

We finished by singing "The Lord is my Light" and going in for spiced hot cider.

Michaelmas 2009

--or Michael's Day as we like to call it--was last week. We spent some time reading scripture about Michael and his fight with the dragon, Satan (Revelation 12). We talked about modern revelations about Michael and his role in the future. Since we've been doing an astronomy unit, we looked at Draco, the dragon, and learned to find that constellation in the sky. And of course we made dragon bread. Everybody made a different section of "the old serpent," and he was pretty scary-looking!

Harvest Unit

Good heavens! I just realized that I skipped posting for the whole month of August! It must be because it was more fun to be outside in the garden than inside at the computer.

But now it's time for school--yet I'm still not ready for book work. It's so hard to do academics when we're trying to do canning, dehydrating, and freezing! One year I realized that this was just as educational as math, so I call it our "Harvest Unit" and count it as school. Today we dried basil and froze peaches. Tomorrow is applesauce....

We spend our "days off" at the park or in the mountains with our sketch books. We'll add in the academics gradually so that we're covering all our subject areas by the time the rainy days of winter are here.

My Four- (or Five- or Six-) Year Plan

(aka "Scope and Sequence")
When all my children were young, our homeschool lessons were totally interest-based. I didn’t really have an over-all plan. As Je got closer to high school, however, I got more organized. I decided to follow my state’s requirements for high school graduation, although homeschoolers don’t earn a state-recognized high school diploma. College entrance requirements tend to match (or exceed) the high school guidelines—so we needed to follow them.

All of my children do math and language arts at their individual levels each year, but our social studies and science we do together. My state requires two years of high school science, but exact courses aren’t specified so we can follow our interests. It’s the social studies requirements that are more detailed, and so I plan my years around those guidelines.

*We spend a year on ancient history (of the Western world)—Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome.
*Our next year of world history covers mostly the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
*When we have time (depending on who’s in high school and what they still need), we study other parts of the world—the Orient, the Arctic, or Africa, for example
*We begin U.S. history, beginning with exploration of the New World and including a significant unit on the U.S. Constitution.
*Whenever we get to the Westward Expansion, we do a semester of Washington state history. Then we finish U.S. history, up to the present.
And start over!

Rhythms

What do I mean by the word “rhythms” when referring to school/life at our house? Basically, it’s just the structure of our days, weeks, and years.
Probably every family has a daily rhythm: up at 6:45, school at 9:00—or whatever works for your family.
But have you ever considered your weekly rhythms? I’m grateful that Sunday is a unique day at our house. It’s a day for worship, for attending church, for wearing special clothes, for staying at home with our family. It refreshes our spirits and gives us a break from the rest of the week. Sunday is also when I write out our school assignments for the week. Monday through Friday are often much alike, but we have rhythms there too: Monday we clean the kitchen, wash clothes, and have music lessons. Tuesday is downstairs cleaning, making bread, C’s paper route, and youth group. . . . Each day has certain activities. Saturday is our day to do big projects and to get ready for Sunday.
Yearly rhythms are the most fun. We try to celebrate many special days, not just the ones that the retailers think are special. We take note of Christian and Jewish holidays, including those not so well-known. We also observe days that mark the passing of the seasons. (Growing much of our own food really connects us to the cycles of the earth as nothing else can.) Thus, we recently celebrated the Spring Equinox, Passover, and especially Easter. A celebration can be just a special meal (or even one special food), a certain ritual, or a whole day of activities. We never spend much money, though we may spend a lot of time. Sometimes we “try” a celebration and decide it’s not important to us. But other celebrations we look forward to for months. What matters most is that such cyclical events provide joy and stability for our family.
While it may not seem intuitive, I’ve learned by experience that children thrive on such structure. It gives them security, because they know what to expect and they anticipate familiar favorites.

There are several books I have used for seasonal celebrations, but my favorite is probably Festivals Family and Food by Diana Carey and Judy Large.

A Day in the Life...

I always wished I could watch, minute by minute, a typical day in the life of another homeschooling family. How do they REALLY do it? In case you’ve had the same desire, I will attempt to re-create March 3, 2009, at our house.

We start our day at 6:45 pm. We read scriptures, sing a song, and pray. Then C is out the door for school at the community college, and Daddy leaves for work. L and N each have a 1^st period class: 6^th grade band for N, and seminary (our church’s daily religious instruction) for L. They usually ride their bikes, but today they ride with Daddy because of swimming lessons later.

While the girls are gone, D and I have “1^st grade.” We work on his chores (he can do most of them independently now), then we usually do some reading and math. Today Gnome Times helps D to multiply with the manipulatives. Finally, it’s time to go to swimming lessons. The pool is near N’s and L’s classes, so they walk over and we all meet at the pool.

When we get back home, we have a science lab. Today we make a nail into an electromagnet. We finish by reading aloud from the science book, then L and N have their individualized math and language arts assignments. L does more (vocabulary, writing, literature), because she’s a high school student this year.

After lunch, it’s time for jobs. N and D get a bit distracted though. They find a fairy house under a fir tree in the back yard! N had built it secretly, and she keeps adding small details throughout the day so that D is excited about each new discovery. We all finally get our jobs done though, and I finish planting the starts for the veggie garden.

C gets home about 2:00 and has to leave again at 3:30 so he can pick up his newspapers for his route and go to his drivers’ education class. After helping him fold papers, I leave with L for her Irish Dance (think “Riverdance”) class. She is so fun to watch! We had to look for awhile to find this class, but it’s been great for her.

To end the day, C delivers his papers, we go to a potluck dinner at church, and some of the kids stay for their church youth group. We get D in bed early, because we’re going to an opera tomorrow night! Before he goes to bed, C talks to me about ideas for his project for his college geology class. It’s all in a day’s work for a homeschool mom.