Spring Learning Week 3: "Quiet Eggs & Noisy Nests"

Hello my friends, and Happy Holy Saturday! I hope this post find you (and your loved ones) safe and well. ❤

I apologize this post is so very late, but although we are all doing fine here, Earlybird has been having a little trouble this past week and most of my attention has been focused on just getting through the days and not rocking the boat! (Ever so grateful for our home ABA - she's a life saver in so many ways!)

Anyhoo, I'm here today to share my latest seasonal lesson plan with you all, and this one coincides with Holy Week, a time of new life and miracles ... a time of emerging from the darkness into the light. A perfect time to learn about and celebrate the return of life and loveliness to the land. (And as it happens this year, a really good time to embrace the concept of the family nest!)

So here is the PDF, fresh off the morning presses:

April 6-12, 2020: "Quiet Eggs & Noisy Nests"

🥚🌸🥚🌸🥚🌸🥚🌸🥚🌸

Please let me know if you have any questions or problems with any of the links. (I've had some trouble getting mail from Typepad, so feel free to email me directly: drhanigan AT gmail DOT com.) As I mention in my plans, I have a Pinterest board for each week's activities and you can find this week's pins here. :-)

As always my PDF is printable and free for your personal use and is filled with many links to stories, activities and recipes, etc. Also, as always, I must note that we do not plan to do everything on this plan! But I do find it fun to brainstorm these ideas and I do hope you find it useful for you and your own dear ones!

Ok then, I'll be off - but thanks so much for stopping by today ... I pray your week ahead is a good (safe and healthy) one! And if you celebrate, I hope you have a very Happy Easter. We will be at home tomorrow (of course) but hoping to "join" our family at an afternoon Zoom Easter gathering. 

 Take care of yourselves and your loves ones, my friends ...

I'll see you here again very soon!

Seasonal Learning, Spring Week 2: "Spring Is Soft"

(A free printable!)

March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb ... (traditional folklore)

🌿🐑🌿🐑🌿🐑🌿🐑🌿

Hello, my friends ... I hope this post finds you and your loved ones safe and well. What a long strange week it's been ...

We're all doing fine here ... still hunkered down of course, as is most of the world these days. Counting our blessings, while praying fervently for an end to this awful virus ... 

Anyhoo, I wanted to pop in today to share the next installment in my Seasonal Learning series, and this week we're exploring the idea that "Spring is Soft." You'll have to check out my PDF (linked below) to find out just what I mean by that!

A few highlights: pussy willows, lambs and baby animals, gentle rain, warm sun, soft earth and fresh air! Plus we're getting ready for Easter and we're doing some spring cleaning as well!

Ok, here 'tis:

March 30-April 5, 2020: "Spring Is Soft"

🌿🐑🌿🐑🌿🐑🌿🐑🌿

Please let me know if you have any questions or problems with any of the links. (I've had some trouble getting mail from Typepad, so feel free to email me directly: drhanigan AT gmail DOT com.) As I mention in my plans, I have a Pinterest board for each week's activities and you can find this week's pins here. :-)

As always my PDF is printable and free for your personal use and is filled with many links to stories, activities and recipes, etc. Also, as always, I must note that we do not plan to do everything on this plan! But I do find it fun to brainstorm these ideas and I do hope you find it useful for you and your own dear ones!

Ok then, I'll be off - but thanks so much for stopping by today ... I pray your week ahead is a good (safe and healthy) one!

Take care of yourselves and your loves ones, my friends ...

I'll see you here again very soon!

Seasonal Learning, Spring Week 1: "Sleepy Seeds"

(A free printable!)

Hello, my friends ... I hope this post finds you well.

And, my .... what a few weeks it's been. I hope and pray you are all safe at home with your loved ones and that you're all feeling well. We are all ok here - just taking things day by day and trying to be as careful as we can be. Massachusetts, like many other states and countries around the world, is now under a stay-at-home advisory, so aside from going out for groceries and essential supplies (medications and such) we are just not leaving our home these days. Thankfully, Bill can work from home and the older boys are doing their college classes online, and Earlybird is working with his ABA each day for several hours. Renee has been an amazing support for us through all of this and we are grateful ABA is considered an "essential business."

In the meantime, Little Bear and I are plugging along with our homeschooling, enjoying the novelty of having everybody home at the same time as well as the lovely surprise of an early spring. As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to be sharing our nature-based lesson plans with you all here, in case they might be helpful to someone, especially those who are new to the whole homeschooling gig! Most of our activities and books are geared toward younger children but as you will see, some of the ideas can be easily adapted to include older kids, too. For reference, Little Bear is six years old and we are doing first grade at home.

My hope (and my goal) is to publish these posts weekly, as we go along in our own homeschool journey. The PDF below is for this current week, but aside from the connection to The Feast of the Annunciation, the theme of "seeds" can be explored at any time throughout the spring.

Ok, here it is, the first weekly installment:

March 23-29, 2020: "Sleepy Seeds"

Please let me know if you have any questions or problems with any of the links. (I've had some trouble getting mail from Typepad, so feel free to email me directly: drhanigan AT gmail DOT com.) As I mention in my plans, I have a Pinterest board for each week's activities and you can find my sleepy seeds pins here. :-)

Well, I'll be off for now, my friends, but thank you as always for stopping by. I say this every time, but I've never meant it so sincerely: please take care of yourselves and your loved ones ...

I'll see you here again very soon!

Tea @ Dawn's ~ Advent Week 1 "Heaven & Earth"

Hello my friends and Happy Sunday! I'm sorry I had to postpone our Tea for a few days ... Little Bear had a miserable chest cold this past week, which in addition to being awful for my little guy to endure, really put us off our usual routine. The things I usually post about here - nature play, baking, crafting, planning - just were not really happening at all! But by the end of the week we were feeling a bit more like ourselves, and we began getting back on track, starting with a little ...

 

NATURE PLAY ❄️

The other big story of the week was the arrival of our first really big snow! As you can imagine, Little Bear was simply champing at the bit to get outside and play, nevermind his coughing and sniffles. Happily, by Friday I was able to bring him outside for about 20 minutes  - for a short nature trek during which we watched birds, observed tracks in the snow, and just generally stomped about enjoying the pretty winter preview. (Technically it's still Autumn for 13 more days!)

At one point it started snowing again lightly and we just looked up and watched the tiny flakes swirling down ...

"Like angel kisses from Heaven," I told Little Bear who, admittedly, looked at me a bit askance at that out-of-the-blue metaphor. But I love looking to nature for connections with our faith and sharing them with my children. Our whole Advent celebration is intimately tied with the different realms of creation. So we also talked a bit about Heaven itself - which is a really big and somewhat scary concept for a small child to ponder, and one that I'll keep very simple and light for now. (Heaven is where God lives and it's also where people we love go when they die.)

I also explained to LB that often we refer to the sky and the universe itself as "the heavens" ... and this includes all the wonderful things that exist therein: the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, and so forth.

Speaking of ...

Here's my sun & moon wind-chimes bearing the brunt of the snowstorm! I have always loved sun and moon images, especially those that entwine the two icons together. 

And here is my Little Bear ... so happy to be outside, even if it was only for a short while!

These are some tracks we spotted in the driveway. Deer, perhaps? We haven't looked them up in our field guides yet.

You know, if you have to be trapped inside on a cold snowy day, a wonderful way to pass the time is by watching the birds at your feeders. Here are a few of the photos we took this past week, beginning with this handsome Cardinal pair. Some folks believe that Cardinals are messengers from Heaven, a sign a departed loved one is thinking of us. True or not, I know I always think of my grandparents when I spy a Cardinal pair. They introduced me to birdwatching when I was just a little girl, and how I loved sitting at their kitchen table, drinking tea and watching the birds visit, becoming familiar with all the different varieties. My grandparents lived not too far from the city of Boston but because they reliably filled their feeders, they attracted a wide assortment of species. Northern Cardinals and Purple Finches were particular favorites of my grandmother, as I recall. ❤

Here are a few more ... I really couldn't help myself!

White-throated Sparrow (with Chickadee in background).

A female House Finch, eyeing me over her shoulder. I can just hear her saying, "Ahem, yes - may I help you?"

The White-Breasted Nuthatch, a rather jaunty fellow related to woodpeckers.

A Mourning Dove sitting high in a tree, but not so high she didn't notice me with my big camera in the kitchen window!

The sweet little Black-Capped Chickadee - so energetic and friendly! He also happens to be the Massachusetts State Bird.

A pair of Goldfinches, toughing it out at the height of the storm. It amazes me how resilient birds are - in the depths of a snowstorm, they're flocking to the feeders because literally every minute of every day counts when it comes to survival!

Peek-a-Boo little Tufted Titmouse! These birds are pretty bold. The only ones aside from Chickadees who don't fly away when I'm right in the window snapping shots.

And finally, two birds who are rather dear to me: the Dark-Eyed Junco and the Carolina Wren. The Junco is a true harbinger of seasons changing - and you all know how I feel about the seasons! Juncos leave New England right around Easter (journeying north) and return just after Halloween.

I had thought the Carolina Wren was also a migrant (to the south, though) but we have a pair of them who seem to be staying put. Wrens are so loud and cheerful and this one's song is especially vibrant, quite recognizable once you're aware of it. If I do this right, you should be able to hear it here. (I'm referring to Song #1.)

Anyhoo, back to our Tea now, and the theme of our week which, as my post title informs, is "Heaven & Earth." Our Advent is really getting off to  a slow start - we have all our Christmas decorations down from the attic but they're just sitting in my bedroom at the moment. (And what a mess, THAT is!)

We do have our tree up but it's still standing bare in a corner of the family room. I am not at all - well, not very - anxious about being so "behind" in our decorating, though. This "soft start" actually works pretty nicely with my intention of keeping things slow and simple in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We did set up the children's nativity corner and our earthy little Advent garden. More on those topics below, but first let me tell you a little about my tea shown in the top pic ...

But for Heaven's sake - where are my manners? I have yet to offer you all, my dear readers and friends, a cup of your own! Please do sit down and be welcome ... take a cup and a tart and let's get comfortable. I'm apt to chat on for a bit, as you know ...

 

BAKING 🧁

Today's tea is a truly delicious blend, a new twist on an old favorite: Earl Grey with Lavender. I am drinking it with a little honey and perhaps some steamed vanilla milk if my husband has a chance to make some before be runs out for an errand. This would be much like a "London Fog Latte" which some of you might remember (because I mention it all the time) is my favorite after-dinner drink.

Beside my tea (again, referring to the top photo) is one of the star tarts I made with Little Bear just this morning. So VERY yummy and quite easy-peasy, anyone can make them in no time!

Here's what we did:

I used pre-made dough I happened to have in the fridge (courtesy of Thanksgiving pies that never came to be) and we simply rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters (approximately 3" size) to create little shapes. We placed a dollop of apple pie filling in the round shapes (having chopped up the apples a bit) and orange marmalade in the stars. 

Next we crimped the edges with the tines of a fork, brushed the tops with a mixture of lightly beaten egg and whole milk and then finally sprinkled the tarts with raw sugar.

Into a 400° oven they went and they baked for about 17 minutes.

Aren't they cute? Like little homemade pop-tarts. :-)

(Full disclosure, I found the general idea for these goodies on Pinterest. I just kind of went with what I had on hand and the "star" theme we were working on this week.)

And OH! Speaking of baking ... did you all know that this coming Thursday (12/12), on ABC, a new season of The Great American Baking Show: Holday Edition will be airing? The show runs at 9 p.m. - and for those with young ones (or young hearts), just before the show  beginning at 8 p.m. are two children's specials: Olaf's Frozen Adventure (8) and Toy Story That Time Forgot (8:30).)

I make note of these kinds of things in my planner(s) because if I didn't ... I'd kick myself for missing out! Thank goodness for DVRs though - with my early bedtime, I'll be viewing these shows during daylight hours!

So let's talk a little then about ...

 

PLANNING ✍🏻

Here's a little more about our Advent themes, beginning with a page in my bullet journal showing my four-week outline:

So you don't have to squint, here is a breakdown of our weekly themes:

Week 1: (Hope) Earth & Sky (stars, stones, shells, soil, sun/son)

Week 2: (Peace) Peaceful Plants (evergreens, holly, herbs & spices, poinsettias, etc.)

Week 3: (Joy) Animals at Advent (solstice tree, animal gifts, manger animals, caring for creation)

Week 4: (Love) Loving Hearts & Helping Hands (home, doing for others, the holy family)

Pictured below, a little scribble from my weekly spread ...

... a quote that works very well for this first week's theme! ✨

And here's a look at my December calendar which I must confess was completely BLANK until yesterday. 

This is my seasonal bullet journal (Late Autumn: November-December 2019). I juggle it with a few other planners, as most of you know. Is it the simplest of systems? No. But each platform is satisfying to me - though, the "juggling" isn't ideal. I'm hoping to streamline things in the new year ... as if you all haven't heard THAT line before!

Now, before I go I'd like to talk a little about our crafting this week, since we did actually manage to squeeze a bit in, and it very nicely tied into our theme ...

 

CRAFTING 🤲🏻

Oh yes, first. This - the before pic. The craft cupboard exploded all over my kitchen table. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Do you ever go to start some little project, something that shouldn't really take you too long, and then get completely sidetracked by a whole 'nother thing? Well, this is what happened to me the other morning. I wanted to find one particular crafting item - contact paper I believe it was - and when I pulled open the "Craft & Candle" cupboard in my kitchen I was alarmingly reminded of the holy mess that it had become. Stuff started dropping to the floor - including glass things and fragile things, and broken things in need of repair - and a tangled mass of twine, garland and ribbon landed right on my head. So that was it, enough was enough!

So I took a little time - say four hours or so - and straightened the whole thing out! And while I was at it, I grabbed a couple of "craft-ish" bins I had stashed - ahem - under my bed, too.

But here's the after pic! Much better, yes? (And oh my goodness, who let the cat up on the table?)

Here's a closer peek ...

Aaahhh ...

The remaining (and bulkier) craft items were stashed in a bin and bag ...

.... and a pretty "vintage" decoupaged suitcase:

And guess what I found? Not just one but SIX rolls of contact paper! Now we were able to get ourselves crafting ...

It's one of my favorite aspects of Advent - working with our hands, thinking with our hearts, to create meaningful decorations and gifts. Whenever possible I try to implement materials found in nature, such as these lichen-covered branches ...

To make a little twig star!

And then with that contact paper, we made some sparkling suncatchers ...

I find these kinds of craft projects go more smoothly if I have things prepared a bit in advance.

Paper shapes cut out, tissue paper bits ripped ... this way it's a more enjoyable activity for both of us and we can reap the results more quickly!

I talked with Little Bear about stars in the sky, including the Sun, our biggest and most special star. It's been fading for months now and on these dark December days, "catching" the sun where we can seems all the more important. 

I love how these little gem-filled star-shapes make the most of that gorgeous, sleepy sun ...

Light is so precious these days! We try to notice the sunset every evening we can, especially during the seasons of Advent and Lent.

And here are the stars the next morning!

Another craft we worked on just this very morning was a shell candle ...

We've made beeswax candles many times over the years, and it's just such a magical process!

First I melted two small bars of solid beeswax in a makeshift double boiler. (A clean empty can sitting in a pot of simmering water.) Once the solid wax was entirely liquid, I carefully poured it into the shell while Little Bear held the candle wick straight. (I made sure he knew not to put his hands anywhere near the hot wax.)

I took over once I disposed of the can and after a few minutes the wax had set enough that the wick stayed straight.

Then we added the candle to our children's creche corner:

Just behind the shell candle is one of our favorite storybooks for this week, The Star Child, illustrated by Bernadette Watts - who, by the way, is one of my absolute favorite children's book illustrators, particularly of folk and fairy tales.

I will show you more of our children's creche in my next post - we just moved it to this spot this weekend and we're still getting it all set up! Suffice it to say though, each week we add a little more to the creche - in layers, according to each week's theme - leading up to Christmas and ending with the Christ Child. (Actually, ending with the wise men who will soon begin their journey in the far east corner of our home.)

This all ties in with our over-arcing theme of "all creation waits." In a similar way, our nature-based Advent Garden gets brought to life, a little more each week of the season ...

This is a simple, shallow glass bowl sitting nestled in a grapevine wreath. This week we added the "earth" layer - stones and shells. Next week we will add "plants" in the form of moss or perhaps lichen. After that, some tiny creatures will appear and then finally of course there will appear a little village ...

It's such a small thing but I love how it connects nature and faith in a simple yet meaningful way. I find children often respond really well to symbols that represent an idea ... something they can take in and turn over ... come to understand in their own way. Our Advent Garden will take some time to fill in - we'll have to be patient - but isn't that one of the greatest lessons of this season of anticipation? Good things come to those who wait? ❤

Before I go (and I will be going soon, I promise), here is a craft we made a few years ago for this week of Advent ... it's become one of my most treasured decorations.

All the details can be found in this post from 2015.

Now, before I go - for real this time! - I wanted to remind you that I am running a little giveaway here at my blog through the 22nd of December. I will be sending someone a box of "Winter Comfort & Joy" along with one of my homemade planners. I will be announcing a winner on Monday, December 23rd ... if you are interested, please check out this post! 

Here is my humble little Tea logo if you would like to share my news. (You get entered each time you comment and share!) Just please tag me wherever you post so I can keep track of who's sharing where. :-)

Email is welcome too! You can reach me at drhanigan AT gmail DOT com. 

I look forward to hearing from you - even if you just want to say hi, or ask a question, or whatever! And I do hope you enjoyed our Tea this week. I will be back on the 20th with my next Teatime, though I may be back before then - we'll see how this week goes!

So ta for now my friends ... I will see you here again very soon!

Welcome Spring Week!

(A peek at how I plan my seasonal homeschooling!)

A few days ago I shared a picture on Instagram which shows the primary picture books I'll be using with Little Bear this week. Our seasonal homeschooling theme is "Welcome, Spring!" (in honor of the Vernal Equinox this Wednesday) and so I chose five favorite books that highlight the spirit (and science) of the new season ahead. I also promised to follow up with a breakdown of how I used these books to create an easy and enjoyable lesson plan for the week. So today I'm here to describe my proposed plans for the week, and chat a bit about our style of homeschooling in general.

Now, the heart of our seasonal homeschooling is really found in embracing annual traditions, observing subtle changes in our habitat, acquainting ourselves with local flora and fauna, and enjoying our large collection of seasonal picture books. Reading the same stories at the same time of year, year after year, reinforces family memories while connecting us with the cycle of seasons.

So the books I chose for this first week of spring are:

Monday: And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano

Tuesday: When the Earth Wakes by Ani Rucki

Wednesday: The Spring Equinox: Celebrating the Greening of the Earth by Ellen Jackson

Thursday: The Seasons: Spring by Nuria Roca

Friday: A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeiffer

I keep the current season's books in a special basket, but I like displaying the "books of the week" on a separate shelf ...

When I started formulating my seasonal lessons - and this all goes back MANY years seeing as how my oldest is now 23 years old! - one of the first things I did was to begin collecting high quality books that reflect the seasons and natural phenomena. I buy as many books as I can, but I also make note of titles we can reliably borrow from our local library. All these books (divided by season into bins) provide a wonderful base for our seasonal homeschooling. These days we have a rather large collection,  but I am always happy to add a new book if it has a meaningful message and lovely illustrations. For instance, I just purchased this book because we so enjoyed the winter tale by this same author!

Equally important to my planning is our established weekly rhythm and pre-selected weekly seasonal themes. With all of this in place I am able to organize my ideas more efficiently and realistically.

You can find a list of my 52 weekly seasonal themes in this post from 2016, and below is the weekly rhythm I pin our home lessons around:

• Monday: Nature Walk
• Tuesday: Crafting
• Wednesday: Storytelling
• Thursday: Cleaning
• Friday: Tea
• Weekend: Family Time

Once I've chosen the stories for the week's theme, I flip through each book to get ideas for follow-up activities. I write things down on sticky notes and then arrange those notes in my planner (see photos below). Here's what I jotted down for each book this week:

And Then It's Spring - observing the brown all around, planting seeds

When the Earth Wakes -  wooden bear mama & cub, drawing of four seasons

The Spring Equinox - Anglo-Saxon legend of Ostara, goddess of spring and dawn

The Seasons: Spring - making a weather chart

A New Beginning - special food celebrations including eggs

Next I expand on each day's activities, giving thought to our schedule, as well as the holidays and events that will shape our week.

🌱Take pictures of backyard; repeat each Monday throughout spring. (Mon)

🌱Bake donuts for St. Joseph's Day, an annual tradition. (Tues)

🌱Sing a sweet "Winter Goodbye" song (found in this book) on the last day of Winter. (Tues)

🌱Carefully pack away our winter books. Bring out the Spring Book Basket. (Tues)

🌱Make a pretty spring wreath for the front door. (Wed)

🌱Sweep and clean up our front entryway, in anticipation of spring visitors. (Wed)

🌱Tidy the nature table - make room for spring treasures. (Wed)

🌱Prep vegetables for Pasta Primavera (our traditional spring equinox dinner). (Wed)

🌱Use my story apron and wooden animals to retell the story of "The Rabbit and the Carrot" (as found in this book). (Wed)

🌱Create a paper chain countdown - just one month to Easter! (Note: I keep a list of daily activities in my planner for this countdown.)

🌱Paper chain day 1: Make birdseed eggs to hang in our garden (Thurs)

🌱Begin spring cleaning! Start by organizing our natural cleaning supplies. (Thurs)

🌱Paper chain day 2: Let's have an Early Spring Tea. Perhaps invite nana and papa? (Fri)

🌱Bake seed bread/cake and mix up honey butter. (Fri)

🌱Slice boiled eggs. (Fri)

🌱Brew Spring Tea with Mama. (Fri)

🌱Listen to Vivaldi's "Spring" during teatime. (Fri)

🌱Paper chain day 3: Set up greenhouses in sunroom with Daddy (Sat)

🌱Paper chain day 4: Do yard work with Daddy; rake the yard clean! (Sun)

If you notice, many of these ideas involve the whole family or parent and child working together. I feel these kinds of learning/living activities are every bit of important as more "child-centered" things they might do on their own. This instills a sense of how important the season is to the household at large and the family's sense of togetherness and well being.

Here are some pictures of my planner page showing how I organize my week:

Left side of the weekly spread shown above - where I make note of weekly events, theme, dinner menus, homekeeping, crafty/comforting ideas and to-dos.

And then on the right-hand side ...

I have the week's agenda in a vertical column and next to that, a lined note-space. I added a bit of washi tape just for fun. :-)

Now, this week I am using my homemade planner for lesson plans. Recently I've shown you how I use the Erin Condren teacher's planner as well as my bullet journal for lesson planning. The EC planner is very specific to academics while my bujo is a rather free-form kind of planner/journal. The planner shown above falls somewhere in between. It's less structured than the EC planner, but it also has more writing space than my bujo. Needless to say I'm still trying to figure out which platform works best for my planning!

Well my friends, I hope you've enjoyed a peek into our "Welcome Spring" week, as well as a breakdown of how I work out our seasonal homeschooling. Let me know if you have any questions! Drop a note here or email me at drhanigan AT gmail DOT com. And if you are interested in my homemade seasonal planner, check out this post for my 2019 printable planning sheets. 

As always I thank you all for stopping by! I hope to see you here again very soon ...

HAPPY SPRING!

Seasonal Homeschooling: A Few Printable PDFs!

Hello my friends and Happy Wednesday!

I'm popping in again, just two days before the FREE "Inspire" Virtual Homeschooling Conference (mentioned in Monday's post), to share a few PDF's with you all that will assist with my talk on Seasonal Homeschooling: Cultivating a Gentle, Grateful Year. :)

First, here is a simple SEASONSKEEPING WORKBOOK (click on the link - it's a printable PDF!). In this packet you could brainstorm ideas for embracing the seasons of the year:

There are two pages devoted to each season - one for listing monthly events and one for brainstorming ideas. (In my view, every two months make up a season - so I see the year as divided into six seasons rather than four.)

On the Events page you could list holidays, feast days, full moons, birthdays, anniversaries, sporting events (like the Superbowl or World Series), natural phenomena (such as meteor showers or lunar eclipses) ... really, anything goes! As for the Brainstorming page - well, it could look like a narrative ("Dear Deep Winter, here is what I love about you ...") or it could be filled with words that pop into your mind when you imagine that time of year. For example in the case of Deep Winter, those might be:

snow days • warm mittens • hot cocoa • handmade valentines • birds at the feeders • ETC.

You could ask your family to participate in this activity! The seasons are meaningful to each of us in individual ways. If you're stumped for ideas and looking for inspiration, you might consult your own nature journal or personal diary if you have a habit of jotting down lots of seasonal details (as I do!) or you could thumb through favorite resources or you could even google it! (Pinterest is full of inspiration for the seasons of the year!)

Next, here is the SEASONAL THEMES planning outline I use in my homemade planner:

You're welcome to use my outline for guidance, but I also have a BLANK version for you to use since you'll probably want to come up with your own themes and ideas. Seasonal themes really resonate when inspired by one's local habitat as well as fond family traditions.example, in a deep and snowy New England winter, exploring themes like "hearthside delights," "glass gardens" and stormy weather all make sense and bring joy - but February might look and feel very different where you live! And of course, each family enjoys its own seasonal pastimes. Maybe you all like to ski in the winter? Well, "hearthside delights" would work great! But what if you'd prefer to escape to the tropics? Well, how about a week devoted to exploring "winter citrus?"

Now, I personally like to break down the year into 52 weekly themes because this just works well with my kids and our homeschooling style. But that might seem like a bit much for some folks, so instead you could simplify things and choose 12 monthly themes for the year. Say, "the autumn orchard" in September," "planting time" in May, or "hibernation" in November.

Also on my outline you can see that I list pertinent monthly events below the themes (in green text) and I use little keys to signify in which week the full moon falls as well as when liturgical events tie into our seasonal theme. For example -

✝️ I connect St. Martin's Day (aka Martinmas) with the darkening days of late fall, and the need to light our own inner lights. (This also ties in with Daylight Savings Time ending on 11/4.)

✝️ I tie in the "sticks and stones" of the early December garden with St. Barbara's Day (and the traditional gathering of branches for Christmas bloom).

✝️ The week of the Annunciation is devoted to "sleepy seeds," and we not only plant our own spring hopes in a potting tray, but we make a sweet seed cake to serve on that feast day.

✝️ For St. George's Day we learn about "dragons of the wood" - aka spring salamanders! (Which were once thought to actually BE tiny dragons!)

The liturgical year has such a beautiful rhythm - a time for all things and a reassuring repetition - and I am often overjoyed to find how neatly it dovetails with the familiar framework of the natural year! Both calendars bring me much peace and by following them with my family, we are continually reminding ourselves of the many blessings to behold in any given year. The very gift of another 365 days on this earth is perhaps the best blessing of all - something to remember as the year turns and we take delight in another first snowfall, first crocus, first branch of fiery foliage, or first bat fluttering across a summer night sky ... :)

Ok, moving on now - here is a SEASONAL PLANNING SPREADSHEET, a new form I made up for myself this year:

I'm sharing this two-page planning spread even though I realize it's quite personalized, re homeschooling subjects and all. For each theme I have a box in which to plan:

• Events of Note
• Nature Study
• Outings/Field Trips
• Creative Play
• Reading ...
• Verse to learn
• Language Arts
• Science/Math
• Social Studies
• Crafting
• Home/Family (bringing everyone into it!)
• Art/Music
• Notes

This list represents the elements of our weekly rhythm - one day is for nature study, one day is for crafting, etc. This is the framework of our kindergarten at home - but at present we are still working out a few scheduling details for our new homeschooling year. I may be adjusting our weekly rhythm as September rolls around ...

Well my friends, I am running out of time, so in tomorrow's post I will share a few more things in preparation for Friday's talk. Please let me know if there are any points you'd like me to clarify or expand upon! I'm off for now, but as always, I thank you for joining me and will look forward to seeing you here again very soon ...

Blessings! 

August Plans & News!

Hello my friends, and Happy Monday! I hope all is well with you all!:)

I'm popping in today to share my August 2018 planning sheets ... and to say I'm very sorry it's taken me so long to post them! The good news is - it's not QUITE August yet, lol! The better news is - I'll have September through December sheets to share with you within a week or so. :)

But more on my planner situation a little further below, first I thought I'd share a little about our seasonal themes for next month ...

Our August Seasonal Themes

7/30-8/5: bats at dusk

8/6-8/12: shooting stars

8/13-8/19: blueberries

8/20-8/26: seashells by the seashore

8/27-9/2: sunflowers

Here is a look at the "spreadsheet" I designed for planning out our weeks:

It probably seems like a lot of information overload, but I find it very helpful to see all these variables in one place - though I feel compelled to add, we won't get ALL these ideas done! These are all possibilities ... :)

I get asked about my seasonal homeschooling quite often, and so here's a peek at my list of weekly themes:

I'm also frequently asked about the themes themselves - do I repeat them from year to year?

Well the answer to that question is yes - mostly. Because for one thing, we almost never explore a theme to the depth it might be explored (and some particularly busy weeks we miss out entirely) but also, the point of this rhythm is to nurture a fond familiarity with the nuances of each season, as well as a sense of happy anticipation throughout the year.

I do change things up sometimes though - for instance, this week we are doing "bats at dusk" but it could have been "first grains" to go along with Lammas Day. Though they won't be our focus, we will be exploring grains a bit - reading The Little Red Hen, baking corn muffins and observing this lovely poster, a gift from a friend:

Meanwhile, just across the learning room, on display are the books we're using this week:

Now, why bats you might ask? Well, at this time of year we spend most evenings watching tiny bats swoop over our yard! (And I know that because of the nature notes I keep from year to year, reminding me what to look for when.) Bat-watching has become something of a sweet, simple ritual - sitting on the front steps after supper, watching those tiny dark forms flit about the lavender sky, noticing the warm air and the lingering light ...

It's a fun and interesting activity to be certain, but more than that, this happy pastime reminds the whole family to slow down, pay attention, share in the blessings of each season, and TAKE JOY in the time we've been granted!

✨✨✨

OK, at long last, here in the nick of time are my:

August 2018 Planner Pages !!!

Yep, that's just ONE PDF for the whole month! I finally figured out how to create multi-page PDFs and that makes it so much easier to print out the planning sheets! Please let me know if you have any trouble opening this file - and I hope you enjoy! (I've changed this just a bit ...)

As I said above, I will have the rest of my 2018 planning sheets available to print with the next week. As for my 2019 planner ...

Well, I am trying my best to get that organized, too - and to figure out if this is something I might sell (!) or continue to share here as I've done the past couple of years. The good news is, I have about half the year done already ... so it shouldn't be too long before I have something to share with you.

Ok, and finally - here's some really fun news! On August 17th I will be taking part in a "Homeschool Connections" webinar hosted by Mary Ellen Barrett! I'll share more details in the next couple of weeks, but wanted to let you all know that I'll be talking about my homemade planner, my seasonal themes and kindergarten plans for the year ahead ... plus a few other things, depending upon what questions are asked!

So please stay tuned and thanks so much for your patience ... and as always, for stopping by! I hope you all enjoy these last few days of July ... :)

I will see you here again very soon!

My Primary Planners & (March) Planning

Hello and Happy Weekend, my friends! I hope your week's been a good one! 

Well as hard as it is to believe, March is arriving at the end of next week, so I thought I'd share a peek into my planners as I start looking ahead to "what's what" next month. I try to do this around the third weekend of each month - in hopes I'll have enough time to gather my thoughts and any materials we'll need for the coming weeks. These items would include library requests, craft supplies, educational resources, ingredients for special recipes, holiday/birthday cards, and any special books we have set aside in our seasonal bins ...

(Our seasonal theme next week is "thaw/sap" and our March world culture is Germany.)

Now, note I said planners (not planner) and that's because (as I described in this post from January), I find it a challenge to limit myself to just one! Most of the time I'm just fine with that - because I really do enjoy all my planners and each one of them really does meet a particular need. That said, I also feel like I spend a lot of time juggling all these planners - time I don't really have to spend - and often find myself yearning for a much simpler system. In my heart I'd like to be a one-planner gal but I'm not sure if I'll ever get there ...

So if you use just ONE planner, and it works well for you - well, I am in awe of you! (And perhaps even, a wee bit jealous!)

Anyway, all this planner soul-baring will have to wait for a future post - for today let me get on with the ones I'm using at the moment. And first up is a planner I'm not sure I've shown you before!

This is my sweet and special 2017-2018 Katie Daisy planner! (It can also be found - for a little less money- at Amber Lotus Publishing here.)

Now, very often one of my planners takes the lead in the ongoing race to be "lead planner," and currently this is the one - because I am just SO in love with this lovely little book! It is, without a doubt, the prettiest planner I have EVER seen. It's the one I reach for most often, and the one I prefer to take with me when I'm running out somewhere. It fits perfectly in my purse ...

(This is actually a rather roomy tote, but as you can see I can easily fit both my KD planner and a slightly larger notebook in this bag.)

Now admittedly, when I first bought this petite planner last summer, it was one of those purchases I absolutely recognized as extraneous but I simply could not help myself. It's just that pretty. The size of it intrigued me, too - but more than anything, I was completely enchanted by the gorgeous seasonally inspired pages!

So I used it on and off beginning last August, but when I added a set of pastel monthly tabs to the edges I found it even more useful!

(And PRETTY!)

(Note: I paid far less for these tabs at Staples, but I can't seem to find them elsewhere online.)

I also added, along the top, more adhesive flags and tabs marking spots for seasonal planning. Honest-to-goodness, I find myself a little obsessed with these tabs, those flags, and this planner ...

Happily, Katie Daisy - a brilliant watercolor artist whom I follow on Facebook and Instagram - is publishing a 2018-2019 version of this planner! I was able to pre-order mine here ... and I am positively swooning over that new black floral cover!)

To make this planner work even more efficiently, I use a coordinating binder clip to connect the front cover to the current monthly spread. Then I use a simple gold paper clip to do the same between the month-at-a-glance and the current week's spread. This makes it very easy to quickly get to the place in my planner I need to be! 

Here's a closer look at those clips in action ...

Now, I'm going to "flip" through the pages of my planner, starting with this week (shown above) and moving forward through March - just to give you a sense for how I'm using it and just how LOVELY it is ...

The last February weekly spread is split because March begins on a Thursday ... above is an example of one of the many inspiration pages found throughout the planner.

And next comes another pretty pair of pages, with one side for notes. I decided to make this my spot for Spring Cleaning notes, and as you can see I have only just begun to plan it out - beginning with a post-it note outline ...

(I begin so many things with post-it notes ... what would I ever do without them?)

And now here is the March calendar spread:

The blocks are a bit small, but I found it comfortable to write all the things I need to write here. (It helps of course that I have tiny handwriting.)

And now here's the first weekly spread in March:

On the left there is a soft green note page which I'm using for "Vernal Equinox" planning, and on the right, the second half of the first week of March. (Also, note - at the very top of each right-hand weekly page I'm writing out our weekly seasonal theme. This way I'm able to find a week I'm looking for in a jiffy!)

Isn't the green and cream palette just perfect for March?

Each month is similar, in that, the colors and illustrations match the feel of the season perfectly.

(You can see more page examples at the publisher's site here.)

And though you can hardly see it in my pictures, the planner paper (which is very smooth and lovely to write on) has a very faint quad-grid - which is SUPER helpful for those of us who appreciate a little help with keeping our handwriting straight!

Ok, the very last week in March features a small note space where Sunday would be (because that Sunday is APRIL 1st!) and then the next turn of the page leads to another one of those wonderful inspiration spreads  ...

And then we are in April!

(This note page is where I'll be writing out Easter Sunday plans.)

So as you can most likely tell I am very much head-over-heels in love with this Katie Daisy planner! I would really like to use it exclusively because it feels so simply sufficient - and E-fficient - but most of all, it's so very ME. I've toyed around a little with trying to make it meet ALL my planning needs - but alas, I have an awful lot of those and it would be a rare planner indeed that would be able to accomplish that!

So with that pronouncement, I turn to my next planner - my Day Designer!

So this is my 2017-2018 midyear flagship Day Designer - a daily planner (with monthly calendars included) that runs from June 2017 through May 2018. I now only have a few months left to use in this planner and I can honestly say I've used just about every (daily) page!

The monthly spreads however, I don't really use ...

... though they're great! And since I hate to waste planner space, I've been trying to come up with other uses for this spread. I think I might keep a reading log here! :)

Here though is the meat of this planner ...

The daily planning pages! There is one for each day of the year (although weekends share a page) and the layout it absolutely perfect for my daily planning needs. Here's today's page for example:

I took this picture quite early in the day so I hadn't earned too many checks! As you can see I use this page for essential information pertaining to just that one day. Things I need to remember, and do, and places I need to go. If I was paring down to only one planner, this would be a hard one to do without. It's not as portable or endearing as my Katie Daisy planner, but it is a real workhorse when it comes to the nitty-gritty details of managing my family and home every day!

For more about this particular planner, please see my Day Designer archive here, but now let's take a look at my homemade seasonal planner ...

This too is a planner I've shown you many times before, but here are the March pages:

The very first pic at the top of this post shows you the charming divider paper I use for each month in this planner (part of this collection), and above is the back side of that sheet (left) and the March title page I created using some vintage clipart I found on Pinterest (right).

And now here is my homemade March calendar spread ...

When I made up this planner, I made sure to give myself PLENTY of room for monthly planning! I wanted to be able to add stickers and quotes and all kinds of information (days of note, full moons, weekly themes and ideas). And lined calendar blocks were an absolute necessity!

This month I went with a Beatrix Potter theme, and used colored pencils to softy shade in the quotes. So it's different from my Katie Daisy monthly calendar in that I'm able to include much more information - and yet they both appeal to me visually. And they both make me happy!

Now moving on to my next spread you'll see I have YET ANOTHER monthly calendar here! But this one I use specifically for menu planning. Or nature notes, depending on my mood. (It will be the latter this month so I haven't yet written anything down. I've found I can't really plan out a whole month's menus at a time - too impractical. It's a week-to-week thing for us these days.)

And on the right hand side of this spread I have a monthly overview page for to-dos, home and garden notes, seasonal ideas and goals ...

I had hoped to have this spread filled out to show you but alas - I have not had the time! (Probably spent it all working on those monthly calendars, right?!)

And here is the weekly overview and agenda for next week, the first week in March (2/26-3/4):

This is also still a work in progress - I just filled in things that quickly came to mind yesterday and will work on it more over the weekend. The post-it note is our weekend to-do list which I will use when I fill out the next week to-dos. (Whatever doesn't get done over the weekend + whatever needs doing next week!)

I like to start my "next week planning" on Thursdays, though I very often end up scrambling to pull it together over the weekend. Ideally if I begin my forward planning at the end of a week, that gives me the weekend to gather resources and prep materials and devote a little more attention to writing out actual lesson plans. The page on the right-hand side of this spread is for these details.

(Note: I plan "lessons" - or better to say, "learning activities" - for my younger two boys. Four year old Little Bear is doing pre-k and 16 year old Earlybird, who has autism, is working at various grade levels. We are blessed to have two wonderful ABA therapists, who come for two hours each (four hours a day, Monday through Friday) to work with Earlybird on all kinds of things. It's up to me to plan and organize most of these activities - which target all kinds of learning and growing experiences: life skills, behavioral management, sensory challenges, community outings, etc. It's a lot of work for sure, but extremely rewarding and it has been a super fit for our son!)

Happily I'm able to coordinate many activities that will appeal to, and include, both of my younger boys - and to an extent, the whole family. My ongoing goal is to weave our seasonal homeschooling themes into as many aspects of learning and living as I can!

So for example, next week, the first week in March, we will be exploring the theme of "thaw/melt/sap," and here are a few of my thoughts ...

Late February and early March is maple sugaring season in New England! A time when the daily temperatures might reach 50° while the nights still dip below freezing. When this happens the earth begins to thaw and the sap begins to run - and local sugarhouses open up to visitors! To my mind, this is a wonderful, and most welcome, first sign of spring! And according to my Weather Channel app, next week looks to fit the bill rather nicely, temperature-wise ... so we'll observe the concept of "melt" and "thaw" here at home and of course, try out some "maple" recipes. In addition, our homeschool group has an annual maple sugaring activity and whether or not that falls in our "sap" week, we'll definitely be participating (as we try to every year)! We'll also observe the Full Sap Moon on Thursday night - just after we enjoy a special St. David's supper (potato-leek soup, Welsh Rabbit and daffodil cake). These are all things we've seen/done/eaten before, but happily embrace their familiar and instinctual joy every year. :)

After all the March weekly spreads, I have a page for a month's end review as well as planning pages for special events such as the Vernal Equinox shown here ...

My entire planner can be found in my printables archive, but I am working just as hard as I can - which means in fits and starts when I find time! - to make this into something I could publish and sell to interested parties. I thank you all for your patience, and will hopefully have something to share with you before too long (or at least, before the academic year begins!). In the meantime, feel free to help yourself to those free printables and let me know if you have any questions!

Well, now - I'd say it's about time for me to wrap up! But I thank you, as always, for stopping by and I wish you all a very nice weekend. Thanks so much for reading and please leave me a comment if you have a moment! I can be terribly slow at responding, but please know I read (and appreciate) each and every comment!

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones, my friends ... see you here again very soon!

In November: To Read & To Do!

Hi, everyone! As I mentioned in this post, we are keeping our Thanksgiving countdown pretty simple this year. I love setting a mood of gratitude and purpose in our home throughout the month of November ... but the reality is, we're just as busy as ever, plus, we'll be hosting the holiday dinner at our house again this year! And I LOVE getting ready for that, but all the prep (which begins early in the month) does kind of elbow out any "extras" in the weeks leading up to the big day. Nevertheless, I am always determined to celebrate this special time of year in a meaningful - and manageable - way!

So here's what I decided to do: I chose one book for each day leading up to Thanksgiving and assigned a simple activity to that day as well. Most of these activities, and some of the books, tie in with our seasonal homeschooling - which is quite handy! Two birds, one stone! So I looked at my seasonal themes for November and then made note of any special days on the calendar - starting with these two guideposts, I was able to organize the books and activities in an order that made sense for us - and for the season itself!

I did most of this planning by scribbling in a spare notebook, but then I decided to keep these plans neatly filed in my spiral-bound, homemade planner, and make them into a PDF so I could share them here at my blog. And so, here it is!  

November: To Read & To Do (PDF)

(A quick reminder: I'm part of the Amazon Associates Program so anytime you use one of my links to visit (and then shop at) Amazon, I get a little commission! Thank you in advance if you do follow-->shop-->buy!)

As you can see in my top photo I taped my printable plan in my spiral-bound planner for easy access. I only taped the right-hand side of the sheet, along the inner edge, so the page beneath would be accessible.

(True fact: the "Happy Thanksgiving" sticker, a recent purchase and part of a calendar pack, was meant for another project, but I found it - and a few others from the pack - torn out by somebody this morning. Ahem! So I decided to use it here to hold down that PDF!)

My book/activity list page is sandwiched between the "November Review" and a page titled, "Our Gratitude Project."

Did you catch my typo? 😉

I created this page for my planner so I'd have a place to brainstorm this year's gratitude project. (One of the big reasons I decided to make my own planner, was so it might contain pages for this kind of personalized planning! Have I mentioned how much I love my homemade planner?) I also decided to add some pictures of our project, along with a fitting page from my ME Page-a-Day Calendar. Finally, I wrote out my thinking behind this year's "Tree of Blessings."

This page is one of the extra planning pages in the back of my November section. Each month's planning section ends with a "review" page and then come the extras - like in November it's "Gratitude Project" (seen above) and then next is a "Martinmas Day" planning page. And finally, my "Thanksgiving Planner" finishes off the monthly section.

Speaking of which ...

Here is a link to my Thanksgiving Planner (PDF) if you're interested! It can take a while to download because it's several pages long and there are some pictures peppered throughout. (It takes about 10 seconds on my desktop computer.) I'd like to make this easier to access, so I'm going to try to break down the initial set of pages into a few PDFs instead of just this giant one. So please stay tuned and if you just can't get it to load at all, please let me know! We'll figure something out ... :)

As for the Books & Activities list, I'm trying to read each book at the start of the day - over breakfast or as lesson time begins. The corresponding activities occur at different times each day depending on our schedule and if the activity is meant for a specific time of day (for example, a lantern walk at dusk). Each morning, as I work in my Day Designer, I decide where the daily activity will work best ... then I do my best to make it happen!

✨ 🍂 💛 🍂 ✨

Well, my friends, I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our gratitude month plans! Please feel free to print the PDFs for your own personal use if you'd like, and please let me know if there are any wonky links. I'd love to hear about your own gratitude project and/or your Thanksgiving plans - drop me a note below if you have time! :)

In a day or two I'll have a post up with a look at all my November planning pages and then at the end of the week we'll have our next Autumn Tea (discussing Mitten Strings for God, chapter six,"TV") ...

I might even have a little giveaway to offer in that "TV" post! :)

So please stay tuned, and please take care ... I'll see you here again very soon!

A Close-Up Look at My September Planning ... 🍂

Hello my friends, and Happy Thursday! I hope your week is going well. :)

Today I thought I'd share my September planner pages with you all. These are part of the seasonal planner I made up for myself some time ago, and if you'd like to read more about these sheets (and access the free & printable PDFs), here are links to a few very detailed posts:

My 2017 (Printable) Planner

I Made My Own Planner (and Here's How)!

My Seasonal Planning Sheets for 2018 

For most of this past year I kept these sheets in my three-ring "homekeeping" binder, but last month I decided to have them made into a spiral-bound planner ... and boy, am I so glad I did! I find using my planning sheets consistently and thoroughly is much easier in this format! Mostly because they're just so much more portable this way. I like to take my planner upstairs with me at night (as well as my Day Designer) and leave it by my bedroom chair to review when I wake up. (I usually have a good 2-3 hours to nurse coffee and plan before my youngest is up for the day.) Throughout the day I keep my planners parked on my kitchen counter so I can quickly check in and see "what's what" as we move through the rhythm of our day ... sometimes I scoop them up and bring them with me to the kitchen table or my family room desk ... or lately, the learning room table. :)

So to begin with, here is the lovely paper that serves as my September divider page ...

This kind of paper just makes me SO happy. Every day when I thumb to my September calendar to start my day's planning I pause at this page and just soak it all in. :) 

Next comes my own monthly title page ...

And then the next turn brings me to my two-page monthly calendar spread ...

As you can see on the left side of the page, I'm using a very simple tool for marking this oft-viewed calendar - the humble paper clip! You can also see that I've added some stickers, washi tape and seasonal quotes to make the spread "sparkle" a bit. :)

Bold alphabet stickers along the edge announce the month ...

And here's the opposite corner with a little more seasonal goodness sprinkled here and there!

(Truth be told, I took the above pictures before I had the calendar completely filled out - in fact, our whole ABA schedule has changed! - but you probably get the gist of how I'm using it.)

Now, moving on to the next spread ...

On the left is the one-page monthly calendar I made for my original planning sheets ... before I decided I REALLY needed a two-page spread! I tried recording nature notes here in August, which was fun, but then I decided my planner needed a little more flexibility when it came to meal planning. So from now on this is where I'll work out a little seasonally-inspired meal planning!

I started by brainstorming seasonal key words on little sticky notes. These are foods I yearn for in September, but I'm sure everyone has their own idea of what foods say "early autumn" to them! Then I began planning special suppers (Michaelmas, Autumn Equinox, Full Corn Moon), then all the Sunday dinners ... and the busy nights that need to be super easy ... and then I checked a collection of recipes I've been wanting to try, and finally a list of old standbys ... before I knew it I had the whole month filled out!

Best of all - it's all written in erasable ink because you know - the best laid plans and all that. Have I stuck with it so far? Well, for the most part, yes. (So said on the SIXTH day of the month, lol.) Tonight though, instead of American Chop Suey (which for some reason is true Patriots game day food), I decided to go with crescent dogs, crockpot mac-and-cheese, tossed salad and tater tots. (All boy-friendly, comfort food and "football foodstuffs" as well! Tonight is the NFL Kickoff in case you didn't know ... hosted by our beloved Pats, aka Superbowl Champs!)

I didn't make the molasses bar cookies though ... I brought the boys shopping with me over the weekend so we had enough "desserts" on hand as it was. I hope to do some baking this weekend, though - with local fruit, hopefully!

(Also shown in that photo - see two above - on the right-hand side of the spread is the monthly Overview page, and it's pretty self-explanatory I think. I try to check in with these ideas each weekend to see what still needs addressing, or fitting in! Then I tweak the upcoming week's plan accordingly.)

Ok, next up are the weekly spreads and here is the first week of the month before I had written anything down ...

In my September section there are five weekly planning spreads, ending on Sunday, October 1st. My weeks run Monday through Sunday because that's just how I see things! 

Here is this week's planning spread "in action" ...

To be completely honest I am still figuring out how best to "work" this planning spread ... but so far I am loving it! The left side is for more general weekly planning: days of note, our seasonal theme, nightly suppers, house & garden notes, weekly to-dos and a special spot for listing out what I like to call ... "crafts and comforts."

So what are "crafts and comforts" you might be wondering? Well, that's a whole 'nother post but - briefly - in this space I jot down things I'd like to do with the boys in keeping with our weekly theme (in this case, "crows and corn,") as well as a few ideas for enjoying the season myself. I find tuning into the season in simple ways really nourishes my spirit and fills my heart with gratitude. I've been doing this kind of "planning" since I was a young girl, but as a busy mom of four boys, it can be easy to let "seasonal awareness" slide. Since I feel this is an important habit to cultivate, I try to make room for it in my everyday life - via my planner! This was the primary reason I decided to make my own planner ... I couldn't find one that made room for these kinds of plans! (At least not with the colors, quotes and vintage images!)

So yes, there is also a quote for the week on this page, and each one mirrors the season itself. This week's (an old children's song) works perfectly - the goldenrod is, in fact, vivid yellow ... and just about everywhere you look, the cornstalks are drying out and turning brown ... and the apple orchards are busily bearing fruit!

The right side is for a week-at-a-glance agenda and homeschooling notes ... 

I added a pretty Susan Branch note sheet here for general notes for each of my boys this month as well as a seasonal study (based on an old Celtic tree calendar I came across on Pinterest). The note sheet was not adhesive so I used a bit of washi-tape to hold it down and it is easily moved from week to week.

Beneath the note sheet I have sticky notes that let me write down pre-k activities each day that tie in with the rhythm of the day and the theme of the week. So, for example, Wednesdays are "storytelling" days and this week is all about "crows and corn." So I used our black crow finger puppet to weave a little tale involving crows, ravens and cornfields. And on Monday, nature study day, we took a crow walk to listen for crows cawing. These kinds of activities are the foundation for Little Bear's early learning and I have such a lovely time brainstorming these ideas. But even when I have LOTS of ideas, I try to keep things as simple as possible ... you can't fit too much on a post-it! :)

Beneath the sticky notes are more lesson plan notes with little checkboxes and all. This is another area I'm still figuring out how to use (hence the pre-k post-its!) so I'll do a follow-up post with a closer look at this column. :)

(I will also do a follow-up post on how we do preschool ... which hasn't changed much since my older boys were little! What a gift it is to get to do this one more time ... ❤)

Last picture, and a preview of yet another post-to-come ... 

How do I use my Day Designer WITH my homemade seasonal planner? What do I write where? Which planner goes where? Where is there overlap - and does it matter? Ah ... so much to say on that subject! So it will have to be a post for another time. For now I will wrap up and let you all go. But I thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my post! In a few days I will be back with a FULL tour of our learning room, all revamped and ready to go for the  new year! (You may have seen peeks on Facebook and Instagram ... I've had such fun getting this room ready!)

So goodnight my friends, and take care ... I will see you here again very soon!

My August Planner ~ with printable links! ❤

Hello my friends - I'm here again! And my goodness - two posts in two days? I'm blogging like it's 2006! ;-)

Well, since July is nearing its end (gasp!) and since I happen to have my August planning sheet "extras" all ready to print, I thought I'd pop in and post some PDF links! I hope you enjoy them and please let me know if any of the links are not working properly or if you notice any typos. And if you're using these sheets I'd love to hear how you like them! :)

Now, I'm making a little change with my planning sheets starting this month ... I've decided to print them up fresh and have them spiral-bound at the copy shop! Up till now I've been keeping them in a three-ring binder that sits on my kitchen counter, filed behind my tabbed monthly calendars. But as much as I love my binder - and I really, really love my binder - it's a bit awkward to write in, and/or tote around, and I find myself not using the sheets as consistently as I'd like simply because I can't work on them comfortably in said beloved binder. Longtime readers know how much I enjoy making up my own planners, so I decided to give it a go! And this one has been SO fun to put together ... I'm attempting to combine my housekeeping and homeschooling and seasonal living needs all in one place. So it's been taking me a bit to pull it all together, but I'm nearly there (hope to hit Staples on Saturday) and I WILL blog ALL about it in an upcoming post!

But for now, on to August ...

***

My August Planner:

August Cover Page

August 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

August Overview

7/31-8/6 2017

8/7-8/13 2017

8/14-8/20 2017

8/21-8/27 2017

August Home Learning Worksheet

August Review

***

August Extras:

August Planning Sheet (blank)

Back-to-School Notepage

Savoring Summer's End

In Season: Late Summer Goodness

August Meal Planning

August Dinners at a Glance

Special Days in August

August Nature Notes

 ***

Oh and by the way, along with my planning sheets (which I made up myself using the Pages application on my Mac) I am using some very lovely, vintage-look scrapbooking paper, a different design for each month ...

Above is a preview of several pages in "Children's Hour," a decorative paper pad published by a company called "Graphic 45." I buy them in 12 x 12 pads and cut them down to fit my planner. They're sturdy and thick and so make wonderful dividers. And I have little monthly adhesive tabs to apply to the edges as well ...

But more on all that in an upcoming post!

For now I will let you all go and thank you, as always, for stopping by ... enjoy the rest of your July, everyone!

I'll see you here again very soon ...

My July Planner - with printable links! ❤

Hello my friends, and Happy July! I hope your summer is going swimmingly so far ... :)

I am here today tonight - late as usual, sigh - on the first day of our new month, to share a few printables that hopefully will facilitate some happy July planning! I am also including the original July planning sheets from my January post, and they are followed by several new "extra" sheets which I'm adding to my binder this month. (Fyi, my plan for 2018 is to have ALL the monthly extras ready to go along with the general planning sheets - which, by the way, are also being tweaked! I am toying with the idea of having them bound and so obviously, having all the extras ready at the start of the year would be ideal!)

Anyhoo ... I am going to get on with it now. Here are the PDF links for my July planner - please let me know if you have any trouble opening them or if you spot any glaring typos! I will see you at the bottom of the links for a quick word before I let you go ... :)

***

My July Planner:

July Cover Page

July 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

July Overview

6/26-7/2 2017

7/3-7/9 2017

7/10-7/16 2017

7/17-7/23 2017

7/24-7/30 2017

July Home Learning Worksheet

July Review

***

July Extras:

July Meal Planning Ideas

July Dinners at a Glance

In Season this Month

July Holidays

July Feast Days

July Fun: Beach Days!

July Fun: Road Trips!

Exploring July Nature

July Nature Notes

July Planning Sheet (blank)

***

(All the above "extra" links were supposed to be in ocean blue and poppy red - but clearly that didn't happen, lol. Why this is so, I just don't know ... but in the interest of time - and my sanity - I'm not going to try to figure out what's wrong or re-do all the links to make them match. I've gotten this far, I'm just going to keep moving!)

Ok, well. I hope you enjoy all these planning sheets and that your July will be a wonderful month! I am also hoping - so much - to get back to a more frequent posting schedule this summer. Please believe me when I say, I am doing my best to find time to draft and reply and edit and post. Life these days is so full, and SO blessed, and very often, quite tiring! I hope though, to carve out more time in this season of slowness and simplicity for mama's needs. And I DO need to be here and touch base and catch up. I am hoping to do an overhaul of my blog template, for one thing. Those sidelists are ridiculously out of date! I also have in queue a post for early this week - a review of my new Katie Daisy planner. It is - without a doubt - the PRETTIEST planner I've ever seen! So naturally, I couldn't pass it up. ;-) I'll share pics and thoughts and fill you in on how I'll weave this new planner into my overall routine ...

For now though, I wish you all a lovely evening and a refreshing holiday weekend ...

See you all here again soon!

Seasonal Homeschooling: June's Weekly Themes!

Hello my friends, and Happy Friday Saturday Sunday Monday! 🌞

(Whew, it's taken me a while to get this post done!)

Lots going on at the moment - homeschool dances, a year-end party, an ice cream social, the SAT, the last week of classes, doctors appointments, job changes ... phew! We're not usually this busy and I must admit, I'm looking forward to life slowing down again, but before that happens, we have a graduation party coming up this weekend! So the weekend was spent picking up party goods and getting the yard in order, and this week I'm cleaning the house room-by-room - but right now I'm indulging in some computer time. For one thing I really want to put up this post - and for another, it feels good to sit in the air conditioned room! (We're in the midst of a heatwave this week!)

Anyhoo, today I'd like to share some of my seasonal planning with you all. :) As I've blogged about before, I have a year's worth of weekly themes planned out, mostly based on the seasons and natural events. I use these themes as a springboard for weaving simple seasonal joys and awareness into our family life - via our home, food, education, activities, etc. Some weeks we do a lot with the theme and others not as much - it really depends on available time/energy/interest/mood/ and the weather, etc. I try to be very flexible and keep my expectations realistic.

For example, this week's seasonal theme is "butterflies," but with the big shindig planned for this weekend, any extra time and energy is focused on party prep these days ... so I know we won't delve into the theme as deeply as we might another year. And that's OK. I'm still sneaking in some butterfly goodness where I can. :)

So below I've written about my current themes for the month of June and why I chose them - as well as a few ideas for each week. I always have a LOT of ideas but that's not to say we do all those things! Some ideas work well while others might get left for next year. (Because I do recycle the themes, generally speaking ... part of the joy of the seasons for me is in the way they return to us every year, always seeming new and fresh but comfortingly familiar.)

You can read more about this idea and see my list of 52 themes here in this post but here's what I've planned for this month ...

5/29-6/4 "home garden"

    * Memorial Day is the traditional planting time in New England! We'll work together to plan and prepare our garden bed, concentrating on a sunny spot behind the sunroom. Keeping it very simple - something the boys can tend and enjoy. I have some books set aside for the younger two: This Year's Garden, Let's Grow a Garden, A Year in Our New Garden - and these will be woven into our home lessons this week. I also ordered two new books I think Little Bear, in particular, will love: The Vegetables We Eat and The Fruits We Eat. We just love those Gail Gibbons books! We'll also take a trip to the local farm to buy the plants we've noted on our list, and plant the seedlings at home. We'll take stock of our gardening tools and come up with a routine (chart?) for taking care of our garden. (Who will be responsible for which tasks and when?)

*True confession - we didn't get our plants planted that week! We talked about the gardens we already have (home orchard, herb patch) and the one we'd like to create (kitchen garden), and we readied a new garden bed ... but have yet to purchase seedlings! That's something I hope to do next week when we're all on a quiet, "home" vacation. :)

6/5-6/11 "strawberries"

    * The time is "ripe" to think about and enjoy strawberries - and for several reasons! This is the week of the Full Strawberry Moon as well as a local strawberry festival AND the berries themselves are just coming into their season. As you can see in the picture at the top of my post, our wild strawberries are blooming well - and all over the yard! Our local farms are advertising that their berries will be in the stands and ready for picking this coming weekend. We'll be reading The First Strawberries, and we'll spend time observing the wild strawberries growing in our yard. We'll take photos and/or make sketches for the nature journals. When they turn red, we'll try some in our morning cereal. We'll moon gaze, of course, and we'll head to our local farm to purchase strawberries in bulk. Back home we'll try making some strawberry-rhubarb jam (using our own homegrown rhubarb!). After we've hulled our berries we'll bring the tops out to our hens - they'll love them! I have a terry-cloth tablecloth with a strawberry print that belonged to my grandmother - that will grace our kitchen table this week. :)

* True confession - We didn't make it to the farm, and we didn't make jam, but I did bring home a big package of organic berries that the boys snacked on all week. I am hoping to make jam next week, once things have quieted down. We do have PLENTY of rhubarb stalks in the fridge, awaiting their sweeter counterpart!

6/12-6/18 "butterflies"

     * Now that warmer weather is here and flowers are blooming brightly, it's a perfect time for watching butterflies! We see them for sure, but don't get a whole lot in our yard, so I'm trying to remedy that with more butterfly-friendly plantings. One thing we'll do in our homeschooling this week is to research what plants attract butterflies. (I have lots of resources in our nature cabinet, and have already flagged the pages that refer to this topic.) I'd like to do a page in our nature journal for listing these plants and keeping notes on butterfly sightings this summer. (Bookworm already caught a lovely winged friend on his phone camera last week - a blue and black beauty that didn't linger long before heading to the skies.) There are all kinds of butterfly crafts we could do (a quick Pinterest search confirms that!) but I'll keep things very simple this year. I would love however, to make a butterfly bath and plan to pick up the materials at the craft store and set them aside for a slow summer's day project. The younger boys will read A Butterfly is Patient, and we'll use photocopies of this butterfly coloring book as we learn about different species. (Fyi, I absolutely LOVE using Dover coloring books with our homeschooling!)

*True confession - as noted above - it's a busy week here, there's not a lot of time for butterflies! Happily, butterflies will be around all summer - and hopefully we'll remember to keep our eyes open for them!

6/19-6/25 "sunshine"

    * The Summer Solstice arrives this week (Wednesday at 12:24 a.m., to be exact!) and so begins the season of SUN! Indeed, the longest day of the year is the Solstice itself so what better week to celebrate the glory of sunshine? We'll learn about the science and folklore of the Solstice, using several books. (Two of our favorites: The Longest Day: Celebrating the Summer Solstice and The Summer Solstice.) Like last year, we will choose a solstice branch from the yard (and/or the wood pile) and hang it in our south-facing, sunny kitchen nook window. How we'll decorate it this year I'm not entirely sure - I'm hoping a trip to the craft store will spark an idea! We will also have a bonfire next week, depending on weather ... and naturally we'll be singing "You are My Sunshine" and "Sunshine on My Shoulder." Or, I should say, Little Bear and I will be singing sunny songs during our morning music time. (EB has sensory issues about singing singing and yet LB absolutely loves it! So in the very early mornings, LB and I sit by the open bedroom window, and sing in our rocking chair. We also sing while potty training - but that's a whole different story!) As a family we'll enjoy some barbecue and sun tea; we'll also make fresh lemonade and homemade Sun bread this week. :)

6/26-7/2 "herbs at home"

    * My hope is during the week previous to this one (our quiet, home-vacation week) we will have a chance to visit my favorite herb farm and come home with some new plants for my herb garden. I LOVE herbs and though my herb garden (or patch, really) is on the small side, I try to expand it a little each year. This week I'd like to use herbs as much as possible at home - in our cooking and cleaning, and maybe even in our health and hygiene. (I have lots of recipes and resources, and am combing through them now to pick out some ideas.) In our home learning we'll be investigating the history of herbalism and I have a couple of great coloring books for the boys to use (Medicinal Plants and Herbs, both by Dover). As we learn about common herbs, we'll make species pages, and note how they were used in the past - by native Americans, early settlers, colonial cooks and physicans. I also have my eye on a game called Wildcraft: An Herbal Adventure - the price is a bit steep so I'll see just how interested my kids seem in the concept of herbal knowledge before I splurge!

Ok, so that's a look at the seasonal themes we'll be exploring this month, and some thoughts on how we might do this - given the time and inclination! I always follow my kids' leads - setting things up for them, inviting them to join me - but it they're not so interested, that's all right, too. Obviously I try to include lots of child-friendly activities, and over the years I think they absorb a sense of the seasons, and the rhythm of the year. I just try to model a constant awareness of and enthusiasm for a season and expose my kids to ideas and interesting activities. I think just being aware of such simple but meaningful concepts - gardening, strawberries, butterflies, sunshine and herbs - can be a little blessing for my family. Kind of a soft balm against a hard world that prefers fast and frenzied over slow and simple. The seasons take their time, and despite what the stores say, they always arrive when they're good and ready. ❤

Well my friends, I'm going to wrap up now because as usual, this post went on longer than I intended! But I hope this was fun for you to read or maybe there was an idea or two here that sounded interesting to you. I will be back as soon as I can with a new post - a party recap perhaps, or a review of my new Day Designer (12 days in and still loving it!) as well as some thoughts on revamping my household routines ...

But for now I will say goodbye and wish you well ... hope to see you here again very soon! 

My June Planner - with printable links! ❤

Hello my friends, and Happy Sunday! :)

Can you believe it's June already?! We're nearly to the midpoint of 2017 and the weeks are just flying by - too fast for me to keep up it would seem, since this planner post is several days late!! 😳

Nevertheless, I'm here today to share some "extras" to go along with my June planner pages. (My original post can be found here, with the basic sheets for every week of the year.) I apologize for their tardiness - especially since I know many of you like to plan things ahead. Something I like to do, when I can keep my act together!

Anyhoo, here are my June planning pages as well as some extras, and I do hope you enjoy them! Please let me know if you have any trouble with the PDF links or if you spot any ahem typos ... ;)

***

My June Planner:

June Cover Page

June 2017 at-a-glance calendar (liturgical version here)

June Overview

5/29-6/4 2017

6/5-6/11 2017

6/12-6/18 2017

6/19-6/25 2017

June Home Learning Worksheet

June Review

June Extras:

June Holidays A

June Holidays B

June Nature Explorations

June Nature Notes

In Season: Strawberries

In Season: (blank)

Celebrating the Solstice/Summer Plans 

June Planning Sheet (blank)

 ***

So these are all the pages I have in my binder behind the June monthly tab. May's pages have now been retired and June's are now up front in my monthly planning section. (Sandwiched between my domestic journal and housekeeping tabs.) These pages are somewhat personalized in that, these are the events, activities and themes I'll be weaving into our family's life this month (things that make sense for us in June), but I hope they might be of interest (and/or use) to someone else. I have also included blank planning sheets, in June's seasonal colors, for random events/projects that might come up. I have one with "Bookworm's Graduation Party" written across the top (filled in with RSVPs, a menu plus a cleaning tasks "hit list") and I just used another "blank" sheet this morning to start a note page for "End-of-Year Teacher Gifts." :)

Well my friends, I hope you are all doing well and that we can catch up here again soon! Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to read ... I wish you and your loved ones a peaceful new month and many happy days ahead!

See you here again sometime soon ...

The File Crate: An Update & Overview!

 

Hello my friends, and Happy Weekend! If you've read my blog for any length of time then you know I frequently post about my file crate system - a kind of "tickler file" arrangement I've been using for many years. Actually, I have an entire archive devoted to this topic, and in the past I've spoken about it at a conference, in a webinar as well as during an interview for a podcast. So clearly I have a lot to say about my file crate! I can pretty much find any old excuse to talk "file crate," but I especially like to hash it out at the turn of the academic year when I reboot the whole thing with fresh folders. :)

So first, for those new to the concept, I'll give you a quick lengthy overview of the basic system along with a look at my file crate's new digs, and then we'll take a peek inside my current folders, as I get ready to switch them up at the end of the week.

THE FILE CRATE SYSTEM

The file crate system is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a crate filled with files, which I use as part of my overall planning system. The "files" are simply weekly folders that help me organize various areas of my life - home, family, finances, health, homeschooling, faith traditions and seasonal awareness. ETC. As a mom homeschooling three of her four boys - one with special needs - there's a lot on my plate! And I am grateful for all of it but it does take a lot of thought and energy to keep things running somewhat smoothly around here!

So the "crate" itself is a rather plain plastic bin inside which I place six hanging folders. Each of those six folders represent two months, or one season of the year:

May-June (Late Spring)

July-August (High Summer)

September-October (Early Autumn)

November-December (Late Autumn)

January-February (Deep Winter)

March-April (Early Spring)

Stored inside those six hanging "seasonal" folders, are file folders for each week of the year - 52 folders in all! I tend to use fresh supplies when I reboot the crate, since each year's folders get pretty roughed up. (I reuse and/or recycle the old ones.) This year I decided to go with a whole new color scheme, in order to match my pretty new Day Designer planner ...

Who says office supplies can't be fun?

Next I write the dates for each week on every folder and place them all in the crate - divided by season. (So, the current May-June season holds nine weeks' worth of folders. The first folder reads "May 1-May 7" and the last reads "June 26-July 2." The folder after that, "July 3-July 9" can be found in the High Summer hanging folder. (And so on.)

(That's erasable ink so technically I could reuse those folders - if I can keep them in better shape!)

So now I have my crate full of weekly folders, divided by season. That's the basic set up, but I like to find multiple uses for my crate if I can. So this year I decided to utilize the front of the crate itself for a little more planning space ...

It's hard to see in this picture, (and I forgot to take a "before" picture), but this is an adhesive plastic pocket stuck to the front of the crate. Bill trimmed it for me so it fits flush against the sloped lines of the crate and I added a little washi tape to cover up the sheared opening. (He did a neater job than I would have, but it still left a little jaggedness to the pocket.)

I'll be using this front pocket to hold the "active" folder of the week ...

I am also tucking a monthly calendar in here ...

This calendar - as you can see - has yet to be filled in. I just bought it recently, on a bit of a whim, because it was pretty and ahem matched the rest of my supplies. Plus, the boxes are lined and I LOVE a lined calendar. I have another monthly calendar I'm using in my homekeeping binder, but that's not one my family can easily reference. I've tried a few other "family calendar" ideas that have fallen flat ... so maybe this one will click. We shall see!

There is also space for my Day Designer here, as well as my Homekeeping Journal, and the whole kit and kaboodle is set in the top tier of a rolling cart (one of the four I bought in March and blogged about here) so I can keep it handy to my command central. At the end of the day (in theory) I can take all my planning stuff off the kitchen counter and move it to the cart. I can even roll the cart out of the kitchen if needs be.

Here's how it looks:

Note the pretty silk flowers I added to the front of my crate! I bought those at the craft store a while ago and had been waiting to find a use for them when it struck me ... they kind of match all my new planning paraphernalia! So, with a touch of hot glue, they've dressed up my crate in a rather fun and funky way! :)

No one will doubt this is MAMA's cart! ;)

Ok, back to the folders ... because some of you might be wondering what all the fuss is about!

THE WEEKLY FOLDERS

So in each week's folder I keep papers that pertain to that specific week: reminders, ideas, resources, photocopies - pretty much anything that corresponds with the theme, activities, events and special days coming up in the week ahead. The folders are kept in the crate until they are "active" - meaning their time (as marked on their label) has come!

Active folders are kept at my command center and/or displayed in that crate pocket I showed you above. By week's end I am ready to start planning for next week so this is when I actually have two folders "in play" ...

On Thursdays I pull the file folder for next week and see what's inside. I use this folder (along with my weekly planning sheet) to get a handle on what next week looks like and then start planning out my weekend prep:

• What do I need to pick up (ingredients or craft supplies)?
• What can I do to prepare for next week?
• What things do I need to print out?
• Do I need to make any requests from the library?
• Are there emails to send or people to check in with?

Then I go through the current week's folder to check the status of those items:

• What items can be left behind for year-end review?
• What items can be saved for next year?
• What items should be filed somewhere else? (Another weekly folder or perhaps a household file?)
• What items can be moved along to the next week's folder?

Here's what's in my two active folders right now:

Note: If you want really detailed notes on my folder contents, please read on ... but if not, to summarize, my current folders hold packing slips for recent deliveries, subscription renewals marked paid, library request forms (current and future), printouts and photocopies pertaining to the current week's lessons/seasonal theme, current project info and recipes to try, and information re ~ timely town events. You can now skip down past the pink text to continue with the post. :)

Inside the purple folder (5/1-5/7):

• receipts for items that were shipped this week
• subscription renewals marked paid (I wrote the renewal dates on a subscriptions list I keep in my homekeeping binder)
• library record sheets for books and a video we used this week in our homeschooling (helpful reminders for year-end reports)
• craft project instructions: color changing pinecones (this was "spring fire" week)
• a page about salamander folklore (this was also "salamander" week)
• photocopy of "amphibians in the night" page from a favorite naturalist resource
• extra Mexican flag coloring page (the boys did these for Cinco de Mayo; I saved one for next year)

^ the above items I will leave in the folder when I file it back in the crate on Sunday ...

v the ones below I am moving into next week's folder ...

• a new recipe for crockpot chicken taco meat (was going to be Cinco de Mayo dinner - will keep it "active" until we try it)
• information packet re ~ homeschool prom (need to read over it then will file in the week it's being held)
• a recipe for lactose-free "ricotta" (will keep it "active" until we try it)
• directions for making a homemade multipurpose cleaner (haven't made it yet, will keep it active until I do)
• a photo project I'm working on for a new frame (still haven't gotten around to it - need Bill's help!)
• a "family favorites" recipe chart - a work in progress
• library record sheets for resources I'd like to request in the near future
• info. sheet re town's large metal pick-up day (need to read over, write dates in calendar, file in town/parish binder)
• political information from our town with lots of dates and upcoming events (need to read over, write dates in calendar, file in town/parish binder)

Inside the pink folder (5/8-5/14):

• Mother's Day cards (when I bought them I slipped them right in this folder)
• printouts about a couple of town meetings this week
• a printout with information re ~ Crackerjack's service project
• Our Lady of Fatima coloring pages (her feast day is 5/13)
• a recipe for "Fiori di Scilia Spritz Cookies" (to be made for this week's Full Flower Moon)
• a few photocopies for the learning line this week re ~ woodland flowers
• lily of the valley coloring pages (we'll be observing them in our own woodland garden this week)
• printout: "May Flower Lore" (from The Farmer's Almanac)
• photocopy from Mary's Flowers re ~ Lily of the Valley (aka Mary's Tears)
• photocopy from a favorite naturalist resource: "Woodland Flowers" (will be colored in using field guides, personal observation)
• photocopied pages from Handbook of Nature re "Jack-in-the-Pulpit" (another woodland plant I spied flowering in our woods - we'll investigate!)
• photocopy of "The Lords-and-Ladies Fairy" (aka Jack-in-the-Pulpit) a poem by Cicely Mary Barker
• library request sheet for Jack-in-the-Pulpit by John Greenleaf Whittier
• printout of vintage artwork from above title (the plant drawn as a minister speaking to a choir of flower children)
• photocopy from favorite book of moon poems: "The May Flower Moon"
• photocopies of state coloring pages/illustrated maps for the western states (we're wrapping up our US study soon!)

Now, yesterday (Friday) I looked through these folders and started filling out my planning sheet for next week. (I'll work on it more over the weekend.) In our P.o.W. notebook (a family weekend "agenda" described in this post) I listed a few things I could do to set our week up (ex. scout out woodland walk for next week, refresh book displays and learning line), and I also updated my weekend shopping/errands list, noting items I'll need to pick up. 

On Sunday, during "office hours," I will put last week's (purple) folder back in the crate (filed in the back of the "Late Spring" hanging folder) and keep next week's (pink) folder out for the week ahead. All those pink items listed above will be referenced/used throughout the week in one way or another. 

Now, a quick note about the pale pink planning pad you see above stapled to the front of the folders ...

I go back and forth on the concept of using the front of my file folders for planning space - to serve as a reminder of what is happening through the week, and a record when looking back later. I don't always do this because I've had mixed results with this idea, but I couldn't resist the pretty "weekly planning pad" I spied at Staples last week. It is made by "Ashley for Blue Sky" and is a thick pad of tear-off sheets. (I have other methods for tracking our weekly agenda, but have yet to nail down a platform that really works well.)

So as you can probably tell, a lot of what I include in my folders is tied to our seasonal living and homeschooling. Generally speaking, I rotate the same weekly themes every year, revisiting that familiar and beloved rhythm of the seasons, while exploring new resources and experiences to keep it fresh. So, for example, the theme of "blueberries" always falls in mid-August around Assumption Day (the crop is at its peak, blueberries are traditional Marian feast fare) ... and during the week of the Full Sap Moon in March, we always explore "maple sugaring" (a time honored, New England tradition and harbinger of warmer days as winter nears its end).

My love for the the seasons is something for a whole 'nother post, but suffice it to say, I take such joy in their timeless cycle as they return from year to year. There's a comforting familiarity in every nuance, but it all seems new at the same time. Life is beautiful that way. :)

Well, I know this was a lot to throw at you, lol - but I hope if you are into planning and organization this was interesting to you! And I know this system wouldn't work for everyone, but maybe there's one or two things in this post that you might find helpful. For me, with the paper load I work with each week (especially re ~ our seasonal homeschooing) this has been a good way to keep organized and somewhat "on top of things." 

I'd love to hear about your own file system, if you have one, and how it's working for you. What are your challenges? I've heard from a few friends that they find it hard to keep the file crate somewhere handy enough to be useful but not just another piece of planning clutter in the way. And I struggle with that, too! I've tried to keep the crate somewhere else - at my desk, say, or in a slide out file drawer - but I really do use it most efficiently when it's in the open, kept within easy reach. This is why I hope the cart will be a good remedy for that challenge. I can keep the crate close by, but tuck it away when I need my kitchen to look clean and simplified. It sounds great in theory, doesn't it? :)

Ideally I'd like to do a video about this file crate system because I think it is easiest to explain in person! I'd love to walk through each step of my basic set up and perhaps a weekly folder switch up to show how it works for me. Because the moral of the story is - it does work for me. It's one of the few planning tools I've actually consistently kept up with since I began using it - oh, maybe 17 years ago now? (Around the time I started homeschooling - I liked having papers, lessons, and craft ideas, etc. all lined up weeks in advance.) So if I can get myself organized (and brave!) enough, I will ask my older sons to help me "film" a file crate how-to video - and I'll keep you all posted on that project!

So for now I will (finally!) wrap up. I do thank you all for stopping by and taking the time to read (or peruse as the case might have been), and I wish you all a very pleasant weekend! I hope it is filled with the rest and refreshment you need ...

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones, my friends ... see you here again sometime soon!

My May Planner - with printable links! ❤

Hello my friends, and Happy Weekend! I am popping in today to share some "extras" to go along with my May planner pages. (Original post found here, with the basic sheets for every week of the year.) I'm a little behind this month with my month-ahead planning ... May really came up fast! (Or so it seemed.) So I'm just now getting the May calendar filled out, as well as the overview page, and looking over the upcoming weeks ...

What are my seasonal themes?

What topics are we studying?

What special events are coming up for our family? 

Thankfully I already had the basic May planning sheets printed and stored in my binder. But now I'm adding in these extra pages - providing myself space for a little seasonal joy and event planning. The trick of course it to remember to USE the sheets once they're all printed out and filled in and stashed so neatly behind that May calendar tab ... I confess I have varying degrees of success with that endeavor, depending on how well I stick to my panning routine!

So I hope you enjoy them ... and please let me know if you have any trouble with the PDF links or - heaven forbid! - you spot any typos. 😉

My May Planner:

May Cover Page

May 2017 Month-at-a-Glance (here's the liturgical version)

May Overview

5/1-5/7/2017

5/8-5/14/2017

5/15-5/21/2017

5/22-5/28/2017

May Home Learning Worksheet

May Review

May Extras:

May is for Mothers

Planning This Year's Garden (general notes)

Planning This Year's Garden (projects, plans)

May Nature

In Season: Rhubarb

In Season: (blank)

May Holidays

May Faith & Family

May Planning (blank page)

A couple of notes:

I included my "rhubarb" page above because that's what is "in season" this month for us in New England - but because it might be different for you, I shared an "In Season" page with space for you to write in your own fruit/herb/vegetable. I also included a blank planning page done in May's seasonal colors so you can add sheets for any of your own special events this month. I have a few myself:

Bookworm's Commencement

Little Bear's 4th Birthday

Crackerjack's Prom

I just printed out the blank pages and wrote these titles at the top. It will be a busy month ahead, for sure! My hope is that by keeping all these planning pages in my binder - and my binder on my kitchen counter (aka command center) - then I will have a more reasonable hope of keeping on top of all the things I NEED to get done while still including all the things I WANT to do ... those special joys that only May has to offer!

Well everyone, I will be off now, but I do hope you are all having a nice weekend and enjoying these last days of April. What is like where you live today? Here in Massachusetts it is sunny and quite warm - 81° at 4 p.m.! Everything is popping - the flowering shrubs and trees, the lawn, the leaves ...

It's such a special time of year!

So take care of yourselves and your loved ones, my friends ... see you here again very soon!

My April Planner - with printable links! ❤

Hello my friends, and Happy Friday! Well, as usual I'm here with but a few hours to spare, sharing some "extras" for your April planning! These pages can certainly be used on their own, but I've color-coordinated them with my monthly planning sheets linked below. (You can find all the planning sheets for 2017 here in this post. I'm adding extra pages as I can - a little additional planning for all those seasonal comforts and joys ... and challenges!)

Ok, so here we go - but while we're at it, we're going to completely IGNORE the white stuff falling steadily - and rather annoyingly - outside my window. It's time to turn our thoughts to spring things ...

April Cover Page

April Month at a Glance (liturgical version here)

April Overview

4/3-4/9

4/10-4/16

4/17-4/23

4/24-4/30

April Home Learning Sheet

April Review

April Extras:

Natural Spring Cleaning

Spring Yard Work

April's Special Days

April's Seasonal Themes

Easter Prep A

Easter Prep B

Easter Sunday: Planning

Easter Sunday: Remembering

Blank April Planning Page

❤

I'll be working on filling out these pages during my weekend office hours and in a future post will share my own notes and ideas on the above topics. But speaking of "office hours," that PDF should be coming next ...

Sorry I couldn't have that ready to share in this post, but the good news is, it IS all done and ready to print so it should only be another couple of days. I'm trying to add some notes on each "agenda item" so the post is taking me a bit longer than I originally anticipated. (Doesn't everything though, lol?)

Spring might be off to a slow start around here, but I just love the shades of April...

Sooner or later we'll see some of that color around here, I have faith. ❤ The trees are bursting with buds and the forsythia is ready to bloom and the daffodils are poking up through the ground - hopefully though they'll be wise enough to wait until this latest bout of snow melts under the spring sunshine. If and when that sunshine ever returns! (Looking like Sunday according to my weather app!)

Well my friends, I will let you go now, but as always I thank you for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend and I will see you here again very soon!

My March Planner ... with printable links! ❤

Hello and Happy Monday my friends!

Are you as shocked as I am by how quickly February went by? Honestly, it seems like we were just making butter for St. Brigid and now we're buying daffodils for St. David! Ah well, such is the nature of time ... it marches right along whether we've made the most of it or not!

So on that note, I'm here today to share my March printables with you! These are the seasonal planning sheets I keep in my homekeeping binder, and while some of them I've shared before, I've since added a few fun "extras" for the new month ahead. I hope you enjoy!

March Cover Page

March Month at a Glance Calendar (liturgical version here)

March Overview

Weekly Planning Sheets:

    2/27-3/5 

    3/6-3/12

    3/13-3/19

    3/20-3/26

    3/27-4/2

March Home Learning Worksheet

March Review

Spring Term Student Goals; Spring Term Notes

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Celebrating St. Joseph's Day

Celebrating The Vernal Equinox

Spring Cleaning: Week-by-Week; Spring Cleaning Notes

Our Lenten Journey A; Our Lenten Journey B

Nature Notes: Early Spring A; Nature Notes: Early Spring B

Nature Notes: Week-by-Week A; Nature Notes: Week-by-Week B

Blank March Planning Page

That last link is for a general (lined) planning page in March's theme colors. This way you can add complimentary pages to your planner for planning your own special projects and events in the month ahead. Our you could use it for general notes/journal pages or possibly if you need more writing space for one of the above events/projects.

(Note: ALL the monthly printable planning sheets can be found in this post here. And here is my post with February's extras. I will try to be better about getting the "extras" to you well before the new month begins! And if you have a request or suggestion for a particular monthly planning page let me know. They are very easy for me to make up.)

I do hope you like these pages, but if you're having trouble fitting them into your planning "repertoire," let me know. I think it's easy enough to fill a binder with all these pretty pages - even fill those pages up with notes - but USING them in such a way they make a real difference in your life is a whole 'nother thing. ;) I speak from experience! :) I have really great intentions but it's the routines that get us where we need to be.

I use these sheets so as to fill my family's seasons with the comforts and joys we look forward to each year and I also have pages for planning certain projects and events. For example, April will have some Easter entertaining sheets and Bookworm's graduation party will be one of my June project pages. In May there will be a page for Little Bear's 4th birthday as well as a few sheets revolving around planting our garden.

Another quick note - I like using my planning pages in my homekeeping binder, but as we all know, 3-ring binders are not always the easiest platform for writing out notes. What I usually do is remove the page I'm working on and place it on a clipboard. After I've made my notes I return it to the binder for reference.

Well my friends, thanks so much for stopping by! I'd love to hear if you're using my pages and if so, how they are working for you! Are you storing them in a binder like I am or perhaps in file folders? On a clipboard or having them bound at the copy shop, perhaps? What are you doing with the pages once their week (or month) has gone by? (I keep mine in seasonal storage binders right now.) Let me know if I can clarify anything for you or if any of the links above are wonky. Also, would it help if I did another post showing how I'm using them myself? Let me know in the comments below!

Enjoy the rest of your Monday my friends ... I will see you here again very soon!

My 2017 {Printable} Planner ... ❤

Hello my friends and Happy New Year! I hope your 2017 is off to a great start! ❤

I hope to have my "New Year's Tea" up soon, but today - without a moment to spare! - I'm getting my planning sheets posted in case anyone is interested in using them. A bit of a caveat though - while I do have ALL the sheets finished, it's taking me a bit of time to upload them as PDF files here at the blog. So this post will have to be a work in progress! Today I will post all the January planning sheets and then, as I can - and as quickly as I can - I will upload the rest of the months. :)

(Design notes at the bottom of the post!)

January:

January Cover Page

January 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

January Overview

1/2-1/8 2017

1/9-/15 2017

1/16-1/22 2017

1/23-1/29 2017

January Home Learning Worksheet

January Review

***

February:

February Cover Page

February 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

February Overview

1/30-2/5 2017

2/6-2/12 2017

2/13-2/19 2017

2/20-2/26 2017

February Home Learning Worksheet

February Review

***

March:

March Cover Page

March 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

March Overview

2/27-3/5 2017

3/6-3/12 2017

3/13-3/19 2017

3/20-3/26 2017

3/27-4/2 2017

March Home Learning Worksheet

March Review

***

April: 

April Cover Page

April 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

April Overview

4/3-4/9 2017

4/10-4/16 2017

4/17-4/23 2017

4/24-4/30 2017

April Home Learning Worksheet

April Review

***

May: 

May Cover Page

May 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

May Overview

5/1-5/7 2017

5/8-5/14 2017

5/15-5/21 2017

5/22-5/28 2017

May Home Learning Worksheet

May Review

***

June:

June Cover Page

June 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

June Overview

5/29-6/4 2017

6/5-6/11 2017

6/12-6/18 2017

6/19-6/25 2017

June Home Learning Worksheet

June Review

***

July:

July Cover Page

July 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

July Overview

6/26-7/2 2017

7/3-7/9 2017

7/10-7/16 2017

7/17-7/23 2017

7/24-7/30 2017

July Home Learning Worksheet

July Review

***

August:

August Cover Page

August 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

August Overview

7/31-8/6 2017

8/7-8/13 2017

8/14-8/20 2017

8/21-8/27 2017

August Home Learning Worksheet

August Review

***

September:

September Cover Page

September 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

September Overview

8/28-9/3 2017

9/4-9/10 2017

9/11-9/17 2017

9/18-9/24 2017

9/25-10/1 2017

September Home Learning Worksheet

September Review

***

October:

October Cover Page

October 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

October Overview

10/2-10/8 2017

10/9-10/15 2017

10/16-10/22 2017

10/23-10/29 2017

10/30-11/5 2017

October Home Learning Worksheet

October Review

***

November:

November Cover Page

November 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

November Overview

11/6-11/12 2017

11/13-11/19 2017

11/20-11/26 2017

11/27-12/3 2017

November Home Learning Worksheet

November Review

***

December:

December Cover Page

December 2017 Month-at-a-Glance; (liturgical version)

December Overview

12/4-12/10 2017

12/11-12/17 2017

12/18-12/24 2017

12/25-12/31 2017

December Home Learning Worksheet

December Review

***

A few notes about this year's planning sheets:

❤ They're pretty much the same as last year's sheets (with corrected dates of course) but without any graphics. That vintage clipart was pretty, but it really bogged down the creative process - and printing time!

❤ That said, I do have a Cover Page for each month with a bit of vintage calendar clipart found on Pinterest. (Which is, to the best of my knowledge, free for personal use.)

❤ I've added soft lines to the planning sections! Woohoo - I LOVE writing on lined paper!

❤ I increased the Meal Planning section - a friendly suggestion from a dear reader that made perfect sense!

❤ I added a few new pages:

° a Monthly Overview page (To-Dos, House & Garden, Seasonal Ideas, Monthly Goals) ...

° a Monthly Review page (open, lined space) ...

° AND a one page Month-at-a-Glance Calendar, too! Now, in the version I'm sharing here, in order to keep it as user-friendly as possible, I took out my family birthdays (graduations, anniversaries, etc.) as well as notes related to my Catholic faith. (If there is interest, I could create an additional set of calendars that includes feast days. I used lavender for that particular text.)

Note: I'm adding a liturgical version of the monthly calendar but please understand, this is in no way a complete representation of the Catholic calendar! Just reflective of the events and feasts we note/observe/celebrate in our family - these are marked in purple text. (Natural phenomena are in green, holidays and other events are in blue.)

OH! And also, on three of the monthly calendars I had to double up on a block. For example, in April, a sixth row would have been needed for the last day of the month - Sunday, April 30th - so I just added the date to the block for the 23rd. I meant to divide that block in half with a diagonal line but couldn't figure out how to do it! Time ran out and I left it as is. I just used a ruler after printing to make the line myself! This issue crops up in July and December as well.

❤ In my own Home Learning Worksheet, I have three separate boxes for my current students' goals. Three of my boys are homeschooling - one is a senior in college! For the sheet I shared, I kept it to one column since you all have various numbers of children! :) *Apologies - there is a second blank page attached to this PDF and I just realized it now! I will try to tweak the original and delete that extraneous sheet!)

❤ Instead of the aforementioned clipart and "grace notes" I chose a seasonal quote to reflect each week's place in the year.

❤ The colors are pretty subtle, but do change with each month. I coordinated them with my favorite scrapbooking paper which I use as dividers in my planner.

Now, in a separate post I will describe how I transform these sheets into an actual planner, and what my maintenance process looks like. But right now I'm trying to decide between keeping them in a three-ring binder or having them spiral-bound at the copy shop. I'm leaning toward the binder since I don't really plan to take this planner out of the house. But I'll get into those decisions and my planner "management" in a future post!

(Oh, and the spiral-bound notebook you see to the right in the photo above is a companion "agenda" to my weekly planning sheets. Something with time slots for appointments and such. That too is still very much a work in progress but will probably turn out something like the one I used last year. But with tweaks! Always with the tweaks ...)

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their New Year's Day and I thank you all for stopping by. Please let me know if you have any questions about my planning sheets or if for some reason the links don't work for you. I'm really excited to share these sheets and hope they are helpful to some of you!

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones and I will see you here again very soon!

Our 2016 Advent Calendar ~ Themes & Ideas

Hello again, my friends! It's a busy posting week here as we get our Advent season underway! This Friday I will host my first Advent Tea - and I am so excited about that! - but right now I'd like to share with you what we're doing for an Advent Calendar this year. (Daily activities are listed below.) I've teased a few pictures on FB and IG but here are ALL the details ... :)

Now, first of all, I cannot take credit for this idea. I first saw it on Pinterest as I searched for "nature-oriented Advent ideas" which led me to this lovely blog post by Kelly Rowe. As soon as I saw Kelly's Advent calendar project - which brilliantly utilizes an over-the-door, 24-pocket shoe organizer - I knew immediately we must do this! I am ALL about interesting visuals and hands-on holiday projects, so needless to say ... this really got my wheels turning!

First I ordered a plain plastic shoe-organizer from Amazon and hung it up in the kitchen. I did this before Thanksgiving to give it some time to air out. (Our guests were wondering what on earth we were getting up to!) Then I got my thinking cap on and started brainstorming our Advent activities.

Just like last year (and in Waldorf tradition - though that's not why I do it) I assigned each week of Advent an aspect of nature. So the weeks unfold like this: earth and sky (11/27-12/4), plants (12/5-12/11), animals (12/12-12/18) and humankind (12/19-12/25).

*Note: if you're wondering why I connect the two concepts - Advent and Nature - my reasons are explained in this post. :)

Next I listed liturgical feast days and natural phenomena such as the full moon and winter solstice ... as well as birthdays and any family/community events. Then I started brainstorming potential activities, going from pages of scattered notes to a more organized grid of 24 post-it notes, one for each day of each week:

As you can see in the picture above, I also added book titles to each day's note. Some of these we own, but many we request from the library. (Note to self - I've got to get on that!)

With our activities decided, it was time to get those 24 pockets filled! So after Thanksgiving I stopped by the craft store with a hefty supplies list in hand. Thankfully I had coupons, plus there were plenty of sales. It was a MADHOUSE though and about 10 minutes in ... I really just wanted to be done and go home! But I kept going and got most of the things I needed. (A few things will be ordered or picked up at a later date.) As you'll see in my activities list below, we don't really do candy or toys, but rather, simple crafts and seasonal projects. They might take a little more effort and preparation but I feel it's worth it ... :)

Now I'll admit I'm a bit like a kid in a candy store when I'm at the craft store. Can anyone relate, lol? I try so hard to stick to my list, but then I keep seeing all these neat things and envisioning all these "potential" projects - so I can hardly resist picking up extra supplies "just in case." Sometimes that turns out to be a good thing though, because an original idea might not work out right and something I picked up randomly might work even better. In any case, I am not ashamed to say I have a pretty healthy craft stash - but it all gets used in one way or another before too long.

Ok, enough of my explaining myself ... ;)

So now it was time to make that shoe organizer look pretty! So I tied a ribbon to each hook and wrote down the four weekly Advent candle themes (with a fabric marker) ...

And then I decorated and filled each pocket ... 

On the front of each pocket is a small beige doily with a woodland-themed adhesive chipboard number. (They look like a slice of log with a little holly sprig and a red number.) I found these in the final moments of my HOUR-long craft store expedition! Just as I was about to give up on finding number stickers I liked, I stumbled across (literally) this last package dangling from a hook. And they are so perfect! If they had had a second package I would have bought more ...

Each pocket was then fitted with a small brown treat bag ...

... and then filled with a few simple items.

Some bags just have one or two things that will suggest what it is we'll be doing (while the bulk of the supplies are set aside).

I really, really love how this came out!

Now admittedly, it will be a challenge to keep my younger two boys out of these pockets! Earlybird (growing like a weed) can peek into most of them and Little Bear is just the right height (and age) to be filching through the lower bags whenever he gets a chance! So far though they are taking it to heart that they MUST keep their hands off ... and wait for it. 

In the meantime, I have a "key" to all these bags and I will check in with it each night. If tomorrow's project doesn't seem "doable" (due to time, energy or weather) I will change things up before morning comes - by either switching bags around or changing a bag's contents for something simpler.

Now finally, here is the description of each pocket - organized by weekly themes and listed by ...

Date: (items found in the bag), activities for the day, the book we will read. :)

Week One: Earth and Sky (Hope)

12/1: (stationary) Write a letter to Santa. What are you hoping for? The Christmas Cat

12/2: (starfish) Make a shell ornament for the tree. Song of the Stars

12/3: (pipe cleaners, colorful beads) Make a star ornament. The Christmas Star

12/4: (decorative items and paint) Decorate a small vase for our St. Barbara's Day branches. Let's hope they bloom by Christmas! The Star Child

Week Two: Plants (Peace)

12/5: (silk poinsettia bloom) Field trip to the nursery to buy poinsettia plants. (gifts) It's so peaceful in the greenhouse. The Legend of the Poinsettia

12/6: (candy canes & cocoa packs) Enjoy a special St. Nicholas Day treat! The Baker's Dozen: A Colonial American Tale

12/7: (mint sprig) Make mint-scented play-dough and small jars of mint-sugar-scrub. (gifts). Mint is a calming, peaceful herb. The Legend of the Candy Cane

12/8: (apple, small star cookie cutter) Enjoy a cup of spiced cider and grind spices for "glogg." The Tomten

12/9: (muslin spice bags, cinnamon stick, lemon) Fill spice bags (gifts) and help make a dried fruit garland. Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem

12/10: (evergreen sprig) Make salt dough ornaments (with evergreen impressions), make silver pinecones (gifts). Cobweb Christmas

12/11: (red candles): Walk with dad to find our yule log in the woods. Isn't it peaceful out here? Christmas Farm

Week Three: Animals (Joy)

12/12: (polar bear wooden ornament) Let's learn about the arctic! What can we do to help the polar bear? Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?

12/13: (reindeer lantern) Field trip to a local farm to see the lovely herd of reindeer. The Wild Christmas Reindeer

12/14: (new train ornament and "15" candles) Happy Birthday, EB! Here's the story of when you were born ... ❤ A Night of Great Joy

12/15: (colored Christmas light bulbs) Look outside - our solstice tree is all lit up! We hope the critters enjoy! Night Tree

12/16: (baby food jar, white glitter) Make a snowglobe. Decorate the solstice tree with edible ornaments. The Animals' Santa

12/17: (beeswax) Make candle jars and rolled candles. (gifts) An Early American Christmas

12/18: (mitten-shaped cookie cutter) Bake sugar cookies with Mom. The Mitten

Week Four: Humankind (Love)

12/19: (jingle bell ornament) Watch the Polar Express as a family. Discuss trust. The Polar Express

12/20: (clementine) Bake clementine snowball cookies and watch The Snowman. Discuss friendship. An Orange for Frankie

12/21: (snowflake cupcake liners) Bake "welcome winter" cupcakes. Discuss comfort. Sleep Tight Farm

12/22: (nativity ornament) As night falls, a surprise in the garden (new nativity figures under spotlight). Discuss family. B is for Bethlehem

12/23: (frame ornament) Make a family picture ornament for the tree. Discuss love. The Christmas Story

12/24: (felt heart shape) Make a scented heart tree ornament (stuffed with wool and herbs). Discuss giving. The Christmas Baby

*** 

Ok so that was a very long post! But I hope you enjoyed hearing about our Advent Calendar project this year and that maybe you found a few new ideas for your family. I am really looking forward to giving a little of my time and energy each day this Advent to this project. I think my children will enjoy it - I KNOW I will enjoy it. I know it probably sounds like a lot, but truly, these are all simple activities. They won't take up too much of our day. We have a few other Advent rituals planned and I will discuss them a bit more in my Tea post on Friday ...

What a wonderful season this is! So rich with potential and promise ... a wonderful time to shape how our children view the world. The one they live in at home and the one they face when they step outside their doors. My HOPE is that I bring a little peace, a little joy and a whole lot of LOVE into their Advent journey. So grateful to have these days before us!

So enjoy the rest of your evening, my friends! I will see you here again very soon ... later on Friday ... with a cup of tea and some pics to share ... and more thoughts on this most wonderful time of the year. :)

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones ... see you here again very soon!