october blessings

Autumn is officially here – the mornings are chilly and I find myself slipping into my most cuddly of knit jackets with my cuppa before the children wake up. Autumn is, by far, my favourite season, even though we do not have the excitement of leaves changing their colours here (most of the trees are drought resistant and evergreen). Because of this, I have brought the traditional Autumn colours into the home in the way of fabric flowers and Autumn artwork.

Our Autumn Gnome (the drawing in the second picture) watches over us as we do our lessons, and the Wheel of Days is from Daily Colours. Our board will have more on it, as the days progress. There are some things I really want to include, just not quite sure how or when I will be able to. I need to figure out a better way to hold it up (since this place is rented, we cannot really leave holes in the wall with pins), and once I get that done, it should be easier to focus on what to put on it.

While searching through Pinterest, I keep coming across Copywork – this is definitely not a Waldorf thing, but I am open to all methods. From what I have seen, this is primarily used in the Charlotte Mason method, and most of the resources available have religious overtones. Because of this, I have had to make my own copywork printables! Which is super fun, I have to say. I went on a hunt for quotes, and have compiled 46 that will be used, one per day, until the Winter Solstice. I will also share them with you! Just click the link below for a simple PDF of the quotes:

Autumn Quotes for Copywork

If you are interested, I have also provided a PDF of the pages, including the cover, that we will be using starting October 16th.

Autumn Copywork Book Week 1

If you use any of my printables, I would really love to hear back from you about how they worked for you! Also, if you want to share them with anyone else, please direct them here!

I am super excited to start using these. I will obviously share our experiences throughout the process.

october, week 1

It seems I can never get going on a Monday morning, regardless of the task. So, because of this, we have moved to four days of active schooling a week, Tuesday through Friday. All in all, this week has been productive. We didn’t get to finishing the letter “T” this week because we had a field trip on Friday! BUT, we will finish up “T” on Monday, even though it is technically Autumn Break next week (because my friend’s little girl is off school, and we all live together, we won’t be doing much school work).

There have been a few changes in how we do our Main Lesson Books – instead of a sketchbook, we are drawing and writing on plain printer paper and then putting them into those nifty plastic sleeves in binders. It is just so much easier this way. I’ll share a photo of them in the next post, including my Mentor Binder (I am not a teacher, lol, I am a Mentor). Right now, we have two separate areas in Sun and Moon’s binders, the first for our current Main Lesson block (Language Arts), and the second for Nature Studies. We will be adding Arithmetic, Form Drawing, Spirituality, and finally Miscellaneous work that has no other home but deserves to be in their binders. They love this idea more than the blank sketchbooks, so that works well for keeping the arguments down. When it is all done, I’ll be removing the pages from the sleeves and binding them all into their own actual books.

We finished the bird feeder toward the end of September and put it up during this first October week. Both of the kids had so much fun painting the feeder and finding the perfect branch to hang it from (I will share a photo in another post). I really want to see about finding more project kits like this, simple yet so much fun!

We haven’t focused much on Nature Studies this week, mostly because there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day! Sun and Moon are worn out by the time Main Lesson is finished, so there is nap time and quiet time and then we pick up HL from school. However, both of the children are interested in Grasshoppers, which means they were ecstatic about my drawn offerings! They had a blast colouring them, I just hope we find the time after the break to actually do the learning aspects behind these drawings.

It is wonderful to see my children hard at work and actually enjoying (most of the time) the work they do!

 

spiritual teachings…

 

As a Witch (yes, a Witch), religious studies sort of turn me off. I am all for religious diversity and learning about every belief system, but we do not read the Christian bible, nor any real religious text. My children know all about Jesus and God (from family members), and they often pose questions regarding other religions – if I don’t know an answer off the top of my head, I research it and come back with information for them.

However, as they grow older, my Sun and Moon have shown an interest in ‘what mummy does’, so I have looked into quite a few different resources to help them understand. They know I am a Witch, and defiantly they tell everyone they meet that they are Witches too, and that mummy teaches them Witchcraft. The looks of fear and horror I get!

As far as the overall curriculum choice, Waldorf Inspired education is already Earth-centred in many ways. This makes it that much easier to weave Paganism into the teachings (and to accept the use of certain Abrahamic tales, such as the Saints, as just part of the lessons). The thing is, I have been searching for something to bring Witchcraft and Paganism to my children as a belief system. At first, I looked at how I was raised in the Craft – there was much talk, but little action. I received nothing in the way of formal training from my mother, so at the age of ten, I started teaching myself. My mother was always there to answer my questions, but even she didn’t have many of the answers I was seeking. She was very flippant in her practice, and never seemed fully entrenched in the why, but more in the look at me.

I have been a practising and studying Witch for seventeen years, and I still do not know half the things that are written in books or practised by various peoples. So, because of my lack of direction as a child, I have chosen to guide my children in a more structured environment.

Our three primary resources for our spiritual studies are Circle Round, A Witch’s Primer, and Pagan Degrees for Children. The first two offer similar information in different ways – CR is more about celebrations and stories, whereas AWP is generic information presented in simple language for children. This past week we read about three chapters of AWP, but I sort of forgot to read the Mabon/Autumn Equinox chapter of CR.

Pagan Degrees for Children is a revamped guide to the traditional coven degree system that many Wiccans work through in their groups. It has nine degrees, total – the first four are basic levels, nestled under the Neophyte Degree, where the child does activities both magical and mundane to earn badges. It is a lot like Scouts, whether boy or girl, and offers so many options for activities, even providing the opportunity to create your own activities. From my understanding, anything can act as one of the 10 activities per level in the Neophyte Degree, if the parent or mentor so chooses. There is also a nifty Dedication and Initiation ritual in the back. We will be performing the Dedication ritual for Sun on the Full Moon coming up.

Right now, a lot of the actual spiritual teachings I am working on with my children are ones that any child should learn – being kind to others, taking care of our surroundings, life skills like cooking and cleaning. You know, the typical things that we teach our children. I am trying to weave spiritual teachings into everything we do, anything can afford the chance for a lesson, and I am definitely finding ways to bring Spirit into our daily lives.

I will update about our studies as we progress. I am hoping to have Sun writing in his own Magical Book by the end of Autumn (hey, it will be a great time for copywork!).