Winter's Opportunity in Our Home Schools

 

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it,

the whole story doesn't show.”    
  ~Andrew Wyeth

 

 
 Back in the day when people lived according to nature's rhythms, we had no choice but to honor our human nature, our bodies, and our soul’s needs.  Before stores were made so convenient and long before we plugged in... Winter brought on a soulful time of reflection.  We had prepared for the storm outside and,  the much needed rest to come inside. 

Thomas Jefferson's Monteciello Home

We spent the bitterness of the season by the fire, dreaming with our family, and in deep study. Winter was essential to life's plan, a time for cleaning house, inside and out.  

Winters were extremely productive but, not in the physical sense… 

Some of the deepest, most impactful ideas throughout history, came to the greatest thinkers in the winter time.    

 Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney as John and Abagail Adams in HBO's MIni Series John Adams.

 The real Mr. & Mrs. Adams writings have touched my soul deeply.  

 

“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.”  ~Pietro Aretino

 

Creating a home school that follows the seasons

 is full of the greatest nourishment and one of the simpilist joys that we can give to our family.

 

Subcoming to deep study and rest in the winter. 

Birthing  new ideas and projects in the spring.
 

Basking in the joys of a artistic espression and play in the summer. 

Reaping the bounty of the harvest and the rewards of our work,

as we prepare for the winter during autum's fall. 

 

 Nurturing not only academics, but all of life’s essentials, reminds us to ask ourselves: "If we are not going to move through our days like the rest of society, how then shall we live?" 

As many of us grow in our home school journey, we sense that pushing against the storm outside doesn’t make much sense; the struggle brings on those winter blues, we become heavy with the meaninglessness of it all...   

 Home schoolers  are learning that by subcoming to the winter season we have an opportunity to align with our soul, to get back to basics, by doing things a little differently and more effectively.

 Once we commit to the quiet and stillness of the season, a world of, "out of the box" possibilities opens up, and we see many the opportunity in our winter days.  We begin by creating different rituals to our days, changing how we live to be more in harmony with our children's rythyms, we look for more authentic work and relish in our slower days, so full of soulful activities.  

 As we take the road less traveled, a path that is more in tune with nature and our natural learning rhythms, we begin trusting in the knowing that there is a season and a reason for all things.

 

A Day In the Life: Photo from the Donnely Family Scrap Book

 

“The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer.  I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood.”  ~John Burroughs

 

Wondering in what ways your family is taking the path less traveled…

What kind of home school days have you created this winter?