Season-Keeping :: August

I do love planning for the seasons! Each month has something to celebrate. I try to include these into my home-keeping as it helps create memories for my children and it helps them to be aware of the natural rhythm of the seasons and of our home. I gain great joy from following the seasons, enjoying each one and trying to mark what is special about that season in our home. To help me actually put into action some of the ideas I find, I need to PLAN. I do love planning! My file folders help me with this BTW {just a side thought}. Each month I like to spend some time putting together my thoughts and ideas on how to incorporate this 'season-keeping' into our daily living.

I have posted in the past some of my plans for August here and here. I have noticed that I have done this for August and September and then not included the other months of the year - hmmmm. Not sure why that happened, but I thought that now would be the perfect time to embark on a year-long project of sharing some season-keeping plans. Of course I would LOVE to hear what you do to observe and keep the seasons in your home. I'm always on the look-out for additions to my own season-keeping.

In my Home Journal, I have a section for each month of the year in the front {I promise to share my HJ with you soon}. Behind each month is a copy of my thoughts and plans from previous years. At the beginning of each month I pull these out, along with my monthly calendar and put together some concrete plans for the month. I use quite a few resources to along the way, Pinterest has become a favourite of mine over the past year as I have pinned many great ideas. I have some books that I pull out to help me indulge in some inspirational thinking and clippings from various magazines and Internet sites. I have updated my right sidebar with some favourite season-keeping books :o)

This August my seasonal ponderings and plans look like this:

Folklaw:
*Gemstone: Agate
*Flower: Gladiolus
*Sayings: If the first week of August be warm, the winter will be long and white.
*Full Moon This Month: Sturgeon Moon

Nature:
*Late Summer
*Shortening Days
*Busy Insects
*summer holiday
*Full Moon - 21 August
*Blackberries
*Perseid Meteor Shower - expected peaking 12 August this year. (pre-dawn is best viewing time)

Home:
*Clear out schoolroom for next academic year
*refresh stationary supplies
*order curriculum and books needed
*Sort out bookshelves - perhaps order a few new seasonal books.
*plan field trips for Autumn months
*plan some Autumn nature studies
*Sort out clothing and make lists for winter clothing needs.
*Plan a 'back-to-school/lessons' surprise








Food: (This year it is all about home grown!)
*BBQ's
*Homegrown tomatoes
*Basil
*Peas off the vine
*Baking bread for Lammas day
*Garden Tea Party for Tasha Tudor Day

Life:
Tasha Tudor (28th)
Robin Hood Festival in Nottingham (10th)
Country Fairs (30th)
Lammas Day (1st)
Late Summer Bank Holiday (26th)

Crafts and Activities:

Star Gazing
Learning Constellations
Stars in a jar
Make some natural room scents for last days of summer.
Colour some Wild Carrot.
picnics in the woods
pond paddling

Book Basket: (See Sidebar)

Tasha Tudor Cookbook
Corgiville Fair
Find the Constellations
The Stargazers Guide to the Night Sky
Glow in the Dark Constellations

The idea in using the above 'mood-board' is to actually schedule in some of these activities into my month, get those books from the library or buy them in for our book corner, book those life events into the diary and of course to cook some of those season-keeping recipes to mark special days.

The idea with season-keeping is to keep up a regular rhythm, if you plan too much or too big, you are going to burn-out and give it up as a bad idea. 'Baby-steps' as the saying goes :o)

Happy Season-Keeping all...