An Ordered Education
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​Celebration

“In modern life, the days, weeks, months, and seasons hurtle past us at breakneck speed.  Do we even pause to acknowledge autumn’s arrival in crimson and gold, winter’s first snowflake, the sprouting of spring daffodils, or the return of lemonade leisure with the first hot summer afternoon?  These simple pleasures should be savored and celebrated...”
~Sarah Ban Breathnach, Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions

Celebration

Order your days with celebration.  Simple, joyful celebrations can give our children a chance to embody the true, good and beautiful.

​Let us celebrate the order that God has created, the order in our world.  God gave us the seasons in a year.  He gave us the sun to shine by day and the stars and moon at night.  Let us set apart time to express joy and find comfort in this beautifully ordered world.  

Through celebration, we are giving our children a great gift.  We are giving them a chance to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch truth, beauty, and goodness.  Truth, beauty, and goodness are not tangible and concrete, they are more abstract ideas.  These ideas must be given a tangible or visible form.  Our children must experience them through their senses.  Through celebration, we are giving them this and much more.  We are giving them an ordered education.

 What Do We Celebrate?
 Let us find any reason at all to celebrate each and every day.  In our home, we celebrate the every day things that many people might just as easily look past.  But, if you intentionally celebrate even the little things, they do not seem so small after all.  They seem big and real and important. 

We celebrate with the changing of the seasons, the natural world, the church year, historically significant days, patriotic holidays, and good, old-fashioned traditions and pastimes.  
​

Celebrations through the year
Ideas by Month for Celebrating

Picture
January
New Year
​First Snow
Snowflakes
Snowmen
Ice Skating
Sledding
​Snow Walks 
Evergreen Trees and Cones
Animals in Winter
Picture
February
Candlemas Day
Cupid's Tea Party
Love and Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day Fancy Dinner Party
Abraham Lincoln's Birthday
George Washington's Birthday
​
Picture
March
Clouds
Rain and Puddles
Rainbows
​Luck and St. Patrick's Day
First Day of Spring
Picture
April
Good Friday
Easter
Rabbits
​Bunny Tea Party
​Easter Egg Roll
Birds
Eggs and Nests
Picture
May
May Day 
Seeds
Flowers
Gardening
Caterpillars and Butterflies
Mother's Day
​Memorial Day
Picture
June
Picking Strawberries and a Strawberry Regale 
Blueberry Festival
Ice Cream Social
Father's Day
First Day of Summer
Midsummer Day
Bees and Honey
Picture
July
Independence Day
​Backyard Campout and Campfire
Water (Ponds and Streams)
Ducks
Frogs
Fish
Picture
August
Insects
Stars and Stargazing
Rocks and Minerals
Trees
Preserving the Summer
First Day of School
Picture
September
Hummingbird Festival
​Visit to the Apple Orchard
Apple Festival
First Day of Fall
Michaelmas Day and Feast  (Bravery, Dragons)
Picture
October
Night Animals (Owls, Bats, Raccoons) 
Spiders
Visit to the Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin Festival
Pumpkin Carving Party
All Hallow's Eve Home Frolic
Halloween
Picture
November
Leaves with a Leaf Hunt, Leaf Raking, and Leaf Pile Jumping
Squirrels and Nuts with a Nutting Party
Martinmas Day, Feast, and Lantern Walk
Remembering the First Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Picture
December
Advent
St. Nicholas Day
St. Lucia Day
Reindeer
Gingerbread Party
Christmas Eve
​Christmas

Order your weeks with celebration

​In our home, most of our celebrations are small and simple.
Our Celebrations often include:
  • Read Aloud Stories
  • Songs
  • Poems
  • Special Food and Drink, Feasts
  • Simple Art or Handicrafts
  • Nature Experiences  

Many celebrations are a one day special event.  But many more are celebrated for days.  This means that we have more time to really experience that which we are celebrating.  We have more time to enjoy the celebration without rushing through it.  We can take the time to share in the celebration as a family.

​Our weeks are ordered around celebration.  I give each week its own celebration.  This means I pick one celebration theme for each week.  For example,  the first week of September is apples.  So all week long we read books, sing songs, and recite poems about apples.  We make special food and drink with apples.  We do art, handicrafts, and nature experiences involving apples.  It may sound a little crazy, but it is actually simple.  All I have to do is write each celebration down on the corresponding week in my calendar.  I already have the books, songs, poems, food and drink recipes, art, handicraft, and nature experiences ready to go. 

Keep it simple, effective, and Joyful!

Pick a week, pick a celebration, and enjoy!
Check out my BLOG for details about our celebrations.  
BLOG
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  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Our Quiet Growing Time
    • Read, Play, Create: Learning Letters Through Picture Books >
      • Book List By Letter
      • A Closer Look at Each Day
      • Daily Plans by Letter
  • The 9 Practices
    • Praise
    • Celebration
    • Stories
    • Wonder
    • Rest
    • Atmosphere
    • Modeling
    • Memorization
    • Mastery
  • Here is How
    • Order of our Day
    • Morning Time
    • Nature Study
    • Learning Plan by Subject
  • Book Lists
    • Classics
    • Seasonal Stories
    • Treasured Authors
    • Beautiful History Picture Books
    • Beautiful Science Picture Books
    • Fantasy Stories