How Home-educators Celebrate the Seasons in Community

I love that we have 4 distinct seasons and that each one when celebrated is done so in tune with the elements of nature, connecting us to it, and to a natural rhythm.

Whether we notice this or not, these seasonal changes hold us within a rhythm that allows for a cyclical life where energy rises and falls, peaks and drops back, expands and contracts, gives out, then rests in.

Here’s what that can look like.

Seasonal Celebrations

Summer has just officially ended and with it all the outdoor festivals that celebrate the heat of life out in the sunshine and under the stars.

Autumn is about gathering in, both the harvest and the community. It’s abundant and purposeful.

Winter is where everything stops, rests and reflects. A time to integrate the lessons the year has brought. Lessons that allow us to become wiser. We sit warming by the fire, opening the gifts hidden beneath the layers.

In the spring we re-emerge stronger, wiser, inspired by new energy and new birth. Celebrating with eggs and feasting.

In fact, which season do we not celebrate with feasting?

Home-ed Community Celebrations

This defines my favourite role within our community. Events organiser for the purpose of bringing people together to celebrate life in line with the seasons.

I can do 4 a year…

...and I absolutely love it!

Bringing people together to rest into each other’s company and to have fun. What can be better than that?

Summer

For summer we have an annual camp. I co-organise the Bristol Home-educators camp which is an informal event over 10 days where people can join for as long or as short as they like. We hire a field with exclusive use so that we can enjoy the safety of our own group.

We have it over the May/June half term to be inclusive to families who have children both in home-ed and within the school system. Plus, early summer means most people are free, as are the venues, and at a more affordable price.

When we began our home-ed journey, I had a 4-year-old and 1-year-old. I decided that attending camp would be the best way to get to know the community as it involved an extended period of time together. This was pre-Facebook and pre-covid home-ed boom.

13 years later most of those families on our first home-ed camp are still gathering on that same week every year! It means we’ve seen many of those young home-ed people grow up and become adults. Some of which we see regularly and others we see only once a year.

It’s heart-warming that even the older teens and 20-somethings make there way there to relax and catch up for a few days. In my son’s words, “it’s where I can totally relax with my friends and not have to do anything or go anywhere”.

It’s often the first camp of the season for most families and is a space where we have time for each other, to connect more deeply and to rest into nature.

The fire is always the centre point and over the years has involved cooking, singing, games, heart-to-heart, warming, stargazing, crafting, reflecting, and generally holding the hearth whilst the children wander, ever further, ever growing, within the safety of our village.

Always there are wild field games at sundown like chaos tag, inviting multigenerational participation and high energy.

Dens are made, adventures had, multiply sleepovers and under star group campouts.

Autumn

We’ve just had our autumn celebration and so I’m freshly warmed by its nourishment.

Living in Somerset we like to honour the harvest and do so with a feast!

We invite far too many people over for our little home and pray for dry weather to allow an indoor/outdoor party.

My husband is a grower, managing a local kitchen garden and so he cooks his speciality beetroot chocolate cake, plus a giant apple pie, a huge pan of pumpkin soup, his fresh sourdough rye, and baked potatoes.

I like to honour the Somerset apples with hot spiced apple juice and apple bobbing.

We also have a fire in the garden with marshmallows, plus sparklers after sundown, and a fire show!

A strange tradition that has come about is pass-the-parcel! I started it when the children were very young and kept it going. It fascinates me how into it they still are. Over 20 children aged 3-20 all getting very excited! As you can imagine, it takes quite some time to wrap!

I find that after the summer, the transition from that out-and-about abundance to where-did-all-the-people-go, can be a bit of a challenge. People disappear for a while and by the time Halloween arrives they are ready to gather in again.

I love the excitement, the feasting, the indoor/outdoor space, and the conversation. It warms my heart seeing all the smiles and hearing all the happy chatter.

Winter

This is one we marked as a community with singing, wreathmaking, hot chocolate, secret Santa and hats, gloves and wellies!

We keep this a simple one; some gentle time out within all the madness of the countdown to Christmas. These days we hike up to a fire circle in the wood where we can share some nature time together.

Conversation and excitement, sharing stories of how we each keep our own family traditions. What we look forward to, and what we’d like to adopt if one family has an awesome ritual that carries them with love and care over the festive period.

It’s reflective, full of love and preparing for hibernation.

Spring

Our son’s birthdays are in March, two weeks apart. We’ve had a joint gathering in our local woods for 12 years. I love that our home-ed friends have come to see it as our first outdoor community emergence after the winter period.

Obviously not the case when we had our 4-year PACE community in operation. During those years we meet up 1-4 times a week outdoors throughout the seasons! It is definitely my preference to be meeting weekly as a community outdoors throughout the entire year, however, it’s hard to get people to commit these days.

During our PACE years, (PACE: Playful And Collaborative Education, 2016-2020), we had an annual spring fete that we looked forward to. We even made a maypole and worked out how to dance with the ribbons which became pretty satisfying after 3 years of attempts! Plus, the added benefit of someone who realised it was very similar to dancing a ceilidh!

I enjoyed offering a herb walk and created a herbal tea café with all the spring abundance. The families brought in food to create a feast, and each person including the young people took it in turns to work behind the counter, cook or craft, or play. It was partially intended as a fundraiser; however, I always saw the riches in the magic of bringing people together in celebration!

It energises and connects. Strengthens the web and gives us a boost to continue on our journey together.

Enriching our Connection

These celebrations work with the seasons. They give us an excuse to come together, to weave in our stories, and create richness in relationships, community and tradition.

Ours have emerged in a way that works for us, enriching our connection to nature, each other and ourselves. They are energising and ease our journey.

In what ways do your home-ed community and/or family celebrate together each season?

If you'd like to create or enrich a home-ed community that can carry your family through your journey, I would love to support you. I'm passionate about working out how to create nourishing and restorative communities. I can help with clarity on what you want, how you want to do it, and the regenerative systems that can support healthy community cultures; such as celebrations, sociocracy: consent decision making, and the restorative circle process for re-establishing trust and connection where it has been lost.

Get in touch if you'd like a free 15 min discovery call to see how we could work together:

https://www.healthneedsthyme.co.uk/