“Living Like Totoro” – 7-Day Homeschool Schedule

“Living Like Totoro” – 7-Day Homeschool Schedule

🌱 DAY 1 — Arrival & Settling Into the Totoro World

Evening

• Arrive, unpack slowly, open windows, let the house “wake up”
• Light sweeping of porch (engawa)
• Brew mugicha (barley tea), Japan’s summer drink
• Explore the yard: find a “Totoro Tree” (biggest tree becomes home base); give it a hug and say, “Hello, Forest. Thank you for having us.”

Dinner

• Make onigiri (rice balls) for your first countryside bento
• Eat outdoors on a blanket like Satsuki + Mei

Wind-down

• Quiet walk around the yard to explore: collect leaves, tiny branches, feathers, fallen flowers
• Learn your first Japanese word: 森 (mori) – forest
• Create a “Nature Altar” in the home (like Mei’s treasures shelf)
• Start nature journals; candle journaling: “What do I hope to learn this week?”

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🍃 DAY 2 — Chores of a Country Life

Morning Chores

• Sweep porch & shake rugs (tatami-cleaning tradition)
• Make natural cleaning spray (vinegar + citrus peels)
• Craft: Make a mini shimenawa (sacred rope) for your Totoro Tree

Lunch

• Simple miso soup + rice
• Teach chopstick skills (hashi)

Afternoon

• Read an old folk story under a tree
• Quiet time drawing the house from outside
• Origami: frogs, cranes, sakura flower, or Totoro face
• Play ohajiki (Japanese marble-like game)
• Learn Japanese nature words:
• mori (forest)
• kaze (wind)
• tsuki (moon)
• kodama (tree spirit)

Evening (Candlelight)

• Make shadow puppets
• Storytelling circle: “If Totoro lived here…”
• Perform a kamishibai style story (Japanese story cards)
• Write “Today I served the house” in your journal

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🌸 DAY 3 — Foraging & Harvesting

Morning Chores

• Gather pinecones, sticks, acorns, leaves, bark, moss (for crafts); Gather acorns → make “forest spirits” later
• Forage: Collect herbs, flowers, grasses, soft moss, clover, mint, or fallen items/petals (old Japanese summer activity); gather acorns and natural treasures
• Gather acorns & natural treasures
• Observe mushrooms, cicada shells (semi no nuki-gara), birds, & dragonflies (tonbo), and draw them in your journal

Lunch

• Prepare tsukemono (quick Japanese pickles) to enjoy later
• Eat rice + pickled veggies + fruit

Afternoon

• If allowed: harvest garden items or collect eggs
• Prepare a small “meadow salad,” foraged bouquet, or herb bundle/herb seasoning mix
• Make pressed flower pages for your journal
• Draw or paint nature scenes
• Nature craft: Create forest spirit acorns; make soot sprite characters from acorns/pom-poms & yarn

Evening (Candlelight)

• Sit outside quietly: look for fireflies
• Nature listening ritual; listen to nighttime insects
• Record nature sounds in journal (“What did the night teach us?”); “What did the forest whisper today?”

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🕯 DAY 4 — Candle Making + Old-World Crafts

Morning Chores

• Wash dishes outside in basins (like old Japanese homes before plumbing)
• Sweep pathway or porch
• Hand-wash 1 clothing item or towel (basin washing)
• Hang laundry outdoors to dry (furoshiki-style folding practice after)
• Organize clothes using KonMari-style folding (kid-friendly)

Lunch

• Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled eggs) + rice
• Brew fresh mugicha

Afternoon

• Beeswax candle making
• Make herb sachets from lavender, mint, and rosemary (placing one under your pillow is Japanese tradition)
• Begin weaving project (placemat or bookmark,traditional Japanese textile vibe)
• Japanese brush calligraphy (shodo)
• Practice kanji like: 月 (moon), 風 (wind), 土 (earth), 心 (heart)

Evening (Candlelight Only)

• Use the candles they made
• Write letters with calligraphy pens/quills
• Calligraphy practice → write “ありがとう (arigatou)”
• Read by candlelight (classic childhood magic)
• Whisper “Oyasumi, Totoro” before bed

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🌾 DAY 5 — Cooking Like a Totoro Neighbor

Morning Chores

• Gather herbs, wash them, dry them on a rack (old Japanese homes hung herbs from the rafters)
• Scrub and wash vegetables outdoors
• Fill water basins for dishwashing

Lunch Cooking Project

• Kids make:
• Make butter in a mason jar
• Harvest rice bowls, rice bowls with toppings
• Miso soup with greens, veggies

Afternoon - Japanese Desserts

• Make dango (sweet dumplings)
• Or roast yaki-imo (sweet potatoes)
• Craft: furin wind chimes using bells + painted paper strips

Evening (Candlelight)

• Candlelit dinner
• Hang furin chime outside → listen to its soft sound
• Draw your dango, meal, or wind chime in nature journals
• Tell stories of Totoro (maybe the one at the bus stop)

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🌲 DAY 6 — The Totoro Forest Walk

Morning Chores

• Sweep and tidy home; clean house (Japanese hinoki wiping — damp cloth on wood)
• Wash and fold anything dirty
• Prepare a “forest offering” of flowers, herbs (child-safe, respectful)

Lunch

• Onigiri picnic under trees
• Drink mugicha outside

Afternoon

• Long, quiet forest or meadow walk
• Identify plants, trees, birds
• Look for:
• Interesting bark textures
• Roots that look like spirits
• Look for tree “faces” (kodama spirits)
• Sketch the “faces” you see in trees, bark patterns and roots
• Collect final nature items for display
• Sit still and silently (meditate) for 10 minutes — “Quiet Like Totoro Time”
• Create a Totoro Museum Table (take a photo) with:
• Pressed flowers
• Calligraphy papers
• Candles
• Dango sticks
• Wind chimes
• Nature collections
• Weaving projects

Evening - Totoro Feast

• Kids prepare one dish each (bread, soup, salad, herb potatoes, etc.); use the pickles they made
• Light all candles and tell legends around the candles
• Tidy home by hand (Japanese custom before holidays)
• Write a final reflection: “What did the forest show me today?”
• Tsukimi (moon-viewing) ritual
• Light a candle
• Eat a small sweet
• Write a moon haiku
• Stargazing like Satsuki and Mei
• Share journals and stories
• Blow out their homemade candles as a “thank you” to nature and to “seal” the magic of the week.

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🌙 DAY 7 — Closing Ritual

Morning

• Sweep porch gently
• Pack belongings calmly
• Hand-wash last items
• Create a small offering to your Totoro Tree (flowers, herbs)
• Bow to your Totoro Tree and say: “Arigatou gozaimashita, Mori no Kami.” (Thank you, Forest Spirit.)

The 12 Days of Christmas - An Annual Yule Plan!

The 12 Days of Christmas (Yule Tide)

Yule (Winter Solstice) happens December 21-January 1st each year. It is a winter celebration of the shortest day of the year, and as such, the return of the sun and the beginning of longer days. It is a time of peace, stillness, and healing.

December 20th, Mother's Night (Yule's Eve)

A celebration of the Disir, protective female spirits of fate and fertility; ancestral grandmothers who blessed, protected, and provided prophetic counsel to the clan. This is a night for holding vigil through the dark to honor female ancestors. This is a night to honor the women who came before you. Hearth, linage, warmth, memory, and feminine wisdom.

We honor the women who carried us, fed us, taught us, protected us.
Their strength lives here. Their love is remembered.

Activities:

• Light white candles in the windows, kitchen, and living room. One fore each maternal figure (living or passed).
• Bring evergreens and winter berries inside.
• Tell stories or speak aloud names of women who shaped you.
• Clean the kitchen together gently → “Prepare the Hearth.”

Food & Drink:

• Make family receipes and cookies.
• Tea with honey.

December 21st, Winter's Night (the Winter Solstice)

Celebrating the longest night and the return of the sun, heralding the lengthening of days and the promise of spring. Hope, renewal, quiet magic.

The Sun returns.
Light rises again.
May our home be blessed with warmth, health, and joy.

Activities:

• Dim lights all day; light only candles after sunset.
• Display the Yule Log (birch, oak, yew) wrapped in rosemary and cinnamon, and burn it. The Yule Log is a Nordic tradition of burning a tree or log in the home for the entire 12 Days of Christmas, allowing the flame of the old year to ignite the new year. The ash from the log was sometimes used for rituals such as blessing crops, protecting against storms, and healing the sick.
• Set intentions for the coming light (one per person).
• Divination: tarot, runes, or pendulum after the log burns.

Food & Drink

• Winter stew or roasted root vegetables.

December 22nd, Father's Night

A night to honor male spirits, the Alfar—male ancestors. Memory, protection, guidance, quiet presence.

You are loved. You are remembered.
Guide us softly. Watch over this home.

Activities:

• Place your father’s photo near a single candle.
• Add something that reminds you of him (object, color, scent).
• Share a favorite story about him.
• Play one song he loved.
• Eat or cook something he enjoyed.
• If weather allows → step outside and look at the night sky together.
• Warm bath with epsom salt + cedar drops
• Gentle stretching, breathwork, or chakra alignment

December 23rd, The Silly Feast (counting the blessings)

• Loki's Silly (Seelie) Feast - a party or feast while wearing your animal masks, probably where our NYE masquerades come from. A time for exchanging gifts, turning social rules, and setting up the Yule Tree.
• The Yule Tree: A Germanic tradition of decorating trees with greenery and ornaments (wish ornaments - salt dough with your hopes for the coming year, symbols of gratitude and joy). The yule tree signified abundance in the coming year. You decorate the outdoor trees for the animals and the indoor tree for you.

• Release mischief, laughter, chaos, and fear.
  Allow joy + catharsis before the return to quiet.

  Activities

  • Make a fun feast — messy tacos, finger foods, something unexpected.

  • Tell stories — funny, ridiculous, mischievous family memories.

  • Hang bells on the door to ward The Wild Hunt.

  • Write fears/resentments on paper → burn or shred.

  Words

  Let chaos move through and out.
  Only joy remains.

   Upturn the ordinary. Laugh. Release stuck emotions. Allow joy, mischief, and transformation.

  Loki isn’t “the villain” here—he’s the Unraveler so new patterns can form.
  This night loosens knots, releases stagnant energy, and breaks old emotional contracts.

  The Wild Hunt energy rides the winds — we acknowledge it, but do not invite it inside.
  This is controlled chaos → release, play, purge, reset.

  ---

  ✨ Decor & Atmosphere

  • Red + Black + Gold accents

  • Bells hung on the front door (to guard against the Wild Hunt)

  • Candles, but one flame kept burning the entire evening

  • Incense or simmer pot with:

    • Clove

    • Orange Peel

    • Bay Leaf

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  🦊 Crafts & Hands-On Ritual Play

  1. Animal / Trickster Masks

  Make or wear masks representing:

  • Fox

  • Raven

  • Deer

  • Wolf

  • Hare

  • Crow

  • Serpent

  • Cat

  Symbolism:
  The mask allows you to step outside of your usual patterns and release stuck identity behaviors.

  Prompt to Say While Masking:

  “Tonight, let me see through new eyes.
  Let what no longer fits fall away.”

  Use:

  • Paper plates + markers/paint

  • Felt + hot glue

  • Paper bags (old school theater style)

  ---

  2. Salt Dough Ornaments

  Recipe:

  • 2 cups flour

  • 1 cup salt

  • ¾ cup warm water

  Shape into:

  • Feathers

  • Runes

  • Spirals

  • Animal footprints

  • Trickster symbols (knots, flames, little foxes)

  After baking: paint red + gold or natural ochre tones.

  Meaning: These are talismans of transformation.
  Hang them on the Yule tree, or tie to Yule log remnants later.

  Words While Crafting:

  “What was bound is loosened.
  What is hidden is revealed.
  What holds me back is unmade.”

  ---

  3. “Burn the Old” Ritual Notes

  Everyone writes down:

  • One habit

  • One fear

  • One resentment

  Fold and burn in a bowl or fire-safe dish.

  Say:

  “Chaos carries it away.
  I am free to choose again.”

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  🍽 The Feast — Fun, Irreverent, Delicious

  This night should feel playful, messy, and not formal.

  Examples:

  • Charcuterie “graze table”

  • Build-your-own tacos, nachos, sliders, or sushi bowls

  • Chocolate fondue + fruit

  • Spicy dishes (Loki heat!)

  • Anything colorful or over-the-top

  Drink

  • Spiced cider

  • Meade-like mocktail (honey, ginger, sparkling water)

  • Cinnamon hot cocoa for the kids

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  🎶 Activities & Storytelling

  • Tell funny family stories, even embarrassing ones kindly

  • Watch a chaotic holiday movie or a mythic themed one

  • Drum or clap rhythms

  • Dance like nobody is watching (because tonight — nobody is)

  ---

  🌬 The Wild Hunt Acknowledgment (Night Walk or Porch Moment)

  Step outside briefly.

  Ring a bell three times.

  Say:

  “We see you.
  We honor the storm and the shadow.
  But this home is protected.
  You may pass.”

  Close the door firmly.

  ---

  ✨ The Closing of the Feast

  Remove the masks.

  Take a slow breath together.

  Say:

  “What was released will not return.
  Only joy and truth remain.”

  Blow out candles except one — let that one burn down naturally.

  ---

  Optional Add-On (powerful)

  • Save one salt dough ornament made this night.

  • On New Year’s Eve (Hogmanay), you will break it to seal the release cycle.

December 24th, Protecting the Home from The Wild Hunt - Santa's Night (Christmas Eve)

The Wild Hunt is described as a ghostly parade of spirits riding wildly through the night, marking a time of mystical energy. Nowadays, the Wild Hunt is known as a terrifying ordeal, where fae attack or capture anyone in their path. On the other hand, some believe it is a fae celebration, which can still be pretty scary since they're more rambunctious and violent than those on this side of the veil.

Santa was known as a fae, whose clothes matched the red-capped mushrooms that grow through the winter snow beneath the evergreen trees. Shaman or šamán means "one who knows." Bells call the spirits and fairies (that's why Santa has them on his sleigh). Milk and cookies were offerings left for the fae, for Santa, in exchange for presents.

The Deer Mother takes to the skies, carrying the light of the sun in her antlers, bringing rebirth to the land.

Also, the Yule book flood takes place, where people gift books to each other and read through the night.

Activities: 

• Lighting candles, decorating with ribbons and garlands, and hanging mistletoe in doorways for protection in the coming year.
• Evergreens: Evergreens were revered because they lasted even in the heart of winter. They were hung over doors and windows, as their greenery in a time of bleak cold was believed to ward off negative energies and illness.
• Wreaths: The Yule Wreath had dried orange for strength, oak for wisdom, holly for hope, evergreen for rebirth, clove for prosperity, cinnamon for protection, laurel for success, and mistletoe for fertility.
• Mistletoe: The druids held nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree that bears it, the oak. They call the mistletoe "uil-ìoc," which means the all-healing. A kiss under the mistletoe represents the promise of love, life, and renewal.
• A Christmas Eve care package (with books, pajamas, etc); Secret Santa or White Elephant with books.

December 25th, Christmas Day, letting light and hope in

• Exchange gifts intentionally (even if small).

• Speak one blessing for each person while they hold their gift.

• Offer food to wildlife — apples, carrots, birdseed.

• Make pinecone bird feeders for outdoor animals.

• Wassail (hot cider with oranges + cloves + cinnamon)

26th, Honor to the Hearth

• A day for feasts, particularly lamb stew and leaf bread, as kin gather together to share warmth and nourishment before the winter's grip tightens.

• Togetherness, warmth, cooking, rest.

  Activities

  • Deep Clean but Softly: open one window for 5 minutes to release stagnant energy.

  • Burn juniper, cedar, or rosemary to cleanse the home.

  • Prepare a simple dinner together.

  • Family movie night under blankets.

  Energy Work

  • Quick feng shui reset:

    • Clear the entryway

    • Sweep toward the door

    • Add one plant or evergreen bough near the front door for protection

27th, Protecting Outside the Home

• Making offerings to wildlife and spirits of the woods, preparing for the coming winter. This day is also marked by the creation of protective wards for the coming winter, ensuring a shield against unseen forces.

28th, Ritual of Completion (close out everything for the year, clear any debts)

• It is a time to conclude tasks left undone, a moment of closure and preparation for the impending new cycle. Plum (figgy) pudding is a culinary symbol of completion.

29th, Day of Contemplation (looking into the new year)

• Approaching the year’s end, the penultimate day invites a gaze into the future and an appreciation of nature’s wonders. Create open spaces for relaxation, meditate on the year to come, and engage with preferred divination tools, seeking insights for the unfolding future.

30th, Good Luck in the coming Year 

• Wassail is made, and wassailing occurs.
• Wassailing: The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing, and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by carol singing. The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions, reciting incantations, and singing to the trees to scare away evil spirits and promote a good harvest for the coming year.

31st, Hogmanay (spiritually and physically cleansing the house)

• Homes are blessed for protection (saining), and the home is cleaned from top to bottom. 
• Drinking, dancing, and feasting ensue, and a massive torchlit parade occurs. Nowadays, Hogmanay (New Year's) rings in at midnight with fireworks and "Auld Lang Syne." The first person to visit on New Year's is called the "first-footer," and he should be a tall, dark-haired man bringing coal or shortbread.

Activities: decorate your home with candles to bring light into your home, go foraging, decorate with dried fruits and evergreens, bake a spiced yule log cake, have a cup of wassail, put a lantern on your porch or a candle in your front window, hang peanut butter and seed-coated pinecones for the birds, make gingerbread

Yule kitchen witchery

December 26–27 — Stillness Days

Theme: Quiet, restoration, crafting, blankets, no pressure.

Activities

• Nap.

• Read.

• Make simple crafts (paper snowflakes, pine bundles).

• Journal on:

  • What you want to release

  • What you want to grow

These are resting days — let them be slow.

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🏙 December 28 – January 3 — In Chicago

This is family time, but still sacred.

Daily Mini Practices

• Bring one travel-sized candle → light for home blessing each night.

• Walk in the cold → feel winter air on the lungs.

• One card daily divination pull each morning.

Suggested Larger Rituals

• 12/30 → Buy supplies for Vision Board

• 12/31 (New Year’s Eve / Hogmanay)

  • Sweep the entryway of your sister’s home (with permission)

  • Open the door for first-footing luck

  • Write three goals and burn them outside to send to the returning sun

• 1/1 → Vision Board Day

  • Coffee, cozy clothes, blankets, scissors, magazines, markers

  • Create boards themed:

    • Strength

    • Abundance

    • Protection

    • Family Joy

  • Seal by lighting a candle and saying:

    So it is written. So it becomes.

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🕯 Symbols to Keep Throughout

Meaning	Item	Where
Hearth & Family	Candles	Kitchen + Living room
Protection	Cedar / Juniper smoke	Doorways & Corners
Abundance	Bowl of oranges or nuts	Dining table
Prosperity	Green ribbon tied to front door handle	Entryway
Returning Sun	Gold or yellow candle lit at dawn	Window

Summer Homeschooling - Cake Wars Week

CAKE WARS WEEK -

Sunday: Batter Up! Challenge

• Welcome, bakers, to Cake Wars! For your Round One: Batter Up! Challenge today, the theme is: FLORIDA!!!
• To create your personal cake for judging, you must use at least one of these ingredients, native to the great state where you currently live. You can use your phone for ideas and recipes. You'll be judged on how distinct your special ingredient is, how well it blends with the other flavors you choose to use, and your overall creativity with your cake. AND GO!
• Ingredients:
• Key Limes
• Oranges
• Orange Juice
• Blueberries
• Grouper
• Tomatoes
• Pecans
• The Judging
• And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the Cake Off! Challenge theme - and that is: Your Favorite Disney Movie
• Tomorrow, you'll use the daytime to design and sketch out your cake on notebook paper. You can use your phone for ideas and recipes. Make sure to map out:
• What kind and flavor of cake/icing, ingredients needed
• The creative design of the cake
• Any extra ingredients you may need that we don't already have in the pantry (send that list to Mama by 12PM)
• During your design time, keep in mind the requirements of this challenge:
1. The cake flavor profile must be related to the theme or culture of your movie
2. You must have at least one design element on the cake that represents a character from your movie
• See you tomorrow evening, bakers!

Monday: Cake Off! Challenge - Part One

• Good evening, bakers! Welcome to Part One of our Cake Off! Challenge: Tonight, we will bake our cakes and then refrigerate them to cool overnight. Then, tomorrow, we will add our design elements.
• Your Disney Movie cakes will be judged based on appearance, taste, texture, creativity, execution, and clean workspace.
• Remember:
1. The cake flavor profile must be related to the theme or culture of your movie
2. You must have at least one design element on the cake that represents a character from your movie
• AND GO! Good luck, bakers!
• Feel free to use the day tomorrow for more complex design elements that you plan to add to your cake base, such as character pieces, sculpting, painting, stencils, etc. 

Tuesday: Cake Off! Challenge - Part Two

• Good evening, bakers! Welcome to Part Two of our Cake Off! Challenge: Tonight, we will add our design elements to our cakes and move them to our display stations for final judging.
• Keep in mind your judging criteria: appearance, taste, texture, creativity, execution, and clean workspace.
• Remember:
1. The cake flavor profile must be related to the theme or culture of your movie
2. You must have at least one design element on the cake that represents a character from your movie

• AND GO! Good luck, bakers!
• The Judging, and trophy gifting.