Summer Homeschooling - “Living with Totoro” Week

Welcome to "Living with Totoro" Week! This week, we are stepping out of the fast, noisy world and into a quieter one—the kind where houses breathe, forests listen, and small daily tasks matter. Like Satsuki and Mei, we’ll learn how to live close to the land: doing simple chores by hand, gathering what nature already offers, cooking old-world Japanese foods, making light with our own candles, and paying attention to things most people rush past. This isn’t about building or conquering or finishing quickly—it’s about noticing, helping, creating, and listening. For five days, we’ll live as if forest spirits might be watching kindly from the trees, and we’ll learn what life feels like when we slow down enough to hear them.

Bethesda Park Cabin #3: Your Jacksonville Glamping Oasis in Florida 

🌱 SUNDAY — 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 - tea ceremony
• 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, tokonoma alcove)
• Start nature journals; candle journaling: “What do I hope to learn this week?”

🍃 MONDAY — 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:
• 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

🌸 TUESDAY — Foraging & Harvesting

Morning Chores

• Forage: Collect pinecones, sticks, leaves, bark, herbs, flowers, grasses, soft moss, clover, mint, or fallen items/petals (old Japanese summer activity); gather acorns and 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, and 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?”

🕯 WEDNESDAY — 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

🌾 THURSDAY — 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)

🌲 FRIDAY — 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.

🌙 SATURDAY — 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.)