Tips & tools to support your homeschooling program.

We encourage families to recognize the passage of time and the seasonal rhythms through festival celebrations.  Festivals provide an opportunity for your community to unite and share wonder, reverence and gratitude.  May Festival celebrates the awakening of the earth, the lengthening of days, and the rebirth of nature around us.  We celebrate this time of growth with joyous song and dance, playful games and a community picnic.

Traditionally May Festivals are celebrated on May 1st, but we have always found that using the early weeks of May to prepare and then holding the festival later in the month works too.  And if you're homeschooling, you can be as flexible as you like.

Here are some ways you can bring a May Festival to your homeschooling community.

• Connect with others in your area, for example, on the Daily Wonder Facebook Group to organize your festival.
• Plan to safely meet at a park and have everyone bring a picnic lunch.
• Gather ivy, braided wool and flowers to make May crowns.​

Earth who gives to us this food,
​Sun who makes it ripe and good,
​Sun above and earth below,
​Thanks for all that you bestow.

Thank you dear earth for the ground that I stand on.
​Thank you dear sun for your warmth and your light.
Thank you dear wind for your pleasant cool breezes.
Thank you dear rain for the cool of the night.

The silver rain, the shining sun,
The fields where scarlet poppies run,
And all the ripples of the wheat,
Are in the bread that I do eat.
​So when I sit for every meal,
And say a grace I always feel,
​I am eating rain and sun, 
And fields where scarlet poppies run.

2. Yes, it's not your own dog's poop, but pick it up anyways if you see it on your walk.
3. Ditch the paper towels, use a cloth instead.
4. Refuse the plastic straw and carry your own reuse-able ones.
5. Donate old clothing and household items to your local thrift stores, free stores or shelters.
6. Buy local, support local businesses and cut down on environmental shipping costs.
7. Choose sustainable products.
8. Grow a garden, even just one pot with a plant on your window sill if you don't have a yard.

More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. For more information, visit www.earthday.org