A Summer Co-op Session: Fewer Mornings, Outdoors, With Water Play and St John's

A Waldorf-inspired co-op in summer works best with fewer mornings, all of them outside. Many parent-led groups rest over the long break. The ones that keep going often switch to a lighter summer session: a handful of shorter mornings in a park or a member's garden. Circle moves under a tree, and the story moves into the shade. Name one adult to watch the water, meet in the cool of the morning, and bring the families together for St John's in late June.

For outdoor play at co-op in general (how long, what to wear, what the adults do), see outdoor time at a Waldorf-inspired co-op. This piece is about the summer months, when the whole morning moves outside and the rhythm gets lighter.

Do co-ops meet in the summer at all?

Many don't. Plenty of parent-led groups meet in terms and rest in the holidays, and several of the home education groups listed by the Home Education Network in Victoria meet only during school terms. Waldorf schools close too. What fills the summer at a Waldorf school is usually a camp, run separately, with its own shorter, lighter days.

So the first question is whether your families want a summer session at all. Ask in the spring, at the same meeting where you look back on the year. Parents who have led circle every third week since September may want the summer off, and that's a good answer. How often should a co-op meet covers meeting in terms and resting between them.

If some families do want to keep meeting, choose one:

• A summer session. 4 to 6 mornings spread across June and July, on the same weekday.
• Every other week, all summer, at the same park.
• Just St John's, one evening for everyone, and nothing else until autumn.

Whichever you choose, make it optional. Families travel, grandparents visit, and summer is when many children slow right down. A session families can dip in and out of is easier on everyone than a full term's commitment.

What does a summer co-op morning look like?

Look at how Waldorf schools run their summer camps for young children. Austin Waldorf School's camp for ages 3.5 to 5 lists outdoor play, songs, stories, water play and simple crafts. The Brooklyn Waldorf School's early childhood camp keeps "a gentle, predictable rhythm", with circle time, snack, outdoor play and lunch outdoors when the weather allows. Marin Waldorf School describes its early childhood summer camp as crafts, water play, nature walks and free play.

A co-op can borrow that shape. Keep the bones of your usual morning, the verse and the circle and the story, and let the rest go loose and outdoors. Here's a summer morning in a park or a member's garden:

Time	What happens	Who
9:00	Arrive, play in the shade	Everyone
9:20	Opening verse and a short circle under a tree	Circle parent
9:40	Free play, water play	Water watcher, plus one adult
10:30	Wash hands, picnic snack on a blanket	Snack parent
10:50	A simple craft: flower crowns, a sun painting, beeswax	Craft parent
11:20	Story in the shade	Story parent
11:40	Closing verse, pack up, home before the heat	Everyone

That's under three hours, with no main lesson work and no long indoor stretch. If your group usually meets for four hours, cut the summer mornings short and be home before the midday heat. The Waldorf co-op day schedule shows the full-length term morning this is drawn from.

What do children do on a summer nature morning?

Mostly, they play. Summer is the season where the adults can step back furthest. A mixed-age group in a park will build a stick house, find a beetle, and make a shop that sells grass soup. Let it run.

A few things suit summer especially well:

• Water play. A tub of water with cups and a watering can, or a hose on a hot day. Young children can spend a whole morning pouring from one thing into another.
• Flower crowns and garlands. Pick daisies, clover or whatever the site allows, and weave them. They'll be useful again at St John's.
• A sun painting. Wet-on-wet in yellow and red, on a board in the shade. The paintings dry in minutes.
• The garden. If your co-op has a bed, summer is watering and picking. The co-op garden article covers who waters between sessions.
• A picnic. Summer snack is lighter: berries, cucumber, bread and butter, cold water. The blessing is said sitting on the blanket. Snack time at a Waldorf-inspired co-op covers the snack schedule and allergies.

For the older children, summer is a good time for a longer walk to the creek or up the hill, with a parent at the front and one at the back.

Water play: one adult, watching

Water is the big change in a summer co-op, and it's the one thing to plan carefully.

The CDC's advice is to "designate a responsible adult to supervise closely and constantly when children are in or near water (including bathtubs)." That adult should avoid distractions like reading or the phone, "because drowning happens quickly and quietly." Its advice covers bathtubs, so treat a paddling pool, a water trough or a deep bucket the same way.

In a co-op, that means:

1. Name a water watcher on the schedule, like the snack or circle parent. Their only job while the water is out is watching it.
2. Swap partway through a long morning, and hand over out loud: "You're watching the water now."
3. Water away when no one's watching. Tip out the paddling pool and turn the tub upside down before the adults go to snack.
4. Open water needs a separate plan. For a creek or a beach, agree as parents who goes in, how deep, and how many adults stand in the water. Ask families about swimming ability on your sign-up form.

The co-op safety policy covers writing water into your group's rules. For what your venue or insurer asks, check with your state homeschool association, an insurer or a lawyer.

Sun and heat

Summer mornings go best when they start early. HealthyChildren.org, the American Academy of Pediatrics' site for parents, says to limit sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and to stay in the shade whenever possible. For the heat, it says to put heavy activity in the cooler parts of the day, and to "cancel or delay if it is extremely hot". It warns that a heat index above 105°F is especially dangerous for exercise.

So, as a group:

• Start early and finish by late morning.
• Choose a site with shade, and put the circle, the snack and the story in it.
• Ask each family to bring a named water bottle, a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen already on. HealthyChildren.org suggests SPF 15 or higher, put on 15 to 30 minutes before going out, and again every two hours or after swimming or toweling off.
• Agree a heat rule before the summer starts: the forecast temperature at which you move the morning indoors, or cancel. Write it down, so no one has to decide on the day.
• Know the signs of heat illness. HealthyChildren.org lists feeling faint or unusually tired, confusion and intense thirst among them, along with headache, nausea and cramps.

St John's: the summer gathering

If your group keeps one summer event, make it St John's. Green Meadow Waldorf School in New York describes the festival as "often celebrated with a bonfire and dancing, generally after the school year has ended". It falls close to the summer solstice, on June 24.

How do homeschool groups organize a festival like this? The same way as the others, just outside and in the evening:

1. Pick a site with room for a fire, and check the local fire rules and any burn ban. If a fire isn't allowed, a ring of candle lanterns on a table works well.
2. Invite whole families, including the ones who skipped the summer mornings.
3. Ask each family to bring one thing: a dish for the picnic or a jar of flowers for the wreaths.
4. Name one adult for the fire, the same way you'd name one for the water, and agree where the children stand.
5. Close with a song, and go home at dusk.

The St John's Tide festival page has the story, the songs, the crafts and the fire safety notes, so you don't need to plan them from scratch. In the Southern Hemisphere June is midwinter, and the festival page has a note on that too.

Planning the summer session

Keep the planning as light as the mornings. One parents' meeting in May is enough:

1. Ask who wants to meet, and how many mornings each family could lead.
2. Pick the dates, 4 to 6 mornings on one weekday, plus St John's.
3. Pick one site with shade, a water tap, a bathroom and space to run.
4. Fill the schedule. Someone for circle and story, someone for snack, and a water watcher for every morning.
5. Write the heat rule and the water rule at the top of the schedule, and send it to every family.
6. Choose the story. One summer story told in parts, or a new short one each week.

Starpath for co-ops is free to run, and gives the group one calendar, a jobs schedule and a shared Waldorf-inspired program that follows the festival year, St John's included.

Then, in August, put it all down. The circle, the verses and the new term's story can wait for the first cool mornings of September.

Looking for a Waldorf-inspired group near you, for the summer or the year? The Waldorf Map lists co-ops, parent and child groups and schools by area.