Keeping a moon journal with your kids. By Wind*dancer

Excerpts from: A Wiccan Primer: Rituals for Children. Copyright 1996 by
Wind*Dancer.

One of the things I like best about celebrating Esbats with my kids is that
it helps them to understand the cycle of things. The Sun rises and sets, it
changes position in the sky and the moon goes from new to full, every month,
no matter what. I think this is very important for them to understand,
especially as they start getting into adolescence, when it seems like
everything is changing and it's all so scary. Every day the sun is going to
come up. They might have had a horrible experience at school. They might
have had to experience the death of a friend or relative. They might just
feel sad, like none of it is worthwhile. But the sun is still going to come
up in the morning.
That's not to make them feel like they are unimportant or insignificant,
rather it's the God/dess' way of showing us that s/he's taking care of
everything. And when times get really tough and you don't know what to do...
Just watch the sun coming up and going down and remember that you're not
alone, and someone else is helping you along the way.
To that end we keep a moon journal, yet another section in our family BOS
The first page is The Moons of The Year by month. I've seen as many
different attributes for the months and moons as there are Craft books at
Barnes and Noble. This is what we settled on, again, because it works for us
We live in New England so making November "The Snow Moon" and March "The
Seed Moon" is very appropriate. I would suggest that those of you living in
different areas make up your own moon charts, based on season changes and
regional traditions, so the names are something relevant to your kids.
The Moons of the Year
1. December - Oak Moon. Moon of the newborn year.
2. January - Wolf Moon. The moon of deepest winter.
3. February - Storm Moon. The moon of potential. (Also called the Chaste
Moon for Imbolc).
4. March - Seed Moon. The moon of planting.
5. April - Hare Moon. The moon of fertility. (It's mating season for many
animals, including rabbits.)
6. May - Dyad Moon. Celebrating the sacred union of The Goddess and The God.
7. June - Mead Moon. Also called Honey Moon.
8. July - Wort Moon. The gathering of herbs.
9. August - Barley Moon. A time to contemplate the cycles of life.
10. September - Wine Moon. (Also Harvest moon.)
11. October - Blood Moon. The slaughter of animals before winter snow sets
in.
12. November - Snow Moon. The start of winter storms.
13. Is the Blue Moon and falls in difffering months. It's the second Full
Moon in any month.
The rest of the book is the jounal pages. I have a picture at the top of the
page that says "Moon Journal" in all capital letters and beneath that, a
picture of the moon in it's three phases, waning, full, waxing... Like the
crown the HPS wears? Each month gets it's own page and the kids can write as
little or as much as they want.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Date :___________ _________ _Time :___________ _____
Moon :___________ _________ Season :___________ ____
Weather:____ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ ________
What's happening today:
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

It's pretty straightforward. For "Moon" you look it up on your moon chart.
For instance, to us, November is the Snow Moon (appropriate since we've
already got the stuff! ) The season would be Fall. Each month a different
child gets to fill in the moon journal. Under "What's happening" they write
things they did at school, special activites for the day, friends visiting,
etc.
The Moon Journal is fun for a lot of reasons. One, as I mentioned, is the
cycles. For instance you can look back to the month before and see what the
weather was. Then it was hot and Indian Summer, now it's cold and snowy. How
does this reflect the turning of the Wheel? We also like to look back to the
Esbat of the year *before* to see if anything has changed. For instance last
November we got our new dog. It helps give the kids a handle on the passage
of time, and the changing of the seasons and their lives. When we started
doing this three years ago my son was 6 and just learning how to write. Now
he's 9 and writing in script. He thinks it's funny to look back and read
what he wrote back then.
A moon journal is a nice marker for older kids too, and this is the one that could be a nice, bound book. Pre-teens can pour out their hopes and fears. And it's very reassuring to look back a month or two and see that, indeed, the heartbreaking break up with the boy of her dreams *wasn't* the end of the world afterall... and the mortifying embarrassment of dropping the ball during the big game *has* been forgotten. No matter what, the sun will come up every morning and life goes on.