When Midsummer rolls around, it’s a great time to celebrate Sabbats with your children �?after all, the sun stays up longer, so your kids can too.

Ask your kids to help set up a family altar, complete with flowers. Be sure to add lots of sun symbols as well. Have a barbeque or bonfire, and place out bowls of strawberries, watermelons, and other bright summery foods!

A great activity, since the Wheel of the Year is turning once more, is to place things on the altar that we are saying goodbye to. If you have a child who has potty-trained recently, put a bag of pull-ups up there, or a baby bottle for a child who has learned to drink from a sippy cup. Older kids can put last year’s school books up there, or clothes they’ve outgrown. Even grownups can add bad habits they’re banishing �?now’s as good a time as ever to put that pack of Marlboros to rest for good.

Set up a celestial piñata, filled with goodies, for the kids to smash. Little ones can make paper-plate sunflowers with some glue and a few pieces of black and yellow construction paper. Have children decorate cupcakes with sunny yellow frosting.

Pre-teens are just the right age to set up a mock battle between the Oak King and the Holly King, or to re-enact myths and legends of ancient times. Have a sing-along beside your campfire, or teach your family and friends a new dance to celebrate the sun.

Once the Solstice has rolled past, and the days begin to get shorter, the Wheel turns again. Lammas takes place before the kids have to go back to school, so take advantage of it and use it as a teaching tool.

Decorate your altar and your home with symbols of the early harvest, such as apples, grapes, grain and berries. Honeybees are busiest at this time of year, so if you have a hive in your yard, encourage the kids to watch the activity from a safe distance!

Celebrate Lammas with games, in honor of Lugh, the skilled craftsman. There’s no better way to break up a hot summer than setting up a picnic with some backyard volleyball, Frisbee tosses, a game of freeze-tag, or a family tug-of-war. Invite friends, and award silly prizes to the winners. If August is really hot in your area, cool things down with a big water-balloon fight.

Lammas is a good time to look ahead, rather than worrying about the past, so invite everyone to share their goals for the upcoming year. Even small children can participate �?this could be the year that your son learns to tie his shoes all by himself!

Prepare a harvest feast, and get your kids in the kitchen. Hand them chunks of bread dough, and let them make little loaf-men for your celebration. Roast some corn on the cob, and save the husks to make corn dollies with later on.

Putting it all Together

I always tell people that one of the best things about being Pagan is that I get to celebrate a holiday every six weeks. Besides those eight Sabbats, though, I try to incorporate my beliefs into my day to day activities with my family. Even if it’s something as small as taking my kids outside to dance in the moonlight, or keeping a clean space on my kitchen counter for ritual tools, or digging in the garden and appreciating the smell of fresh herbs�?all of those are simple things that bring me closer to my spirituality. By sharing them with my children, I can help them to learn, simply by observing, what it is that I value and believe.

How do you teach your kids about being Pagan? It’s simple �?just allow them to watch you, and they will learn by your example. Keep your spiritual path �?whatever it may be �?as a part of your everyday life, and soon it will be second nature for your children.

And if you’re really lucky, not only will they learn from you, but you will learn from them as well. Use your spirituality as a background for encouraging your kids that they can believe in magic, in faeries, in dragons and all the other things that people will try to say do not exist. If they believe that they can fly, they will be fearless when the time comes to spread their wings.