Plans to Survive the Summer Heat in Phoenix AZ

Stay outside as much as possible in the beautiful months, November, [December, January], February, March, April. Do major garden plans. Try to spend at least 2 hours outside every day. Plan local family hiking trips. Lost Dutchman, Fat Man's pass, Hidden Valley, Pioneer Museum.  Also, do outdoor home improvement and anything that involves curing concrete or climbing up into the attic, e.g. installing lights or fans, in this time.

Pioneer Museum

December and January it is still beautiful, just a little chilly. Be outside in more peak sun hours, near noon just with a hat, and make the kids wear shoes!! Put on a nice warm fleece coat for the colder months, and go outside anyways. The time to dig the earth (when its softer, don't need a pickaxe as much, and can go 3x as fast) is January and February, after the winter rains have softened it up.

By 2nd half of May, and first half of June, the mornings are still really beautiful. Get up at 6am and go outside till 8am. October is like May and June. Chase the sunrise. Get up at 5am or 6am and go out to the garden.

 

2nd half of June, July, August, September...are a cross to be borne. You can try to beat the sun up, but often its a warm tired world even at dawn. 

Sunrise and Sunset times. Sunrise and Sunset times here.

• May 15    5:28am,  7:21pm
  
• June 15    5:18am,  7:39pm
  
• July 15     5:29am,  7:38pm
  
• Aug 15     5:50am,  7:14pm
• Sept 15     6:11am,   6:34pm
  
• Oct 15      6:32am,  5:54pm

 

STRATEGY: 

1. Homeschool. 

1. Kids can't play outside, so may as well get school done. This should be the core of our homeschool, the most intense part of it. Try to cram in 2/3rds of their curriculum here. 
2. Prioritize "Mom's reading time" to the kids, and pick Sonlight-esque historical novels to read to the children, every day. Try to get through at least 6 historical novels with the kiddos every summer. Maybe we can illustrate them too, in their art portfolios.
   
3. Do 3-4 week chunks of intense school and as a reward, go on a weekend camping trip up to Prescott or Mingus Mountain. 

2. OUTSIDE AT TWILIGHTS

Best times are Dawn, and the Golden Hour. Best hour of the morning, (immediately following astronomical sunrise), outside around sunset (40 min before astronomical sunset, and 20 min after). Sunrise and Sunset times here.

 Go outside at the Dawn Hour

• May         5:28-6:30am
  
• June 15    5:18-6:20am
  
• July 15     5:28-6:30am
  
• Aug 15     5:50-7:00am
• Sept 15     6:10-7:15am
  
• Oct 15      6:30-7:30am

Go outside at the Golden Hour.  

• May 15    6:40- 7:40pm
  
• June 15    7:00-8:00pm
  
• July 15     7:00-8:00pm
  
• Aug 15     6:35-7:35pm
• Sept 15     6:00-7:00pm
  
• Oct 15      5:20-6:20pm
  

MUST be inside 8:30 to 4 pm. UV index is high then (even till 5pm in June) Daily UV index here.

 If kids go outside at 4pm, they must drink water first, stay in the shade, and even better if they are splashing eachother with water.

 

3. OUTSIDE WATER TIME

1.  Every Friday, no matter what, get some way to incorporate water into our lives. 
2. GET A WADING POOL and fill it up once a week. Let the kids play in it and then dump it into a tree berm. Make little channels or something. Have a "Family Wet night" and hose everyone down and give them squirtguns, maybe after dinner every Friday or Thursday.
3. Waterfights during the golden hour (40 min before astronomical sunset, and 20 min after)
4. ?In May/June try to see if there are pools and maybe go out to them on the dollar family nights. Aim to go to the pool maybe 6 times before the lightning weather hits.
   

4. Indoor Movement: 

1. Indoor "Gym": This is also the time to focus on HIIT exercises indoors with the kids. And maybe lifting weights, resistence bands, and working toward calisthenics.
   
2. Dance: Put on the music that makes the blood pump, and get the kids to dance. Do the Breath of the Wild Gerudo music with the scarves, Learn Irish music dance, Teach them English Country Dancing with Hobbit Music, Ballet moves.
3. Sword-fighting: get serious about using the sword-fighting textbooks, and teaching them the different positions. 

5. Crafting:

1. Teach the kids how to sew: Elven cloaks, Hobbit Dresses, calico critter clothes
2. Teach the kids how to craft: Headbands, earrings, wirework, metalwork. Make BotW stuff with them.
   
3. Learn leatherwork with the kids. Make cool Ranger Gear for our camping trips!! Make bracers, leather armor, sheaths, straps for carrying things, pouches. Turn old thriftstore purses into cool pouches and beackpacks.
   
4. Book-making: Calligraphy, sewing together folios, bookbinding. We can start with binding our art portfolios. The dream is one day for each kid to make and illustrate their own leatherbound Gospel....
   

6.   Art

1. Teach the kids how to draw. Use the lightboxes, the "Draw 50" series. Illustrate stories. Pick a theme ("Rangers") and have everyone draw a picture, and make a portfolio
2. Each kid have an "Art Portfolio". Pick a theme every week, or illustrate from whatever Sonlight book we are reading.
   
3. Learn how to watercolor with the kids!! (Claudia Nice, and youtube)
   
4. Illustrate the Woodcutter and the Wolf-king
5. Smock everyone up and do Acrylic paint with the kids. Finish those icon sets I wanted to make long ago. 

7. Start the Garden.

1. Start the tomatoes indoors, everything that will go into the ground when the monsoon comes. Set up 2 muligs with LED shop lights in my room.  Wrap in aluminum covered posterboard or windshield reflectors.
   

8. Indoor Home Improvement (that does not involve the attic[!] or setting concrete)

1. Painting
2. Plumbing
3. Flooring
   
4. ?scraping popcorn ceilings?
5. ?some LED lighting, from the inside?
6. Updating Bathrooms

Home improvement with toddlers

Recap:

Beautiful Months

• November
  
  • December (with ranger coat and boots, shoes, cloaks, coats)
  • January 
• February 
• March (start the hot veggies) [Kids wear hats]
  
• April (pick grandparents citrus) [Kids wear hats]

Chase the Sunrise (Best hour immediately following astronomical sunrise), outside around sunset (Best hour, 40 min before astronomical sunset, and 20 min after)

•  May

Survive, School, and do Indoor things, start from seed indoors.

• June
• July
• August (harvest olives at the park)
• Sept (finish olive harvest at the park)
  

Chase the Sunrise , outside at sunset 

• October [Kids wear hats!]
  

 

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Note on UV indexes:

These actually matter. White people aren't used to high UV indexes. They come from the Northern Lands, on a pole of our planet, where the sun is dimmed by the tilt of the earth. Their dna is exposed in semi-translucent skin, to the dimmer pole-sun. Their skin does not contain the armor of melanin, that shields their dna, against our Star's radiation in the more equatorial lattitudes.

e.g. in London in late April the UV index maxes out at a 3.  In Phoenix on the same day, its a 9. Being closer to the equator makes a huge difference. Then throw in the never-ending blue sky, and even compared to Dallas TX, we have no "off" days where cloud cover keeps the UV to a 3. Its unrelenting sun all the time. In June and July, Phoenix tops out at 11/12.

Roughly, equinoxes are March 20th and Sept 20th. Solstices are June 20th and Dec 20th. So from a UV exposure perspective, the danger zone is April through September. 

Since the kids are inside from 8 to 4 June through September (too hot to be in the sunlight), the "danger zone" is really March & April, October. This is when it feels nice and cool, but the UV index is still very high (compared to the Northern lattitudes to which their ancestors grew up.) So they aren't programmed to avoid sunlight at these nice temperatures, even though the UV index is frying their dna through their translucent northern skin. This is when insisting on hats is very important.

Chart when UV index hits 3, and comes down from 3

	hits 3	down to 3
April	8:15	4:15
May	8:15	4:45
June	8:15	5:00
July	8:15	4:40
August	8:15	4:40
September	8:30	3:45
October	9:30	2:45
November	10:15	1:45
December	10:30	1:30
Jan	10:30	3:30
Feb	9:45	3:45
March	9:15	3:45

Full chart, including when it hits 4

			hits 3 hits 4 down to 4 down to 3 April 8:15 9:00 3:45 4:15 May 8:15 8:45 4:15 4:45 June 8:15 9:00 4:30 5:00 July 8:15 9:00 4:15 4:40 August 8:15 9:00 4:00 4:40 September 8:30 9:00 3:00 3:45 October 9:30 10:15 2:15 2:45 November 10:15     1:45 December 10:30     1:30 Jan 10:30     3:30 Feb 9:45 10:30 3:00 3:45 March 9:15 10:00 3:15 3:45