Tender Tracks Wed. Day 33

May 26, 2019
Waning Moon
Lake Lagunitas

All were here and it is was SUCH a beautiful last regular day.  On this day we celebrated ALL of their birthdays. And, it actually was Nelly’s REAL birthday as well as her very last day with us.

When we got to the lakes they were, as always, happy, explorative, ready for anything.  And, they just went right into their favorite places, finding the fish in the creek, going into their favorite tree, and finally coming into circle in our sunny spot atop the hill.  There, with great patience one for the other, they stayed in a rather long circle time with a short birthday story for all and waited as each one received their own special Tender Tracks Birthday gift.

After all of this absolute fun and joy one to the other off we went to walk to a favorite spot, the climbing tree that goes into the lake.

This is going to be an EXTREMELY SHORT journal with this to say:

climbing, helping each other, getting as close as we could to turtles, BIG turtles, Woodpeckers busy above us, Fairy ponds, playing by the water, playing with each other, joy, laughter, WARM day, and end of the day great gratitudes.

A perfect day for them all; celebration and unified fun.

Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL for SUCH a G L O R I O U S year!  It could not have been better.  We have enjoyed you all so very much. Thank you for your support of this work, for tending so well to your children as they came to the many adventures of rain, rain, and then a bit more rain, sun, water and  mud.

We will miss them so much next year and hope that they are in a most wondrous and nature supportive environments during their 4th year of life.

 

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Tender Tracks Tues. Day 65

May 28, 2018
Waning Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Everyone was here and in fine spirits. There was more unity on this day than ever before. Though, the boys, at the end of the day made it clear that they did NOT play with the girls because the girls, well, I don’t recall the exact word but, basically, boys are better.  And, again, no matter what they shared, they all played with each other on and off throughout the day with delight. 🙂
However, the girls had a grand time, all three of them, together, and the boys did indeed love being with their own gender. Which, is so very appropriate at this developmental stage.
When I asked Eamon if he liked his little sister he said “Of course! She’s my sister!” another 🙂 from me.

When he said this I was reminded of an 11 year old girl I had in a girls group that I ran for three years.  All the girls had younger brothers that they all thought were QUITE annoying.  One day this one girl made it clear that boys are just so DUMB, ANNOYING et al…. When I asked her what she thought about her Mom loving her day she stated, quite confidently, “Well, she just forgot! ( how dumb and annoying they are.)”  I am chuckling.  Yes,  puberty sets in and then, oh dear, things do begin to shift, like it or not  🙂

The day was filled with such life all around us.  Eamon, after circle, really wanted to find a worm.  There were so many birds, dragon flies, and, this was the most amazing, LOT’S of trout right in the small part of the creek under the waterfall!  I have NEVER seen this before. This is the time of the year when all the bull frog tad poles are swarming this area.  Didn’t see any of those but there were so many trout, large trout, swimming around and, the water fall was flowing stronger.

The boys came filled with a great deal of energy of exploration, intrigue and movement.  When we got to the lakes and sent them on a task: take one bucket each and clean it out with the creek water. Then, find some liken and moss and use that to clean out all the dirt that was in them and then see if you can catch a fish.  Well, they were REALLY gung ho on this and went for it! Washing with the moss was truly a favorite of theirs.  Seeing how it could clean off the dirt so well brought smiles to their faces and enthusiasm to the cleaning.

While the boys were doing that the girls were up above, I think around the fairy tree but I wasn’t there.  Eamon called me over to help with something at the Water fall. We discovered that we could barely hear each other even when we were close because the water was soooo loud.  He was frustrated that we couldn’t just get rid of the water fall.  Josie and Luna came down to me and wanted me to be the “Monster Baby Mom” again, and play that game like we did last week. So, it commenced. Theo was a Ninja who wanted to eat us but of course, Monster Babies LOVE to eat Ninja’s.  Theo likes to chase better than being chased! 🙂

We went to circle then packed up and made our way to one of their favorite spots but first, the girls were really into climbing the tall Redwood tree and became monkeys and Bats hanging upside down and swinging from branch to branch.

As we were working towards going up the hill it took a long time as the children kept, beautifully, finding many many wonders all along the way.  It was fun and funny.  When we finally got to our spot what did I find but very large turtles on the fallen down tree that lays in the lake and encouraged them all to come see.

Throughout the day there was a challenge to see who might be able to get close enough to touch the turtles.  Mainly Theo and Ruby were interested.  Theo I don’t think really put together that talking loudly encourages the turtles to plop off of  the log and going slow does the opposite.

The boys had a GRAND time throwing the wonderful rocks found at the back side of the fallen down tree and “cleaning it up” they said.  The girls made beautiful “offerings” to the fairies that were ever, ever so beautiful .  And, I believe it was Josie that found a little fury caterpillar. Everyone came over to explore that for a bit.

The walk home was filled with children turning into rocks and having a song sung to them to wake them up as well as hiding behind trees and being found.

A picture of the day was drawn along with gratitudes.

A fun and beautiful WARM!!! day.

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Tender Tracks Friday: Day 32

May 24, 2019
Waning Moon
Lake Lagunitas

 

The day started out cloudy and we headed to the usually sunny meadow to begin our play. Siena, Charlie, Violet and Margot found a newt and made sure to get their hands extra dirty to hold it, so it would feel most comfortable. They shared their find with Blake, Miles and Rohan, too. Soon they were building a little home out of sticks and leaves for the newt.

At snack we remembered all our favorite songs and sang them together. We remembered all the way back to some of our favorite fall and Halloween pumpkin songs, some more recent bug songs, our favorite chickadee-dee-dee song and, of course, Dirt Made My Lunch. Ruby told us the story of How Snake Came To Be and we got a special surprise during our circle as Ms. Krempetz came to visit! She brought her sweet dog, Zephyr, and we learned that his name means ‘gentle breeze’ and he really was a kind and gentle dog.

The children were very excited to show Ms. Krempetz and Zephyr all of their favorite spots in the forest and creek. They showed her how they crawl across the logs to get to the far side of the creek, and shimmied up the tilted trees on the other side. Charlie made rock paint and painter her own face, as well as Ms. Krempetz’s face! They even got a chance to walk Zephyr with his leash a bit and give their teacher a tour of Juniper Rose! It was such a fun treat to have her with us and share our ‘classroom’ as the whole RVNS crew were so welcoming when Ruby and I recently visited.

Our big puddle has returned with the recent rains and Miles went to put his rain boots on so he could splash with Blake and Charlie in the muddy water. Many sticks were thrown in for big splashes and delight. The sun was out by mid-morning and any muddy dampness was quickly dry.

Margot had left her fleece on the other side of the creek, so I went with her to retrieve it before lunch and we got to see Cormorant come to the pool near the waterfall. It flew upstream and paddled on the surface of the water before ducking and diving and swimming underwater to catch the fish hiding there! We watched the fish swim away and try to camouflage with the rocks, like a tag game we like to play. Cormorant caught a fish and soon swam and flew away, just as our friends were running over to invite us for lunch. Margot and I came to the lunch circle with stories of Cormorant and the Fish.

At lunch we played ‘I Spy’ and after lunch all the children were engaged with Royal Family play. Blake and I found a sneaky Banana Slug, which turned out to be his gratitude later when we shared.

Blake, Miles, Rohan and Charlie all worked on whittling their Weather Sticks with me and Ruby. When they completed their sticks, they then chose a special feather to tie on that will catch the wind and help them to see the changes in the weather.

As our day ended on Juniper Rose, we were grateful for Fish, Banana Slug, story box, Roly Poly, sunshine and blue sky and fun stick play with friends.

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