Marin Tender Tracks Thurs. Sept. 24, 2015 Day 4

Waxing Moon
Deer Park

Our initial intention was to go to Lake Lagunitas, or right before it where the lake spreads out far and there is a small beach of sorts.  However, Michelle got to Deer Park early and noticed that the acorns had just fallen from some of the Oak trees.  Well, when they fall you just have to stop what you are doing and gather so, we had circle at the place that the Back to School Picnic was, played there for a bit and then made our way to a place that Rhett knows, loves, and wanted to go to and was right near another Oak Tree, Coast live Oak to be exact.

Earlier we gathered a lot of acorns, oak galls and acorn caps. Then at this new place we gathered some of these kinds of acorns that had stripes where as the others were dark brown. Know what kind the dark brown ones were?

The children then had such a GRAND time playing and eating up at the tree house.  They found a lot of small pieces of glass that we picked up and put in the Earth bag,or rather my pocket until we got to the bottom where the earth bag was.  Rhett helped Ione climb up, down and around in order to swing on the swing there.  While they were doing that the rest of the children played with the ocarina/flute I have just for them and I created many ,many stories for them while they, in turn played music to the stories. Aaron really wanted really scary stories, particularly about Monsters but alas, mine were not as scary as they wanted. I even told a rendidtion of the three little pigs that left us all with smiles and ready to adventure on.
I have been wanting to take the children on a bit of a challenging adventure to a beautiful spot not far from the parking lot yet has a feeling of being far away and in a wonder land.  The walk on skinny paths and over many parts of the dry creek bed was a challenge for some and an absolute joy and or ease for others.  When we got there it was indeed a magic wonder land as there were already outdoor primitive structures in place and more Redwood Circles that seemed to be made for resting in and taking in the beauty of life.  Rhett, Ariel, Velia , Talay and I became cats and climbed up and down the large logs, the others played in the house and then made maps and drew stories of the day while also eating and sharing food.  A kerskufful took place so we called a “gathering of the village” where we heard suggestions and thoughts as to what to do, how to help and making agreements.  This all happened with, what seems now to be becoming the way we end our circles like these; holding pinkies( the pinky finger in Chinese medicine is said to connect to the heart) connecting ourselves together with a unified agreement.  And so we did this and then we needed to pack up and make our way back to the bus.   This time however we took a different trail that was far wider and a bit easier. The children all played games coming down.  We discovered how hot the day really was as we were protected by the trees throughout our day.
Due to not going on the bus the day was full and flowing from beginning to end.
There is much growth, emotionally and physically with them all as we have passed day 4.  We are no longer in the beginning but we are IN the Tender Tracks world and learning about each other, the Earth and  Sky.
The story today was called Earth Namer a Maidu tale by Margery Ernstein and Janet Korbin’s which was based on a condensed version of the original native tale.
This story introduced finding the names of things by observing them and drawing what you see and creating names for them.  The children took to this immediately and wanted to draw in our Tender Tracks Journal straight away as they took it on their explorations.
Writing what we have seen during the day started on day two and has now expanded.