Marin Tender Tracks Tues. Feb. 2, 2016 Day 35

Waning Moon
Roy’s Redwood

Aaron was home sick today and IONE was back!  We were all happy about that and she seemed bouncy, and happy as well.   There was still a little cough yet she was back with her joyous laugh and warm smile.
It was raining just a little bit in the morning with dark clouds but by days end the sky was mostly blue with white puffy and friendly clouds.
As soon as we got there we were greeted by Michelle and her two wonderful children.  Your children though had been touched by a Statue Fairy that rendered them as statues. When Michelle came in SURPISE!!   they were stautes that just wound up popping back into being their beautiful selves!  teeheee!
Then out the bus they ran and scattered to discover our area, what they had built before, what was standing still and what no longer was.  I did share with them about staying dry the first part of the day. Most were able to do so but some got their feet a bit wet.   Not so much though.  Alara kind of fell a bit in the water so we had a quick upper body changing party and all was right again.
At circle time we had a beautiful celebration as this day was Imoblc/ Bridgets day/ Groundhog day/ Mid Winter. It is the time when we are given hope that the cold winter and short dark days will be leaving and the Light will begin to return to us again.  We sang new Feb. songs, heard a very long story and had a special kind of fire in our miniature cauldron.  The flames burned brightly as the tale was told and wishes for our hopes and dreams were suggested to be thought of and nourished in their hearts. They all gave some of them into the fire before it fully burnt out.  They were in rapt attention by the tale and they new some of it from the Months of the year, Seasons of the year and days of the week song we have been singing for a month.
A game I have wanted to introduce for several weeks now finally was ready to be offered.  Michelle, her children and all the Tender Trackers went back to the BEST bouncy tree and had such a good, good time with Michelle being the Bouncer! of the tree while I camoflauged little man made items along a trail, of sorts.  Then one by one they went with me to see if their eyes could see the seen yet not so easily seen treasures.  This is just the beginning of developing their keen sense of observation skills.  Some saw 4 out of 9 items, some saw 5, 6 and others saw all 9. Some of them came back to find them all and most of them did.
From there we  packed up after Michelle had them on many a fun exploration  as well as building in the creek, to find the bouncy tree and eat lunch.  They all went ahead accept Alara, Velia, Layton and I. The girls were wandering at a peaceful pace.  Alara and Velia were telling which plants Layton could touch that would be safe and how some plants are not and could really be bad for you. Layton got very scared and it took awhile to sort out that the girls were just trying to help her and not scare her.  From there we just wound up noticing so many BEAUTIFUL mushrooms and other forest floor treasures.   We really took quite awhile so that by the time we got to the others they had begun eating and asked “Where were you?”  We sat down and we all sang our thank you song and ate our lunch.  Michelle read a beautiful, beautiful story that turned out to be about wishes and I read a story that was about children named Sunday, Monday Tues, Wed…..  It was a day for stories for sure. Then after that they played on the bouncy tree, saw Michelle’s children climb high high and the children laughed with delight over their skill.   Rhett LOVED playing with Michelle’s son and her daughter loved helping the girls out with going to the bathroom and helping them climb over things or hard spots.
Ione and Layton were having a great time climbing on the tree that Michelle’s son was climbing. Velia, Michelles son, me, and Ariel used a stick to play Jack Be Nimble Jack be quick Jack jump over the candle stick.  Talay was FULL of big physical energy and was running and literally being a little goat bumping into people with “my big strength” she proclaimed.   After a while Michelle, her children, Rhett and Ione went on an adventure where they found so many beautiful shelters.  I am thinking maybe the students from last week that visited there built them.  The rest of us played musical freeze game with my flutes.
It was another involved, active, creative day and as we were leaving we came upon an amazing bird kill. There were so many feathers that we looked and looked and looked at with so many questions of how it all got there, what colors were on the feathers, which feathers would go where on a birds body and so many, many more probing questions.