Marin Tender Tracks Tues. May 19, 2015 Day 63

Day after new Moon
Roys Redwood

Cool but not hot, not too soft and not too hard, playing in childcentered way, finding the treasures in each moment, being excited with all that is presented….that was the jist of the day.
Roy’s Redwoods where the “cathedral” Redwood grove is is one of the most perfect “school rooms” and play yard nature can provide.  It has a great bouncy swing that they go back and forth too, many play houses to play with, materials to build with, throw with, draw with, plants to gather and explore, animals to try and catch and pet/lizards, areas that are sunny and areas that are cold and contained and on and on.  Truly what better school house could there be?!
Watching them play with all that is offered to them there is such a joy to watch as they unfold.  They went straight back to the “eggs” that they laid and were caring for last week and back to the houses they were building and creating.   When we got there our circle area was just the way they left it and they came right into circle.  Michelle was mostly leading it today with a snack she brought and a story that she read and I led the songs and lit the candle.  It was a joy to do this together.  My appreciation for Michelle is grand.
Today we wanted to make pillows so we brought everything down to do so and what happened is that they actually wanted “treasure pouches.”  So, that is what we sewed. They found sticks that I could saw in order to make buttons out of and Michelle and I sewed their pouches.  Enzo loved his pouch so much that not only did he not let go of it for two hours but he  somehow the button dissappeared!
There was a lot of climbing on the trees and Julian wound up falling down from a high place and landing just right. He liked it so much that he wanted to do it again and Theron did to. Enzo followed, Thea too.   And there was A LOT  of eating going on straight away.  The last two weeks they have been chowing down to where we don’t have enough snack and neither do they have enough lunch in their lunch boxes!
Lately by 12:30 there is a decline in comfortable co playing and a story seems to be just the thing to settle them down, come in and then be ready to move out again. So, that is what happened again today.  I read them a book that Michelle brought while she was off we a few of the children.  I love watching how one by one they come on in to hear as their interest gets piqued.
After the story and by the end of the day most were finding and trying to catch Lizards with Michelle on a log that was out in the sun. Theron, Julian and Nico were working on pushing a log all the way from the Redwood grove out to the field in order to see if they could make a bridge from one part of the Lizard log to another. Thea, Velia, Hana and Ariel were having a glorious time gathering flowers and at snack time we drank yerba buena tea from the Yerba Buena that they all harvested right there last week!
It was truly a very fun day and engaged day.