Marin Tender Tracks Tues. Oct. 13, 2015 Day 9

New Moon
Roy’s Redwoods

What a great choice to go here today as our days are still so very, very HOT!  Yet under the great loving and protecting arms of these beautiful Redwoods we were kept cool our entire time together.
And, what a great time together we had!   Everyone was in fine and warm unity spirits together and filled with joy. It is clear that our time together is truly settling in and we have adjusted. Well, I think Xander needs a little more time yet he is also settling in though I can see that he is just a few weeks back from the way the rest of the children were a few weeks ago and soon he will be in the full swing of it all.
They just love Roys Redwoods and Xander said he already knew this place. However, was shown many of the  loved “homes” that the children play in and that was a new adventure for him.
We finally got together for snack and circle and what slow and beautiful fun that was.  The snack had three parts to it so while Michelle was gracefully putting that together and passing it all  out I was playing musical games and such with them.
The story today had a turtle shell and goat horn that I used to play and they were invited to clap during parts of the story. I told this one today because on the ride there I had asked if anyone needed anything while we drive. Maybe some were sad, mad, glad, scarred or….. A couple of kids said they were afraid so I then knew that this story as opposed to another one that I was going to tell was the one. It is a sweet story about a turtle that gets bumped on the head and decides that he will NEVER stick his head out again, and he doesn”t until he realizes that he really needs to eat and THAT keeping his head in ALL the time would not be a wise thing to do. He finally sticks his head out to eat and decided that  sometimes he will keep his head in and sometimes he will stick it out.
We found ourselves later in the day  playing with sticks and making drums of sorts. I taught them a song, a rather hard song at first, that I heard several of them singing throughout the day. They are so lovely in this way.
They clearly wanted and needed to explore and roam so we never left our one spot. Rhett had been really wanting to explore a place up the hill so he and Layton went off to that and the others followed. This then lead them down to a GREAT!!!! stretched out Bay tree trunk where the children were challenged with climbing over it to the end where Michelle then gave everyone a great bouncy ride.  Velia and Ariel really worked their edges with balancing and climbing on this.  Aaron was like a monkey as well as Xander and the other children climbed all over it with glee. Michelle saw a chipmunk and then I did. The children ran over to try to catch it. I referenced one of our earlier stories about if we sit still long enough the animals will feel safe and come back and we can see them better.  At first all the children were sitting on this bay log being very still, accept Xander who wanted to make some sounds. But he did get very quiet yet, NO CHIMPMUNK.  About half got tired of waiting so they went off to play but Alara, Talay and Ione turned into trees ( I put tree duff on them)  and they sat still for a very long time. Michelle came over after awhile and was still with them and then, next thing I knew, Alara came over and told me that,THEY SAW THE CHIPMUNK!!!!!  While all of that was going on, Aaron was REALLY having a good time hitting a stick I was holding with all his might over and over again. He wanted me to let the stick fly when he hit mine because, ‘He is so very strong!!!’
We finally came into our circle for lunch and had a beautiful time seeing what we all had and we finally put out the Sharing cloth. There the children put food on it they want to share.  This was a big hit, especially for Rhett as he put his left over food out. It got gobbled up! ( crackers and some sweet and sour pickles)
Then came the continuing to sew the tinder bundle pouches, choose buttons from the button jar and begin braiding their shoulder straps and putting their good wishes into the braiding.
Back and forth and back and forth the children each came as they sewed then played, sewed then played.
The day was just absolutely delightful!