Marin Tender Tracks Tuesday Jan.27, 2015 Day 35

Waxing First Quarter Moon
Lake Lagunitas

All were here today.  The sky was gray and we wondered if it was going to rain.  Ariel was completely ready with boots, pants and coat and she took full advantage of this during the day as she let herself get immersed in the water we found.  However, she did discover that by immersing herself A LOT in the water it still crept into her boots. There was  no ability to change until she returned back to Deer park where her clothes bag was.  She handled this with grace and continued to play in spite of the wetness she described. The other children became very aware of the choices they were making around how much to get wet or not.  Some thought their shoes were far more water resistant then they really were. Much learning going on here today with regard to regulating their play to meet their physical desires. Phew!
Today I changed things a little bit, we did not have circle when we arrived but rather received one of their favorite snacks to take with us, graham crackers, as we walked all the way to one of our favorite places to be for the day.  They always have a lot of energy first thing in the morning so it was  quite a good walk giving them lot’s of time and room to run and get tired out.  When we found our way to our spot they ran to their familiar places and after satiating themselves here,  on their own, they gathered for circle ready to sing and hear the story for the day.   Well, all accept Enzo, Jai and Theron.  Jai came in after awhile looking for snack, Theron came in because? and Enzo after loosing his play buddies came in as well.

I prefer this style at this age, whenever possible, in order to give them opportunities to have a sense of control over their choices and to have freedom to create and be in their organic flow.  It is nice, for all of us, not to have that interrupted unless necessary.
The story today was created and made for three main reasons: Become more aware of mice and how they see the world and where they live and play, listening more deeply to hear the voices of not only nature sounds but to gain more awareness of even the sound of our friends voices even when they make their voices different and to find comforting ways to tend to ones fears.  The song was: Little Tommy Tittle Mouse lived in a little house, someones knocking me oh my, someones knocking… (other person) It is I! One person sits with their head down in grownups lap. They sing the song as they are Tommy Tittle Mouse and then grownup points to someone to make a sound like a roaring lion, a bird or …… The child in the lap then guesses who is making that sound.   This was very funny because they really are mostly still at the age where they want to shout out who was making the sound.  This is just like when you play hide and go seek and they yell where they are.  Most of these games are what I call “seed games.”  Meaning, planting seeds of thoughts and ideas and then just playing.  As they grow older and older  they are more and more able to follow the “rules” of the game with a group.  So, we laughed a lot and will continue the game.  I brought with us these Magic Circles that in the story little Tommy tittle Mouse used to find what he was looking for on the earth.  He was making brooms from many materials he found and along the way using his magick circle he discovered many other wonders on the earth, like plants to eat, moss and much more.
From this tale we spent the day finding materials to make brooms and some of them, used the magick circles to find things.
Enzo, Jai, and Theron mainly made a Store where everyone could get materials for the brooms.
There was much playing family and baby and Velia and Hana continue to have tussels around who is who. The group comes in to help out.  At the very beginning of the day the whole group was brought in to support their challenges.  They were all given opportunities to share who  they wanted to play with and, the most important piece is being asked “When you want to play with ____, will you let them know?”  95+% of the time this works and the children say ok and everyone feels better.  This happened on this day and off we went. The yelling, hitting, crying, and  insisting stopped, everyone was heard, compromising and or shifting games took place and heading off to our destination had begun.
The children really took and LOVED making these brooms and gathering materials all day.
When we got there  they found an abundance of California Newts swimming in the water.  We went to where Velia fell in the water and Ariel “saved” her and noticed the great difference in the water level.
Linsey, Jai and Velia went off to eat and wound up telling lots of stories to each other.  I came passed them and Velia was lying on the ground clearly in the midst of a dramatic telling of some kind of story.  It was impressive. Linsey later was with Jai and Theron telling a supportive tale with regard to good and bad guys, something they get involved in.
Enzo was in delight playing in the store they all made and made it a wonder filled place.  Thea and Nico were helping me out a lot with the brooms and loving that as well as finding new routes around where we were. Hence, due to this, we are coming back on Thursday to discover more of what they found around the time we had to leave.
Theron lost his broom and at the end of the day was VERYYYY sad about that.  We did gather more materials for him and on the way back Linsey was more then happy to finish his new one up and have it for him by the time we came back.
It was a full and rich day.  I look forward to continuing on with all of our discoveries and adventures in this spot.