Marin Tender Tracks Wed. March 9, 2016 Day 22

Waxing Crescent Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Ruby and Eli were absent so just three children and two grownups!
The day was misty, wet, and gray yet magical and filled with fun.  I just new it was time to seize the moment and make a fire. The weather report said it would rain at 11. The entire day only had misty drizzles but nothing of grand significance. It wasn’t really even that cold!
Kai and Isabella went out of the bus with Linda and they went to see the beautiful, beautiful very flowing and white water fall while Kuba helped me get all the fire making things together.
We went straight away to making the fire because I wasn’t sure if it was going to rain or not truly by 11.  And, you might ask, did we have a special reason for making the fire other then it being fun to do?  Well, yes!!  Last week we gathered  beans from the garden we went to. I took them home and  soaked them,cooked them with the wild onions we gathered andthen  brought them this day with corn bread.
We then needed to heat them up.  Making the fire took a while as it was a bit wet outside and the wood, though from  the bus, had some moisture to it. The children went with a bag to gather wood with Linda under the water fall where the wood is basically dry. When they came back I was ready for them.  However, it took about 8 matches to get it going, and I prefer getting a ONCE MATCH FIRE!  A task one of my wilderness teachers would always present.  As a side story: The first time I was able to do this I was in the snow at -6 degrees and all my food frozen.  Yikes and Yeah!!!  I was very motivated!!!
So the fire burned as they began to sing a song I taught them to encourage the fire to come to us.  Once that was going Linda and I put the grate over the fire, she kept the fire going while I covered the pot in soap to avoid burning the bottom. We put the beans in and Kuba was convinced that they would pop and get hard.  When it came time to eat them with corn bread and some cheese, Kai ate them all up, Isabella ate most of them and Kuba didn’t want to taste them at all. So, he did finally lick them and take a teeny weeny bit. He still decided that he did not want to eat them and just went for the corn bread.
They then went to the creek with their bowls , filled them up with water to douse out the fire. But first, giving thanks to the fire, feeling the heat from their hands hovering over it, noticing what colors were showing up in the burnt down fire and then listening to the music that came when the water and fire met.  And then, GET MORE WATER!!!  From there they would pour the water and stir and stir and feel the heat or lack there of.  When there was no more heat the fire was out and safe.
We cleaned up and Kuba really wanted to go under the water fall so, he and I did that while Isabella and Kai went to play hide and go seek with Linda.   Then Linda went under the waterfall and Kai and Isabella did not want to. However, they all wanted to go back up to the top of the water fall and throw things down to see how fast they would go.
We got to the top and Isabella found a GREAT puddle to play in so she and Kai went straight to that and Kuba to exploring throwing things down the water fall.
There were games of playing with the “chocolate milk”( puddles) with Doug Fir Branches spraying everyone with it, finding Filaree and making the seed stalks into “scissors”, making wish packets with Doug Fir cones and tying grasses around them, looking for the turtles and hearing that a turtle was walking across the parking lot and seeing picutures of it and then a good amount of social support for some of the social experiences they were playing with.  Kuba wanted to play by himself or with an adult and Isabella and Kai wanted to just play with each other.  Isabella and Kai were beginning to get unfriendly with Kuba.  There was some beautiful learning that took place with an opportunity to learn that they do not have to play with one another and that they can always change their minds.  There was only one  little caveat, when playing together their kindest of words and ways get to be used.  When they realized that they didn’t have to play with each other if they didn’t want to all went well and by the end of the day it seemed that there was greater ease.
They really, really wanted to get changed out of their clothes at the end of the day though we didn’t think they were that wet. However, it turned out that Kai was a bit more wet then we thought.  He was wearing wool though so he was still warm.
A fun and beautiful day with deep signs that the children are very close to four.  Why do I say this? Because of the social scenarios.