Palo Alto Tender Tracks Day 29, Jan. 12, 2012

Waning Gibbeous Moon
Foothill Park-the big Meadow

Bodie was off doing what a lot of children do this time of year, checking out prospective kindergartens and the rest of the group was here.
It was another glorious, warm, sunshiny and beautiful day. Jackie Frost did visit last night and showed his signs this morning.  Lucy, Alexi and I were looking at the ground before circle time.  I said Jackie Frost was there and Alexi said something like’ No, that isn’t Jackie Frost that is the water condensing with the air.’  Well, he would have very little or nothing at all to do with ice on the ground being Jackie Frost and, that was that.  However, we had a lot of fun, feeling it crunch beneath our feet and noticing where it was and where it wasn’t.

Circle time was fun with our directions and jobs.  There is now a book, if I haven’t mentioned, for the Weather Watcher to draw what he sees for the weather.  Audrey writes down what the child says.  It will be very fun to read this book at the end of the year!
We had a different story today due to some of the conflicts that have been arising.  I brought two little favorite characters of mine, Trilly Truly and Trippy Troupy.  These tongue twister names are great fun to play with in and of themselves but they brought to the children a story about their great friendship and some of the great struggles that they encountered.  The children were invited to share their ideas of how they could solve their troubles and so the story went.  Later in the day when Kashi was struggling with Jasper I brought the story back to him to aid him in finding some resolutions. It seemed to be of support.

Coming to this place is always so much fun.  There is such expanse and room for each child to find their own unique movement and desires.  Near the bathrooms we found Jackie Frost upon the ground because as we walked there was a hard, crunch, crunch, crunch.  We examined it all and looked for the edges of this icy hardness. On the way back we looked to see if any was still there and, much to my surprise, there still was.  There certainly are spots in the shade where it stays very, very cold there.  There was the question of “How come Jackie Frost is here and not over there?”  Lucy brought in the observation of shade vs. sun and the others just ran off into the warm rays of light.    The rest of the day was content with typical play along with three adults helping all the children sew their pillows. All that is accept Giulio who was very clear he did not want to sew a pillow.  I have NEVER finished this project in one day!!! Three adults makes a world of difference.  And, it was so fun to sew with them, each in their own way.  Paul gave up about half way thru yet all gave it their best as they sewed and they stuffed those pillows quite nicely.  Each decided how “fluffy” that did or did not want them too.

I see that this is a short journal yet know that the day was full and so very beautiful with each child filled with their own enthusiasm, exploration, interests, playing together, playing apart and being apart of the natural world.