Palo Alto Tender Tracks Day 7, Oct. 4, 2011

Waxing Quarter Moon
Rancho San Antonio

What a beautiful, joyful and delightful day.   We began the day with gathering Acorns in a sweet metal bucket. The children gathered a great many and then we went to circle. And who snuck up on us? Caroline, her Mom, Lucy, Anjalie and Alexi!  What a surprise to see them sitting at circle when we thought they just hadn’t arrived yet!

At circle I taught the children all new songs, except our Directional song, ( please check the Song and Story of the month for the songs) for our very fun month of October.  Giulio announced, with joy, that his birthday is in October and so is Audrey’s.  Bodi had lot’s to share about his brothers and some other stories.  There were great bugs and things that were found during circle as well as watching the great Black Squirrels that live and romp all around us.  Jasper had found something and when I said to just walk around and share it with everyone he really liked that.  Earlier in the circle he was sharing something and was cut off and really was upset about that.  When I got things quiet and asked him to share he was really upset because what he wanted to share was already said!!!!  Quite a developed place for a child to be with that kind of self awareness, really.
His deep upset from last week was aided, helped and supported by Amity and he found his way thru the days never ending supply of possible frustrating moments for any given child.

The entire day was filled with a lot of laughing and discovering.

The story this week was about How Music Came to the Earth.  Some themes of the story were:  Sometimes we get mad at our friends and we can still be friends and still like them.  Most things are here to be shared and not taken just for ourselves and there are great and wonderful Guardians of the Sky and the Wind.  The story supported being aware of how we can make music and that all beings, things and creatures make music, we just have to listen in order to hear it.  There was a part in the story that talked about a Maize that one of the characters had to go thru and, what they don’t know, is that, if it is still there this year, we will go thru a maize at Arden Wood Historic Park in Fremont soon.

When we got to Rancho San Antonio I made a map on the ground and gave them “story lines”, land marks with fun names, to find.  They did and then the children wound up choosing to go back to an old familiar spot where they spent the entire day playing, exploring and having such a good time.

There were fairy houses and gardens made, walking in the creek, finding rocks to paint with, playing in the Bay Grove like a house, finding the most beautiful moth, and holes in the meadow and playing with my hair and making weird hairdoos and….well it all went on and on and, as I have already said, there was a lot of laughing, making jokes and having fun.

When we were all putting our things away Alexi had some shorts in his hand and said, “There is no room to put this in my back pack.”  And I said, in somewhat of a serious, yet playful way “oh well then you , you will have to, PUT IT ON YOUR HEAD FOR A HAT!!!”  He laughed and laughed and put it on his head and then we ALL laughed!  He looked great!

On the way home Bodi, Anjalie and almost Lucy feel asleep.