Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tues. Dec. 4, 2012

Wanning Gibbeous Moon
Day 26
Foothill Park- the dock and the Island

All were here and Alice got to meet Taz and Taz got to meet Jill.  It was another happy day though there were some sad moments with falls and bumps.   I had the cans already to go to be hammered with holes so that the glimmering lights can eventually shine out of their lanterns after we make the candles at our end of the year/2012,  party.   When we got to Foothill Park I was looking for just the right place to do this where they would not have to sit on wet ground all day and have hard enough ground to hammer. The Dock, came to mind and so we parked the bus, got out and set up camp right on the beautiful dock at the big lake there.   The children were delighted to be at this place.
We had circle with a story about how Robin got It’s Red Breast. Jill brought out some of the books from the bus showing what a Robin looks like and we got to hear it’s song as well from on of the books. We never did see one though all day.  What we did see were a lot of Coots!/water birds, and some Mallards.  Many of the coots kept coming very close with great curiousity checking on the children.  This group is quite special as I have not had a group for quite some time that the animals will come up so close to.  After circle and snack they flew off to play and Jill and I got all the lantern making things out.  They were encouraged to work with partners but most, even Kaden and Taz, chose to hammer on their own.  We helped them all though. They all had varying degrees of proficiency and Miu takes the prize for the most dedicated, determined and having the most fun.  She and Jill worked together and she made the most hole. She worked at this for a very long time!  She REALLY wanted a lot of holes for the light to shine through.  Paul was the most skilled and he said that he hammers at home a lot and he made one of these last year.   Gieselle was quite a surprise to me as she just went for it and got holes all by herself and, was delighted with doing it!  Emme and Alice worked for a bit but then they got tired and wanted to play.   Evan had a bit of an off day today.  He, no matter the help, kept hitting his fingers and much later he wound up throwing up.  He was rough housing quite a bit with Paul and it seemed like that was what brought the vomitting on because he never once showed any signs of being sick other then being a bit out of sorts.  So, I hope he is well and that it was just from all the rough and tumble.  However, he got quite a few holes in his can.Taz loved hammering yet he was not the sort to really hit the nail to the degree it needed so we did it together and this was fun.  The same with Kaden though Kaden lost interest much earlier on.  And Aoife, she just stuck to it and when I helped her, WOW she is quite strong as she just hit that nail with quite the force!
Kaden, Taz, Evan, Emme and Alice all had quite the time in the water, particularly Evan.  They all took off their shoes, rolled up their pants and went a little ways in playing with the water.  Emme and Alice were princesses and they put the water plants on their heads for grand headdresses.  Miu rolled up her pants and waded in with her boots.  Later on it turned out that she had taken her socks off and stuffed them in her boots.  When she went to empty the water out of her boots she could only find one sock and was beside her self with sadness over this.  I called in everyone: princesses, super power people, those with Eagle eyes and mice eyes, to help us find her sock.  As she cried with dissappointment over losing her sock she finally released the desire for it and said that it was ok.  And then, SHE FOUND IT!!!!!!!  We all gave great cheers of happiness for her find.
We wound up taking about a 45 minute wandering adventure that led us to the Island.  There we had grand games of hide and go seek and then needed to make our way back.   This was truly fun and many figured out how to climb up and down these hills to get to where we were going. And oh yes, on our journey to the Island we found the “wibbley wobbley” dock.  It is the dock where the canoes and row boats launch from during the summer. If you rock them they rock therefore, “wibbley wobbley!!!”
I also gathered some Toyon Berries for tea  and Aoife and I pulled them off the stems and then I showed all the other children what the leaves look like and we all tasted them.
Aoife wound up falling on her lip and cutting it but luckily we had some ice to soothe it. This really hurt for a time but the ice seemed to aid it a bit.   Emme fell a couple of times and cut her hand and she used the lake water to soothe it. She decided that running on the rocks was not as safe as she would like.  I suggested that she probably still could run on the rocks but with a different style that would help her avoid slipping .   All the children were running across the street at the end of the day unsafely so they all got called back and we practiced how to be safe.  For a time they will wait for one of us Adults to check with them so they can make sure their radiant selves stay whole, safe and sound.