Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tues. May 7, 2013

Day 61
Waxing Crescent Moon
Huddart Park

Kaden and Taz were not with us today.
I am sad that they missed this most fun and wonderful day.  The weather was gray a lot yet the air was fresh with winds coming in now and again with warmth as well as coolness.  Each one of them seemed a bit older then just a week and  a half ago and their group unity is very present.   We made our way to Huddart park and along the way we sang songs of familiar and not familiar to aid our bus ride.
When we got there our original place of destination was thwarted as the road was blocked off due to workers  so, there was a place open that I used to take Tender Trackers all the time but has no longer been available. Into this new place we went and it was wonderful.   As soon as we all got out of the bus we followed the loud worker sounds, as we were not far from our original parking spot, and began to put “clues” together to figure out what the workers were actually doing.   Clue by clue we tracked a lot of information and got a better picture of what was going on. It appeared that they were cutting down dead/almost dead? trees and clearing areas.
Circle time got set up and all came but Paul and Evan who were far more interested in building so, the rest of us/girls, sang our songs, ate our snack and did some circle dances while the boys were near by watching yet so very involved in what was giving them great joy.    The fun part was singing And the Green Grass Grows all Around all around and the Green Grass grows all around,  with hand movements and remembering it all.
From here on out there were many, many things that went on that were all so very, very fun.  I am just going to make a bit of a list here for you.
• Finding more charcoal and grinding it up.  Evan putting it on who ever wanted it.
• Pounding shells
• Taking out my hand drill pump and making holes in many things such as wood, oyster shells and anything else we could find.
• Playing house in the other empty wooden house there.
• Hammering with nails into felled wood
• Sawing wood with my mini saw
• Telling stories
• Being together and working together

This was a very full day of working with a lot of tools and learning about safety with these tools.  They all LOVED this and so did Jill and I.  It was truly such a very fun day with great focus.  All of them kept at it with the hand pump drill and were delighted with the holes that they made.   And hammering, that was a great highlight with the little nails.  It was most fun for me to watch Giselle get so into it.  And,as already said, they all just loved the many different things available to them.  Something I love to share with them when we are able to bring out the tools like this.
Riding back was filled with great stories, songs and fun.