Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tues. Oct. 29, 2013 Day 17

Waning Moon
Foothills Park: The Island

A cold, cool, dark skied, warming, changing Fall day.
Jill has been bringing in some wonderful books to read on the bus and they have soaked them in, well all but Liam who wonders why she keeps reading stories. I think Zara likes it the most or rather she is the most vocal and interactive with the tales and the rest just say that they want to hear.  When we got to Foothills Park Cole, Liam and Zac jumped out of the bus and ran up the hill in front of us just because they wanted to goooooooo.  I gave them a cap as to how far they could go and they plopped down way up the side of a hill and began to play.  Serena and I down below began checking out the Toyon Berry tree and the rest went to the bathroom with Jill.
All but the boys on the hill came to circle.  The rest of us began to play with the Maple tree’s whirly swirly seeds that have wings!
Then we sat down for circle but oh yes, first we sang our directional song.   The boys were more up for playing and they had a choice to join the circle with snack or go play. They chose circle. The rest of our songs were sung, snack was eaten and then a story about Peter and a Pumpkin that he made into a house for his wife.
We took them on a long journey to get to the Island.  Cole, Liam and Zac found great big sticks to play with and there was some discussion about how to walk with and how to use them.  They all agreed to this and off we went up a trail.  Along the way as we looked down we could see the water and the pond and the dock that once we had played on and put our feet in the water.  The trail kept meandering and then around and down and they had to find their way to the Island along this unknown path.  With some noticing, remembering and figuring out they finally figured out how to get to the Island.  They found the right trail and off we went to see if we really were on the right track.  Sure enough, they found the water, went on to the Island and happy we were.
Zac, Liam and Cole were really into getting wet and each in their own way wound up doing that. Zac really got wet so Jill walked back to the bus with him to get him some warm clothes.  They went the short way back.  While they were gone Julian needed to poop so he, I and Juliet went to go do that.  As soon as we went off the rest of them all got together and ran off to play Hide and Go seek.  They counted and counted with each other and finally some did the running away part while the others did the finding.  They all created great games on the hiding rocks there and had their usual families.
During lunch I pulled out my walking map maker book.   Juliet, Julian, Ridham and Zara all made maps and told me what to write with each drawing they made.    The children also found wondeful Toyon berries to play with and they had fun watching the Coots swiming on the water.  Liam feel in the water, I was told, and got his pants wet so Jill and he went to go get changed just there on the Island. He had extra clothes with him.   Cole decided to just step into the water so only got his feet and a part of his pants wet, so we changed his pants.  Jill was doing all the clothes changing today!
The Sun finally started to peek out by days end and give some warmth.
I read a Halloween story that I forgot that I had in my pack all month and Serena and Juliet wanted to hear it over and over.  The other children would come in and out and listen.
Cole and Julian found a great worm that they loved to play with and wanted to take it home but, we did need to leave it in it’s homeland so Julian made sure that happened.   Zac saw some great Deers and Bucks while coming back from getting changed.  Ridham had a fine time fishing with a wonderful fishing pole he found/made.   Eden did extremely well today considering Zara only wanted to play with Juliet.  They made some friendly agreements and she knew that she was going to play with her afterschool so, in Eden’s typical kind hearted and easy going way, she moved on and Serena asked if she wanted to play with her. So the two of them did that.
A sweet, Fall day.