Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 34

Jan 30, 2017
Day before  New Moon
Labyrinth at the end of Oak Manner Rd. Fairfax

Only four children today: Jesse, Ruby, Kuba and Jake and then, Michelle and I.

The Sun was gloriously showing it’s beautiful face with the promise of warmer and sunny days to come.  The air was fresh, the wind gentle and new adventures were calling to this small group. And with that calling  Michelle and I decided to go to this Labyrinth. We had gone here last year and had such a great deal of fun.  It is a big hike up to it and then you are on top of a  “Mt.” with incredible views in all directions with the Sun beaming down. Just lovely.

When we got there they were excited to jump out and explore. Up, up, up we went. Ruby was not as excited about this big climb. The boys however were FULL of energy and ran up and then down. As they were going down Ruby joined them but, oh no, they had to come back up again!!!!  Yet they seemed to be invigorated by the joy of it all and ran back up but then, “When are we getting to the top?????”  And wouldn’t you know, the top was so very, very close.

When there Michelle and I  went to set up our things and Ruby and Jake found the Labyrinth. They also found the treasures that get placed in the center. They were very excited about this. They came to show us and tell us how they were going to keep their new treasures. But oh dear, don’t you know, these things were put there by people. The people put their hopes and dreams into these treasures and left them there to stay. Ruby and Jake were dedicated to keeping these beauties. However, after Michelle and I did many gentle “massage” strokes to their desire bodies  by the end of the day they were very happy to leave the treasures there as they found many of their own throughout the day.

We had a beautiful circle time singing to the directions and giving our cornmeal offering to each direction. I read them a beautiful story about Nimby a wonderful little cloud that loved to play and create ( just like your children!!).  We would often during the day look up at the clouds and see what beautiful pictures were being created above us.

Michelle and I have been waiting for just the right time to introduce a little tracking and observation game to the children and today was the day.  It seemed perfect due to their desire to have treasures so a treasure game commenced.  This is how it went:

I laid out man made treasures in a camouflage way along a trail marking the beginning and the end.  One by one and in silence they walk along and look for the treasures. They do not point them out or pick them up. When all have walked the trail we then see how many we saw and then go back and see where it was if we didn’t see.  We wound up splitting up into two groups to do this as they all wanted a turn.  I was with Ruby and she said “I love Tender Tracks. This is the BEST game!”  They truly had fun.

Jesse and I were the first ones to set this up for everyone. While we were doing that the others went on an adventure. Jesse and I thought they were camouflaging themselves so we quietly, quietly, quietly, quietly looked all around for them. We didn’t hear anything, we didn’t see anything.  Where were they??????????  After quite a while Michelle comes up the trail followed by three children who got stuck in the mud by, none other then THE MUD MONSTER CHILDREN!!!! Yes the Mud monster children had taken Rubies shoe off and tried to get Kuba ? Jakes? which ever one it was the other saved them with a stick!  They were very delighted with their adventure and Jesse and I had fun practicing being ever so quiet. Jesse said he really knew how to do that and loved it!

After lunch the children got into creating another “performance.”  Michelle and I stayed a bit away as they prepared and prepared and prepared until they were finally ready to call us over.  I am going to attempt to post what I recorded on the FB page so do check it out.
They had such fun doing this with each other!

They found a rock with a Cairn on it and that became the main stage.  Kuba spent the entire time pounding rocks there.  It had to do, I think, with the performance but by the end of the day, I confess, I was still not totally clear about that. 🙂
Ruby and then Jake gave magnificent performances with songs from their hearts. Jesse did not want to perform yet was happy to just be there and do the Prep work.

They also spent a lot of time in and around the labyrinth and Kuba and I went all around it and back out again without jumping over any of the rocks to take short cuts!  He was very proud of himself for that.  Jesse and Jake were very proud of themselves for creating and finding short cuts!

We had Hummingbirds that flew right past our heads and soaring Turkey Vultures above. Many other birds flying near and around us as well.  It was simply a beauty filled day and fun had by all.