Tender Tracks Tues. Day 55

April 18, 2017
Waxing half Moon
Sorich Ranch

Description of the day:SWEET!

Ruby, Jake, Jesse, & Kuba were back from their holidays from last week. Jesse was only gone on Thursday.  We greeted them with joy and delight. There were many tales to tell particularly from Kuba who went to HONDURAS!!!!  One of his stories I really enjoyed was the one where the monkey went on his head and his mother took pictures of him and then the monkey hopped off!  Edie had a lot to share about Easter, Jake had great stories about an Aquarium place he went to but we couldn’t really figure out where it was other then it was far away and he had a really good time.  There were Easter egg tales throughout the day from the rest of them.  And, they entered peacefully and full of contentment.

We did not know if it was going to rain, again, and I wish to say that YEAH! we were blessed with only gray clouds off and on and only one real moment of some sprinkles.  We had much to take out of the bus as our intention of the day was to dye our eggs with plant material.  Oh they all had a lot of experience and stories about the little tablets that they dropped in their cups of water for Easter but, what is in those tablets?  How did people make those things?  Did you know that some of those tablets are simply dried up plants?
We however, due to the type of school we are, chose to use fresh vegetables and fruit to see what kind of colors we could make that came directly from the earth.
We used, Beets, Tumeric and Blueberries.

First we went to find our picnic table but alas, it had roamed somewhere else again. But where????We discovered that it was further down the path sitting right next to the other picnic table. At first we thought we would bring it over to where we usually go but, when we went right up to it, it was over the creek, that was deep in the ground, and across a wide ravine. This would have been a bit to challenging for us to move the table. So, it was clear… No need to move it but rather we bring our stuff over to it. So, we did!

We had our circle at the table and I read the book Blueberries for Sal.  And why did I read THAT book you might ask? Because…. we were using blueberries to dye some of our eggs! And, it was about harvesting and how animals eat what we eat and so many other things….

Archer got busy gathering all manner of plant material to see if they would dye.  Jake too was gathering and loved mixing the plant matter in one of the big mixing bowls that we had.

The children had to fill our pots with water for boiling the: beets, blueberries and tumeric.   They went to fill them up way down the path. It was very! comical because they kept trying to bring it back and they kept spilling the wate. They never did make it back with any kind of water in it. Michelle finally got the pots and filled them with water and then had them all make a “bucket brigade.”  They each passed the pot one to the other across the creek and finally to me.  They LOVED this and did it throughout the day with great joy just, well just because it was fun!

We fired up the cook stove yet first tasted the raw beets. Some said they did not like beets and others said they did. When they were cooked some of them tried them too. They were so good!

It took awhile for the water to boil and Jesse in particular, when I asked for them to let me know when it was boiling, stood there and watched and watched and watched until indeed it did boil.

Finally all was ready. The children came to the table and one by one chose what color they would like for two eggs and gently put them in two out of the three pots.  We set up lunch then and ate plus ate some of the cooked blueberries and beets.  We were going to drink some of the blueberry juice but oh dear, how did this happen?  The blue berry juice got into Jake’s mixing bowl for a special brew. A brew that later on some of them had fun trying to drink it out the laddle.

Shortly after lunch some were getting a bit helter skelter so I started to tell a few children a story. It did not take long for them ALL to come right in and listen to two rather long tales. They would not, could not, nor have the interest to, listen to these particular stories so intently at the beginning of the year but on this day they did.  It was clear that they truly are growing up, maturing and are no longer young preschoolers.

One of the stories had a song in it for rowing a canoe. Jake and Isabella in particular were having a grand time singing that as they went down the creek after the stories were told, which is where I directed them to explore after the story.

They all went marching down the little creek singing and playing for the rest of the day.
We were going to go on a short adventure so we gathered everything up to pack in the bus before we did. However, some were wet so changing parties took place. While that was happening others were down the hill right near where the bus was parked.

We wound up just playing, exploring, and discovering much down the hill near the bus for the rest of the day.  There was a tree there that needed some support. It’s helpful stick was leaning far over due to the rains and the tree was starting to grow bent because of this.  They searched and searched for many rocks to help support it and build it up.

It was then time to get in the bus, offer our gratitudes and make our way back.