Tender Tracks Tues. Day 65

May 30, 2017
Waxing Half Moon
Alpine Lake

Isabella was gone today on a family adventure.

Everyone else was here and in bright spirits.  There were many different stuffed animals “hanging” around in the bus for the children to find.  This is more then just a fun game. The focus of this is to keep giving them things to expand their awareness and observational skills, in a fun way.  They found the many treasures with delight but today there were many more then usual and they actually did not find them all. 🙂

When we got to Alpine lake they knew exactly where to put their packs and then scampered up the big rock.  It was a delight to see Kuba doing the same.  I was remembering when the year began. Jake had discovered trees and wanted to climb them all. However, he still was not so great at observing the safety factors involved. I remember him climbing up this rock on a part with slippy moss and to high of an incline.  He got stuck like a little kitten that had climbed to high in the tree.  Archer was near him at the time and the two of them were quite in a pickle back then.  It was grand to see how skilled and capable they are now, with looking for safety as well as fun too!!!!!! Kuba was always so cautious and now he is mister rough and tumble.  Jesse is more involved with the scrambling up part as well and they all had a grand time of it.

Edie and Ruby had a very fine time together all day.  Usually it is the three some and they often times struggle with that so, it was very nice to see the two of them enjoy each other so much today.

Circle time was very fun.  Michelle shared with the children a story that she just experienced about a walk she took with her children: listening to the birds alarm, following the sound, being very curious about it, discovering a LARGE snake coming down the tree and wondering if the snake had eaten an egg from a nest!!  The children loved the story!
I was inspired and so then I told a story about a man who had a garden with mice and rats, a chicken coup and got a Rat Snake for the garden. It ate the rats AND it ate the fake egg in the chicken coup and the egg got stuck inside the snake. The man had to “milk” the egg out of the snake. It then fed it milk and ever since that day the snake always came to the house to be loved and fed by this man!

We have been visited by many snakes this year, it seems like it has been a theme. So, to have a lot of snake stories seemed just about right!
After circle we got together and made our way to a place that they have loved. It was a nice walk and then when we got there to discover that,  it was different then when we were last there!  There was a lot more plant growth and the water in one spot was VERY deep!  This didn’t matter though. They went right to finding boats to sail and spending time with the beautiful water, all the new plants around us, the many birds, turtles on the log out in the water, stories, launching boats and then the long walk back.

Inside the bus we shared our story of the day and I drew a little picture.  They love sharing and seeing the pictures come up from the story of the day.They shout out with glee about the many adventures and discoveries from the day.

As we drove down the road Archer was getting very upset. He felt like he was left out a lot during the day.  I empathized with him.  The children didn’t really take much time to tend to this so, I stopped the bus, stopped their moving on from tending to him, gave him a moment to be heard and the other children a moment to listen and be with what was going on right there and then.  All was listened to and then, back on the road we went. Greater ease was found and present after that.

Today in the coming and going on the bus we wound up playing many rousing games and versions of 20 questions.