Tender Tracks Tues. Day 7

Oct. 4, 2016
Waning Crescent Moon
Roy’s Redwoods

Archer and Kuba were away today with Family.
We are now into October and Ruby has been letting us know what is coming at the end of this month: HALLOWEEN! as well as cold air and rain that happened just very recently. The ground was not wet though yet the air would go from warm to very cool to muggy and the sky had either a light colored gray blanket over it or blue shinning through. Therefore, coats went on and off and on and off.

Michelle met and greeted us as we arrived and out of the bus and off they went. It seems that there still is some anxiety about coming to Tender Tracks as noticed by their fierce need to just have their one special friend and not want to connect with any others. I felt like Michelle and I were social/emotional massage therapists because, by the end of the day, what started out like a whirly, swirly fast passed flow ended up into an easy sprawl and gentle connections one to the other.

What amazing work 4 years do as they figure out their surroundings, friends, new environments and such grand navigational skills. So all of that is to say, from my vantage point, they are doing great and it is good to be able to support as well as guide them through the terrain of new friends and new environments.

Today we introduced new October songs and kept some old ones as well. They needed to find silly Trippy Troopy and Trilly Trully who had wandered off into the woods. The story included a drum and some Gnomes and learning how to play with sticks and listen to the trees. Eddie and Isabella are such great helpers with folding the mats and handing them to us and the children are doing very well with bringing the bowls and cups to Michelle when circle is over.

After circle there was play, bathroom time, continuing to build their houses time, climbing up the big hill and continuing to figure out how to slide down in a way they want to….
Jake scampered up the big hill that he really likes. Jesse and Ruby came up. They had a stick that they carried around like a rainbow in the sky. Everyone who wanted to would go under their rainbow stick! Sklyar and Eddie and I became a choo choo and tried to slide down together but it didn’t work so well so then they took turns sliding down and I caught them. Michelle was with Kai and Isabella for a time in the home they made down below. Isabella just had a baby and Kai was a princess. They did have some fights about if there should be one or two fire places. I asked them if they liked fighting. They finally decided that they didn’t but having to compromise was a bit hard particularly for Kai. He just really wanted it all his own way and Isabella really wanted two fireplaces in order to keep the baby warm in both rooms! In the end they let go, laughed and began to play again. However, they had a whole lot more tussels amongst themselves today then on other days. This was the case with Skylar and Eddie too. Skylar was a bit more rough in her play then Eddie liked so there was a lot of learning to really hear each other and respect the other. Ruby and Jesse were fine and Jake wound up playing a fair amount with Jesse later on and was delighted with this.

As we began our wander Michelle, Kai and Isabella went ahead because Jake and Jesse found a “cool place!” “Really, Come see everybody come see!!!” So, Skylar, Eddie, Ruby and I went to go see. It was truly a grand little house that, they really didn’t want to leave so, after quite a bit of time it seemed good to move on though that was hard for them to do.

We finally saw Michelle and began to sneak up on her as if we were butterflies. She asked us if we had seen Kai and Isabella. Oh where could they be? Well, we saw Michelle’s back pack then Kai’s then……KAI hiding in a beautiful tree and then Isabella popped her head out! Kai however did not want any one to come in their house so I suggested that maybe the others find a gift of friendship to offer. They all ran off to get a gift and give it. Kai did receive the gift but then said however that he didn’t want them to come in. They then became neighbors, found their own houses yet didn’t want others to come in. Sklyar and Eddies’ house had a door bell/ lichen on the tree and they scrapped away two holes for their out house which they proceeded to pee in!

Ruby and Jesse found a GRAND, truly it was large/grand, home that THEY did not want to share. They had a secret word/key. Jake wanted to figure what the secret word/key was but alas, it was lunch time. So that was to be learned after lunch. At the end of the day we found out that Ruby told him the secret words and that was how he came into their home. That home however turned into a great big long airplane. Ruby was the pilot, Jake and Jesse fixed it up a lot. All the other children climbed up on it, which was no small feat. This LARGE tree trunk that had fallen to the ground many years ago was high in one spot and narrowed lower and lower about 15 + feet down where some could easily get up. They loved being up so very, very high.

Kai, Isabella and Michelle spent some time looking at the Snake Nature carrying card I carry. Michelle wanted to figure out what snake she saw the other day. Skylar loved having her shoes and shirt off for awhile and playing down at one end of the tree with Michelle.

Right as we were leaving a very nice man with a beautiful horse came by and the children got to talk with him and be around his horse. They truly loved this then, off to the bus we went………….