Tender Tracks Tues. Week 19 Day 37

Feb. 5, 2019
Lake Lagunitas: Horse Trough Hill
Waxing Crescent Moon

Weather of the day: COLD, like a real winter with Blue clear skies and puffy clouds in the afternoon.
Weather of the children: A lot of movement, energy, unsettled for 55% of them and hard to settle in and down.  HOWEVER, ( with a gentle smiling grin here) when they were all in the bus, the focus began.  There was a picture up on the blackboard that they got to figure out what animal made it’s home up in the tree, a home that was just a ball of leaves! Josie figured it out, a Squirrel!!  Can you see squirrels nest in your Winter Barren trees near you??

Then, I put some of the stuffed animals they are familiar with in a bag.  Each one of them, one by one, put their hand in, with out looking, and felt around using their fingers to let them know what was in the bag.  They all felt softness yet none of them could guess nor did they truly feel around enough to figure out what was in there. I then took the stuffed animals out one by one for them to recognize. Then, when I gave them their stuffed animals a lot of them closed their eyes to feel them and the others who didn’t do that were feeling them more than they usually do.

We went to our Horse Trough hill where it is sunny. We have not been there in a while due to so much rain so, today was the day!  They all went back to their favorite spots.  But oh yes, before we got out we had the boys carry the girls back packs out and the girls help carry all the snack things as well as the broom articles that we needed to finish the brooms.  Working together is quite beneficial!  The boys were eager I will say and the girls, well, not so much. It seemed that they got too engaged with the boys, scurried off with them and then didn’t want to come back to carry things. They did however. 🙂

For circle I asked for help remembering whose symbol was whose on the mats that we lay out? At first I asked Luna, then Uma came by then they went to get the boys and then they all came in to help out remembering whose symbol on the mats was whose!  And they all worked together to remember. Shortly after we sat down for circle. But, again, oh yes!  The way we have been going to circle is, away from the circle, they place their bodies in a long row like a caterpillar. They put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them and then we serpentine our way to circle singing this song Sun and Rain unite give birth, the rainbow circling the earth. The New dream we shall all take part, the rainbow lives within our hearts.   I then weave them around and around until we get to our mats. There we stand and sing most of our songs and then sit down to finish with our Months of the year, 4 seasons and days of the week song.

Eamon was VERY happy to do his weather watcher job.  We also sing a song most mornings to the directions and continually reference that,  House of the East, House of the South, House of the West, House of the North, throughout our days.  Then time for story. Today I READ a story from a book someone I know wrote, a well known Waldorf teacher and storyteller.  The book is called The Knottles.  It is a very beautiful book about a brother and a sister whose family built a house out of pine and the Knots in the wood had little Knottle people that would come out at night to them in their dreams.  It is a very beautiful book with wonderful and gentle illustrations. The children were very mesmerized.  Throughout the day we were looking for knots in many different kinds of trees.

After circle Ruby worked on finishing the brooms, Ellie and Luna were gathering fallen out broom straw to make the littlest piggies straw house.  The boys were immersed in Ninja games and Josie and Uma were delighted to join them, at times.  There was climbing up and down a tree near by and hiding. But then, Eamon, Came with a mighty force with his grand and ferocious stick towards me, Oh dear! what was I to do??? well, grab it I did and ….. then ALL the children chased me to get this stick down to get back to Eamon. But alas, I WAS faster and trickier and finally, I said, g”Go to that tree and turn around. I will call you and then you can go and find it.” So, they all went to the tree as asked and counted to ten. I quickly found a place to camouflage the stick and then, they came. Running, running all together to look and find it.  How delighted they were when they did!!!  Then they dispersed and went in and out with each other in games that settled a bit in nature.

We had lunch and then, off on an adventure.  We walked on the sunny side of Bon Tempe lake.  There was a man on a bench. A bench that initially I told them to run to. BUTTTT he was so peaceful, as people come there often to be.  I invited the children then, to walk ever, ever, ever so slowly, so quietly to see if they could go past him without him turning around to look.  Closer and closer and closer they got to almost turning around the bend when……..HE TURNED! Oh how how disappointed they were and so continues the on going Nature Connection games that are really about coming to center in self…..

We found a great spot near the lake where they played with finding the mushroom called Witches Butter: Holden really liked playing with this new friend. It is edible, if boiled, but not toxic.

We played with throwing rocks, climbing trees, finding Knottles and such until we had to walk back. Our time was short there.  Back in the bus we made it and then back to the park we went.