Tender Tracks Tues. Week 20 Day 39

Feb. 12, 2019
Lake Lagunitas
Waxing Moon

Ruby gone for the week and Ida Rotto is substituting.

Well, we were truly blessed with having Ida with us. Her warmth, skill, songs, play and ability to jump right in warmed all the children to her.

On the bus ride up she taught them a song that incorporated their hands, their voices and their stuffed animals.  Eamon I think liked it the most!  When we got there Ida went with them and they found a bunch of Turkey Vultures circling around and pecking at a bag on the ground, a dog poop bag. How ODD was the first thought.  Right near it though was a Raccoon tail that had stitching in it and true skin and fir.  They were all studying this curious find when I came by with the snack box and they showed me all.

Shortly there after some of the children were pulled in by the older Nature Program kids who showed them a couple day old, fresh, deer carcass. They told us much about it because Vilda, the yet other nature school, found it on Monday.  So three classes sharing the Nature Story of the day down to each other. THAT was glorious!

There were great games this day of, being Rabbits, feeding the rabbit, being animals, gathering plants for making things and then, finally, to circle. Ellie had helped me make circle and Luna put out all the jobs on the mats.  They were both proud of their work.  We did our usual Rainbow snake spiral dance to our mats. They all seem to really still like this. Yahoo!  They all put their hands on each others shoulders and didn’t get goofy, just singing and winding their way to circle. 🙂

We sang all our songs, sat down, sang our last song, got our snack and then went to story. The story was all about Trilly Truly and Trippy Troopy and how they met these wonderful little beings in a little box. They learned that this little ones love to hear the things that children are sad, or mad, or happy, or anything like that about, in their ears, at night.  There was much more to the story where TT & TT made little cozy blankets from wool and dyed it from plants and put it in a special Valentines day pouch for them.   And then, it was said that the children just might find their own friends like this.

After circle Eamon, Holden and Theo dashed around trying to find them but, they could not!  I wonder if they ever would on this day???

It became time to head on out after they had each taken some wool and put it in the dye bath jars.  Eamon, since he was the weather watcher, got to choose what direction we would go and off we went.  After Eamon gave much description of a place he wanted us to go to I finally figured out where he meant and then pointed him in the right direction. On our way there were so many, many earth wonders to be found under logs, up in trees, on plants, growing on dead logs and of course, HIDE AND GO SEEK!  Luna’s favorite!

Josie and Uma found our destination first and then off they all went. Up the big laying down tree, down below near the water, under the tree and all around.  Bellies had been grumbling for awhile so we finally had lunch.  During that time we listened to the birds. Ida heard one and described it a bit. We gave some clues to the name and then Eamon guessed it! The King Fisher.

The children were all playing on the big laying down tree, finding Cat tails and making potions.  Josie, Uma and Ellie were helping Theo. They gathered the cat tail down and gave it to him. He made some kind of potion and then brought it over where the boys were and there they all were making nests and putting other things like Liken in this nest. Luna and Ida were together for awhile sitting cozy.  I knew it was really cold when Luna ASKED for her coat!  She even let me put her hat and mittens on!!

It was time to leave and we brought them into a circle. There I brought them back into remembering what the little box looked like that the little people were in. They closed their eyes and remembered, then they were reminded how they needed to listen ever so quietly for the little sounds and how to walk quietly and then, thats what they did, walked quietly, listened and then, Luna found her box.  Eamon said, I’ll never find mine. So, then I held  Theo, Holden, and Eamon’s hands and reframed that and, in that instant, Eamon opened his eyes and HE FOUND HIS BOX!

There were fun hiding games and walking backwards games on the way back to the bus. On the bus we taught Ida our good by songs and as we drove they gave their thank you’s. Ida taught us some new ways to share thank you’s too!