Tender Tracks Wed. Day 15

Jan. 10, 2018
Waning Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Today was the first day of the year where the peaceful, playful, easeful state of this group was a bit topsy-turvy.:)
Firstly, Ellie Turtle REALLY did not want to put her rain pants on, Violet needed to be with Mom and was a bit disgruntled throughout the day about things she didn’t like, needing to get most of the children in their rain clothes first thing and then, circle starting late and ending much later than usual.  We were cooking today so that was different and took awhile.  However, circle was so much fun and they LOVED hearing the story that went along with cooking noodles and eating them. They were a hit!!  All that is accept for Holden. He was not so keen on these noodles.

The big challenges came about I think from, what happens often this time of year, having to deal with extra clothes, rain, wet, having fun then all of a sudden not liking what they are feeling and wanting it to change NOW! Postponement gratification can be so very challenging at this age! 🙂
The good news is however, the Sun was shining, the waters were flowing, story was fun, snack was grand, explorations were enjoyed and laughter was heard.

So now, a bit more details.  Ellie Turtle truly did not like the rain pants on yet, it just has to happen.  I know I have said for years and years, just send them any way you can but, after today, I am beginning to rethink this as there were so many to dress!!!  🙂 ( please hear my gentle laughter here)
Violet began her day unsettled and had Mom brought her and stayed with her for awhile. Mom aided Ellie Turtle a bit too while we were tending to the other children and place.

When we finally all got down and into circle it was grand!  They sang, they learned new songs, they saw a pot sitting on a cook stove in the middle of circle. The pot was filled with water with the help of Violet too.  And, they watched it get hotter and hotter, while steam came out from the top. But, why did we have this pot there any way?????  And a story was told to tell us why.  You see, once there was a Mother who had not enough food to feed her daughter. She went out to the woods to settle herself and find some answers if she could. As she walked she began to see the Beautiful trees standing tall and strong. She smelled the fresh air and felt it gently hug her skin.  She began to relax and know, all things would be well, as she found those things that warmed her heart so.  She remembered her true wish, to find food for she and her daughter when, all of a sudden, POOOF out of the woods came an old Woman cackling away.  Long story short, the old woman gave her a magick pot that when she said “Stir Pot stir” the food she wanted would bubble up in the pot and when she said “stop pot stop.” the pot would stop cooking.  Her daughter saw her mother do the first part but not the second and the town filled with noodles and….well, you might know this story and the ending.  But, just in case, the ending of the tale, the Mother came back, the daughter learned that listening in with out Mommy knowing is mostly not the best way and they lived quite well ever after.  🙂
The children LOVED the gluten free noodles that we cooked with Olive Oil and sea salt.

In the midst of all of this, we sang a special Happy Birthday song to Eamon and he got to choose a special gift from the Gnome people that was just for him. He appeared to be quite delighted by it all.

After snack off they went. Eamon and Holden went STRAIGHT to the water and proceeded to get VERY, VERY wet! And, or However, with great smiles and delight.  Uma, Ashley and Violet went down by the water and were fishing for candy. Uma said they were fishing for candy land fish.  I asked Uma what kind of candy there was or if we could choose. Ellie Turtle said she can’t have candy, Ellie Acorn wanted Chocolate, someone else wanted Chocolate Mint and on it went. And Luna, Luna mopped around a lot of the day saying, “Nobody wants to play with me.”  However, at the end of the day we were all sitting together eating and I mentioned Luna’s sadness. Then I asked what she would want to play if she was to play with someone. She said “house and some other things.” Then I asked if any one else likes to play house. Uma and Ashley said they did and then Eamon and a few others. Ashley asked her if she wanted to play or something along those lines.  Right after lunch Eamon, who was sitting next to Luna, asked if she would like to go into and play with him in the “tunnel.” She said she didn’t want to do that.  She did smile brightly however when she saw how many children said they wanted to play with her and, for the rest of our short time left together and all the way back in the bus she was content and happy.

Ellie Turtle was very funny as she and I were walking towards the other children earlier in the day. She said with great glee “I’m not crying anymore. Sometimes I cry.”
Holden was playing happily but then he got something in his eye and, most wonderfully, his tears just washed it out.  He wasn’t quite sure about that though because it still didn’t feel well for a bit. He stayed snuggled in my arms until he was completely ready to go back to play.

I found a rope and the children turned it into a choo choo train. They went many places in this train. The challenging part of it was though that the front of the train and the back of the train weren’t always going to the same place at the same time!!!  And one time they went around the tree in two different directions and almost bumped into one another!!! 🙂

Another time there was a tug of war with this rope. I kept winning UNTIL they had Ruby come on their side and WOOOOOOWWWW, I got pulled down and Ashley fell over too!!!

There were some upsets when wet children couldn’t get changed the moment they were uncomfortable. Uma was one of those. It turns out she wasn’t actually very wet or at least her warm woolies did exactly what they were designed to do, keep a person warm even when they do get wet. Well, after a time her needs and some of the others needs got met and yeah for that.

Since our snack time ended almost by 11 we didn’t have lunch until a bit after noon and when that happens, oh dear, getting back on time is a bit of  a challenge, particularly when Holden and Eamon seemed to think that, really truly, there was a Dinosaur in the creek below the water fall!!!!!!!!
What to do?????  Scury, scury like a mouse, into the bus to get to our house……..
We finally all made it safe and sound, wet clothes in bags, warm clothes on and down the road we went.  Most of the way back we played a three year old version of 20 questions which they loved.