Tender Tracks Wed. Day 4

Oct. 4, 2017
Waxing Moon
Lake Lagunitas

I barely know where to begin other then WOW, the children are acclimating to Tender Tracks and it’s rhythm and flows with such joy and ease. Each one of your children are opening like precious flowers to the love of nature and its gifts.

We had great fun getting ready on the bus to be on our way. As we drove they were getting quite carried away with their volume. I gently pulled over and, speaking with a calm, gentle yet clear voice, I shared with them why and how we speak with each other in this big metal box that holds all our voices inside….and I shared a bit more. Yet, it was gentle and effective and so we carried on to our destination. 🙂

We parked and began in a new place because the sun shines brightly at this place. The cold days have already begun so it seemed a good idea to soak in as much warm rays as we could for the darker days to come.   They didn’t blink an eye in this new place. They just began exploring everything there!  They found a fairy house and a bar to play on( a horse tying up post). They found logs that were built up that they could play with. We all found incredible sap from the beautiful Doug Fir tree there and a most magnificent Madrone tree whose bark we touched, smelled and looked at.

We then came to circle and, we were there for an hour!!!!!!  They didn’t really want to leave!  They each took a turn peeling their apples with the cranking apple peeler. That took a while as they needed to wait for each other, one at a time peeling.  Then it was story time. And, before all this, it was new songs, and taking time with our guessing game.  Truly remarkable and, FUN!!!

And, oh yes, right when we got off the bus it was time to water the earth and trees.  The girls ALL got together, in a line, and some with help, we had a grand pee party as well as more “education” on how girls can pee without getting wet!!! 🙂  All the girls are being quite joyful about knowing how to urinate outside and to do it all together.
Holden simply found a tree a bit later to water. Actually, it was a Coyote bush that he was surprised by the name of this bush.

After circle there was a poop party. Ashley, Luna and Ellie Turtle all had to go and Violet came along for fun.  They each had their own little stall.   They are all so delightfully group oriented.
After this, we put our packs on and made our way to the water’s edge that we went to two weeks ago.  Holden instantly remembered this place because it is where he had a GRAND time with the mud!
And the rest of them, they immediately went to throwing rocks and watching what they do when they go in the water, exploring closer to the water and the mud, and fishing!  Ellie Turtle and Uma were sitting right next to each other and contentedly and joyfully pretend to fish.  After lunch, they ALL went to this big thick steel cable and played on it, over it, under it, around it.  Holden helped everyone see where it was safe and not and they all complied.  There were shoes on and shoes off, Ruby putting Sunscreen on them and her being desired by almost all of the children all day!! 🙂

Lunchtime was a fun time as well.  We finally figured out how to get the yellow jackets to eat some food. Ellie Acorn had some turkey slices. We put that out and they finally found it. The  Yellow Jackets were then happy little characters.

Each one of the children were so very, very precious! Violet and Ashley found each other as friends today.  Holden was happy ALL day. Ellie Acorn was smiling and opening up as well as having Uma and Ellie Turtle, in particular, want to play with her, a lot, and  Luna was her warm, sunny, creative and happy self.

On the way back home in the bus they wanted to sing all the songs and verses that we sang at circle time so, that is what happened!!!