A Wilderness School & Community
The trees were crystallized in ice this morning. The air was still broken occasionally by flurries of bird alarms. We soon realized why as a pair of red-shouldered hawks visited our morning circle. They watched from the treetops as we shared gratitude.
Continue reading “A WILD WAYS DAY OF ICE & TRACks”
It was a warm, misty winter day and the FOREST kids rolled in with lots of energy despite the rain! We started our morning giving gratitude for the contrasting winter season we have been experiencing and had an awareness meditation to connect and orienteer us to our landscape. Then we went up to Basecamp for snack before breaking into our morning activities.
Continue reading “Fire CIdeR & FOx WALKING”
We found ourselves gripped by the chill of the morning as we arrived for Cobblers and warmed up to being back with our friends and in a snowy home school environment. The morning was filled with excitement for snow and quickly we began working on snow shelters and seeing who could harvest the largest snow chip.
Continue reading “The Snow Is here!”
We were hoping for snow this week at Saturday Explorers, and what we got was ice and rain. We made the most of it by planning to have hot blazing fires under tarp shelters all day long. High-energy games got the blood flowing and kept us warm and then we all took our coats off as we settled, steaming and elated, into camp for snack. The plan was this: 1) Make a hot fire filled with hardwood coals for burn bowls. 2) Stick stones in the center to capture the heat of the hot coals to boil water for tea or ramen noodles!
Continue reading “Stone-BoilED SNACKS”
Our final day of the Wild Ways semester couldn’t have been blessed with more beautiful weather. We started the day sharing about some favorite moments from the fall, and played together in the field. Up at camp we had spruce cone fights and practiced friction fire. The energy around camp today was particularly comfortable, communal, and jovial. We had a wonderful honoring circle, appreciating every member of the group for their unique gifts. Lunch was lovely chatter as always, particularly sweet knowing we wouldn’t be all together again through the winter.
Continue reading “Friction Fire Making”
It is in these later days in the semester when you can really start to feel the group come together as one big village. There was an overall sense of excitement, joy, laughter, and synergy today as the Cobblers kids wrestled, cooked, and created a place to feast all together.
Continue reading “FALL FeaST DaY”
The end of the fall semester is almost here, and we’re feeling that bittersweet sensation of the joyous momentum winding down. Watching all the students arrive and connect so quickly now that they’ve had so many weeks to adjust to the arrival transition brings warmth to our hearts.
Our morning circle in Little Field had us listening for the distant call of a hawk, connecting our bodies, minds and hearts to place with our Good Morning Song, with expressions of gratitude accompanied by movements, some funny imitations of owls glaring from trees and bears sleeping in dens and otters sliding through snow, and a game of “What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?”
Continue reading “Fire Challenge!”
Our journeys in the forest continue to grow and build week after week. Today, we were introduced to two tree allies: white pine, which has higher contents of vitamin C than oranges and eastern hemlock, good for coughs and colds. We noticed all the differences between the needles, the stems and bark, to prepare ourselves for harvesting more at camp to make tea.
We also gathered willow and bittersweet to make charcoal pencils. The children used their nails or sharp stones to scrape all the bark off and place them in tins with a small air hole in it. The tins are then placed in a fire to char. The lack of oxygen prevents the wood from combusting, or going up in flames, and creates deep and dense charcoal to draw with. The pencils were used to draw their favorite part of the day on paper to close our day.
Continue reading “Crafting at the Cobble”
This week summer stopped by to say hello for a bit. We were gifted with warm days that inspired barefoot adventures and lots of smiles. On Tuesday, we did some tending of our campsite and cut down one of the large turingo crab trees. Before we cut it, we gave our gratitude to the tree for all of the climbing it has provided, and for being okay with being cut down to create space for the Chestnut tree that we planted in its place! We all worked together to move the cut wood and add it to our firewood pile.
Continue reading “Gratitude for Fire and Trees”
We lucked out with the weather and had gorgeous warm and blustery weather all day. Leaves and needles fell from the trees as roamed and played through the forest.
We circled up and sang our morning song…”Good morning dear Earth, good morning dear sun…” all together. Red Oak had a tricky rhyme and riddle today for us. The focus of the day was trees (and that was the answer to the riddle of course) so we all looked at some leaves collected near one of our favorite forest spots, Grandmother Maple.
Continue reading “The mystery of trees”