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The Adventure BEGINS!

We were treated to absolutely beautiful warm autumn weather today as we began our first day of the FOREST semester. It felt great to gather up in such a large and supportive Opening Circle. Today we oriented to the land and the culture that each one of us actively tends. We went over our group’s agreements: Respect for the earth, each other, and self; active participation; inclusivity; positivity; helpfulness; lifting each other up by recognizing one another’s positive qualities … and that’s just for starters. Having these shared values from the beginning goes a long ways toward creating a positive community and experience.

Hungry birds

Our April meeting of Saturday Explorers really brought the showers! We began the day with heavy rain but that didn’t spoil our fun. Once we got to our campsite, we got busy with a wet wood fire challenge. Some of our fearless explorers went into the rain to collect lots and lots of “wispies” (very thin sticks), while others stayed under the tarp to strip birch bark. Once we had the sticks and tinder ready to go, one of our instructors gave a brief lesson on building a fire structure while some of the kids worked together on it. Their challenge was not only to get the fire lit and burning using flint and steel, but to also get the fire strong enough to burst balloons suspended above the fire pit. The fire caught quickly and was successful at popping every balloon. With the warmth of a fire to dry us out, we settled into snack and a story about how the humble little Wren or “Hedge King” became king of the birds.

Happy maple Fest!

Today was the FOREST program’s first-ever Maple Fest! And boy, did we celebrate all things sap and syrup. Last week, we made wooden taps for collecting maple sap, and today we reaped the rewards by collecting several gallons of the sweet stuff. Our friends the Woolly Bears also tapped some maple trees this month and brought their haul to the festivities. We even had a few students bring in sap they had collected from home! We set up an evaporator and kept filling it and filling it and filling it. In total, we must have evaporated at least 20 gallons!!!

Sap Season!

We had such an adventurous day last Saturday! It was so nice to spend time in the woods with the adults simultaneously in the Awakening Wild program. Although we didn’t sneak up on them this week, you never know about next month. 😉

We started our day with laughter and a big game of banana tag—a game where everyone is It and nothing in the game has to do with bananas, haha! We followed the game with morning circle, in which we expressed gratitude to the land, and then wandered up to our camp ready for a busy day.

An Awakening Wild Fire Challenge

We started out in the parking lot with a quick refresher on making cordage using basswood and raffia. A few people made fire kits and gathered tinder materials from the field edge. After a beautiful round of gratitude, we set out into the woods.

End-of-Semester Successes and Smiles

We had a whirlwind of a day wrapping up our experience together at FOREST. The day was a crisp one, yet we all were warmed by the bright sunshine, our activities, and by our smiles and interactions with each other.

After completing our usual morning routines of movement, gratitude, sensory attuning, and sharing a daily riddle, we played a game and decided that we should have snack in the sunny field. With the remainder of the morning, we settled into the final phase of our strap drill friction fire kits.

Carving Strap Drill Kits

Today was a beautiful day in the woods! It was nice to see the sun after so much rain this fall. We gathered for an opening circle and played a lively game of Bob the Weasel. After a fun new game called Coyote Steals Fire, we hiked up to our campsite to eat snack.

Now that our bodies had moved and gotten food, we started our main activity of the day: carving strap drill kits with a partner.

Cobble Semester Begins!

Flying Deer Nature Center Homeschool at Bartholomew's Cobble | Grassy Hill

On the first day of our Homeschool Program at Bartholomew’s Cobble, we journeyed across the vast field to our old campsite beneath a grove of towering White Pines, punctuating a beautiful field painted purple and yellow by the flowers of early fall, asters and goldenrods. Quite a few Queen Anne’s Lace seeds hitched a ride on our clothing as we cut through the field. The creek flowing by our campsite out of the cattail marsh was completely dry, to our surprise … more on that later.

First Day of the Homeschool Program

Flying Deer Nature Center Homeschool | Boy Climbing Tree

We began our day with a fun game of agility that we call Bobcat Tag (giving credit to the reflexes of our local wild feline predator). Afterwards, we gathered some goldenrod flowers to create a line between two groups of students, and played a Wild West name game to test ourselves with the new and old names in the group. Two students stood back to back and, on the count of three, turned and called out the name of their “opponent”; those who were quickest on the draw were the winners and “captured” their opponent!