What wonder and joy to be with the children in the forest on these warm, summer-like days this week! Everyone has taken on our routines with grace and ease and friendships are already being created.
We started our week by taking it very slow, introducing the many steps and transitions we have throughout the day. They feel strange and new at first to our newest friends, but by the end of the week we already saw how everyone was able to remember taking care of themselves and their things.
Every morning after circle, we open our door to the forest with a golden key. Each child gets a turn to do so and announces respectfully, from our hearts, that we are there, ready to play!
We then find our backpack hooks, eat snack, and enjoy free play time before getting busy with various activities or adventures. At lunch, we hear a story and wind down our morning by sharing something about our day before saying goodbye to the friends who leave at 1:00 pm. The rest of the day is filled with more play and a quiet book reading time in the forest.
This week, we focused our activities on orienting the children to the campsite and Grandmother Maple. We went over our Three Respects agreement by naming ways in which we can respect the Earth, each other, and ourselves. We also started co-creating a new quiet area in which we have hoisted a hammock and created our sit spot ribbons.
Each child was able to use a hammer to pound flowers and leaves into fabric strips, and to then choose a special sit spot tree to tie the ribbon to. It was so wonderful to see the focus everyone had during this project. The children have been practicing some awareness skills such as Owl Eyes and Deer Ears to use at their sit spots. We will continue this practice at least once a week so the children are able to observe the changing forest, find stillness, and perhaps spot a wild animal!
Speaking of wild animals, we spotted so many, including a fawn and their parent, a Cooper’s hawk, several different frogs, spiders, and an incredible amount of jumping worms. The children have been very much engrossed in collecting and observing worms, so we plan to dive deeper into studying them.
—Julie, JJ, and the counselors
September 23, 2021