“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and, when the grass of the meadows is damp with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet . . .” Maria Montessori
On our recent, gloriously warm and sunny Monday, I kept the camera at hand for half an hour while we were outside. Here is just a bit of what I saw....
Our new overhead bars have seen a constant flow of children discovering what they can do - hanging, crawling across the top, learning to drop, taking turns and giving each other a little space. The kids will definitely be getting stronger arms! We are all thrilled about this reclaimed and wonderful addition to our outside, and so grateful for your generous work party, and especially to Cara's dad Craig, who put a lot of time into making it a free-standing piece of equipment. 
We also added a small "rock-climbing wall" to the side of the stump. Here I witnessed another flow of kids going up and down. Before now, access to this magnificent stump was limited to the children who could scramble up on their own - I almost never lifted them up. And with lots of use over these 18 months, the first natural handholds had broken off. 
Pretty soon, Cara and Zoë headed for the chicken pen. Cara picked up three hens one after another - Blue Star in this photo, then Blackberry and Silver Water. She is one of our dedicated "chicken whisperers," and goes in there often. It's so nice when it's not so muddy! Zoë is just getting to know the girls, and watched Cara with admiration. She checks for eggs every day. Soon she will be picking them up too.
Meanwhile, Leo and Brady saw me digging out the old straw in the corner of the pen (it makes great, rich mulch and compost material, and right now I am trying to do a bucket or two every day). They said, "Let us do it!" and ran for shovels. They were seriously digging and filling that wheelbarrow ... until they found a most amazing worm. It must have been at least 10 inches long, maybe a foot when it was moving. 
Then I found June Marie, who, inspired by the sunshine, had remembered an experiment we did last spring and went to get the magnifying glass, all on her own. I found her squatting down with a dry leaf, trying to get it to smoke! She didn't remember how to really focus the sunlight through the lens, so I showed her, and we watched a tiny curl of smoke wisp its way upward. And yes, I asked her to be sure I was with her when she tried it again.
Now the energy had shifted out to the front yard, and I found three kids just chatting and snuggling on the grass, and another two on the picnic blanket - pure joy. The morning play time closed with a most wonderful outside picnic. Today, just two days later, it's back to mud boots.
