We're back!

"The child builds his inmost self 

out of the deeply held impressions he receives."

Maria Montessori

Cara is sitting in flowers.  How perfect is that, for the first day back! 

After a long and mostly rainy Spring Break, the children all tumbled outside today, rejoicing that it wasn't raining and that they were all together in their Chickadee land again.  Ten days away, and the visible signs of our new spring are all around. The "protected areas" in the forest are filled with green, mostly the abundant waterleaf, but many other plants are emerging too. These protected areas have worked out better than I dreamed. The first two I circled with stumps.   Since then I've used whatever branches fall, following the children's natural paths, and now we have a network of different protected areas and running paths and open space.   

So the Indian plum has leafed out - it's always the earliest  - while the big leaf maples are in bud. Sprinkled throughout these areas are trilliums and the first native yellow violets. This green, unfolding, and flowing life is what surrounds your children as they play, and as Montessori wrote in the quote above, the impressions they receive become part of who they are.

Each child has his or her own individual experience, every single day.  Here are some glimpses ..... 

Evangeline found one little mushroom, and she stopped to say hello.  I don't know if anyone else saw it.  More mushrooms will be appearing soon.

Collin greeted the earth by playing with sticks, beating and digging - it was as if he were drumming, saying "Hello dear friendly mother earth, I'm back!"

Cherry found the big yellow dump truck filled with muddy water, and she stirred and stirred for at least fifteen minutes, totally engrossed.  She didn't get a bit of mud on her princess dress either.

As soon as I pulled the tarp back off the sand area, Joey and Eleanor plunked down in their favorite place.

Moving wood and branches and building things is a constant enterprise around here.    Ever since the top half of our neighbor's western hemlock fell across the fence last month, and we were rewarded with a bounty of new branches, the forts have taken on a whole new level of elaboration.  Rex is working on one of them; he told me he was "Bob the Builder."  

Seamus is hauling wood from one place to another. I have resolved to bring in more scrap wood and building materials, after reading a powerful article from The Atlantic, called "The Overprotected Kid."  (Link below.)

Meanwhile some other children discovered the camellia tree by the chicken coop, where the ground is now covered with flowers.  They named it the "Pink Land."     Brady and Cara both climbed up in the tree - imagine the beauty of climbing a tree where flowers fill your eyes.  Julian loves to poke little sticks through leaves and flowers and make little umbrellas and other wonders.  

A fantasy game began, complete with a princess and a wedding.  After lunch the game continued, and Joelle, our new assistant, sent me this photo of Cara in the tree with Evangeline looking up at her, just as I was finishing this post. She too was enthralled.  A pink wonderland!

At our morning circle, Collin had announced that he learned how to ride a two-wheeler during Spring Break. So after playing under the trees for a while, he and Rex headed for the bikes, and helped each other with helmets.    The bikes are the speedy way to move through the forest.

Collin is heading down the side road.  This little hill provides a perfect level of challenge for these biking adventurers.  In this case, the bike and he went down a second later - no upset, he got back up and kept going - he explained that, yep, he needs to practice the foot brake some more.  

Another part of every day are these other members of our community.  We let them out to scratch and explore on their own, and they run about as fast as the kids do when they are set free.  If only I could teach the chickens to stay in the forest and out of the flower and garden beds, they would be out more.   It's quite striking how they like to be close to the kids when they are outside  - I don't know if it is familiarity, or if they feel safer with them around, but the hens will stay down below much longer when the children are playing around them.   They behave differently when they are out and the children are inside, or when no one is here but me.    Then they head for the raised beds and the flower gardens, and scratch scratch scratch....

while the kids run run run ... and climb climb climb ... and dig dig dig ... and build build build ... and grow grow grow.

Here is the link to the article "The Overprotected Kid."  It's long, potent, and thought-provoking (though it seems I can't make a live link....)

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/