forest school

Yesterday, I plowed through the latest edition of Mothering magazine. I must confess that I really enjoy looking at the toys. I often think if i accumulate enough wooden toys and non-toxic crayons, my kids will be well-equipped for life. I am not joking. I really sometimes hope that in spite of my parenting, the toys will serve them well enough. Is that pathetic or what?

One of my favorite articles, other than the ones about the play items is about the forest kindergarten is Switzerland. being outside is just one of my favorite things in all the world. i especially enjoy the warm sun on my skin. it's not very warm here but the temperature is just mild enough to be pleasant all morning long. after reading the article about kids and their teachers spending time outside regardless of the conditions, i was inspired to so the same. it's easy for me to make excuses to stay inside when it's too cold/hot/rainy/wet and just play with all those wooden blocks, cars and finger puppets.

so, this morning while e slept in, i got our warm clothes ready to wear. after she ate her oatmeal and chocolate hemp milk, we went outside to play. first, we walked through the backyard and into the front. we raked some leaves then she and the bear played in the leaves. she ran and jumped in them while the bear watched. i swept our sidewalk then raked some more. we made a "fire" out of sticks and e lit it with her fire lighting stick. unlike the kids in the forest kindergarten, we only pretended to light the fire. we roasted vegan marshmallows. then, we put the fire out and collected leaves in a basket. a big truck was in front of our house doing work on the water for our town. we watched them hitch up the trailer and drive the backhoe onto it. e commented that the trailer was a lot like her bike trailer. true. she pointed out that it didn't have seats like her bike trailer does though! the men chatted with us and our neighbor's dad stopped by to say hi. his daughter and her son came by, too. we took a brief walk by their front yard.

we walked into the back yard and over to our other neighbors yard. they have a real fire pit that we have used in the past. we played fire started there, too and sat on their bench. the bear stood on the ground, holding on to the bench while e and i talked about which birds we heard and the watched leaves falling. then, we went back into the front 40, again for some more leaf play. (we have about .75 acres total thus the front and back 40. ) sherpa is feeling much better but still weak. he was brave enough to come outside and lie down near us. we were outside all morning which was really fun. we eventually went in to nurse bux to sleep for the second time and change her diaper; she had nursed to sleep in the sling earlier.

such a simple thing but it felt really good to be outside today.