June 6
We cant believe it was the last day, 10 weeks went WAY to fast!
Today we found a treasure map! The excitement over it was tangible, some were convinced we found a genuine pirate map! Building our map reading skills, we followed x’s that took us to many of our favourite places, searching for a riddle to answer at each place, and the last place ended at our treasure… s’mores ingredients! (Those pirate know the right food for a party ;)) We settled in at our favourite place along the creek to cool down, roasting up our s’mores over the little stove, building bark boats, filling our vials with little nature pieces that interested us. We then went on a foraging walk to collect edibles for our wild lemonade (you should get your wildlings to take you on a foraging walk of the area! They basically took me on a foraging walk at this point!)
We ended the day giving thanks to the forest and said goodbye with tree hugs.
We are going to miss these guys and all their kingdoms! From snow, hail, rain, wind, and sun …we experienced it all! We couldn’t have asked for a funner group of wildlings. And a group that played so well together!
Thanks for everything wild families
Previous Weeks
And off we went to settle into our homebase to make camp! We started our day off with opening circle talking about nature and trying out our local (to Lethbridge), edible, prickly pear cactus that I harvested the other day! Most of them liked it even! We spent time crushing local shale red rock to make into a primitive paint, talking about how the egg yolk is an ancient way to make the paint bind to surfaces. Some wildlings lasted a long time dedicated to the art of making paint! We traveled through cattails and sampled the new spring shoots, and these wildlings continued the kingdom game they created and have been building upon each week together.
These wildlings had a blast growing their game/story they call The Kingdom! Where I figured out that they create their own kingdoms and defend them and try to invade each other! Today we also enjoyed spending our time blowing dandelion bubbles, painting, working together to find dry wood and eventually build a fire to cook our bannock bread!
It turned out to be an unplanned fire day, which happens to be our favourite! We went on a mini foraging walk, trying willow catkins, grass and picked dandelions along the way. We told the legend of the dandelion, then whipped up tempura batter and cooked up our dandelions! We started a impromptu fire, foraging for easily ignitable things (because we only carry ferro rods) and using the firewood someone left behind we got the fire roaring in no time! These Wildlings made up a huge evolving storyline game they called Kings and Queens. They made dens and camouflaged, played in the swampy mud kitchen, coloured rocks, and we made up dandelion crowns to complete the look for their game!
We took to the extremely water engorged creek to keep us cool, our bodies are not yet summer time regulated! With the sun beating down on the cold water was a welcomed treat. These wildlings experimented with the currents, watched all the water spiders and micro invertebrates moving along, made friends with many lady bugs, and visited many ant hills to watch them work! (We even spotted 2 carrying one ant together between them 💪). We did 2 trips around from bridge to bridge, because one was NOT enough :). They definitely chose the path of most resistance, with drop offs to the river, skinny paths that needed helping hands, awkward manoeuvres, red ant hills, it was so exciting we had to work hard to control our excitement of running off for the betterment of the whole group at times. These wildlings were so engrossed in play and exploration we felt bad breaking it off at the end. We ended the day reading and discussing the wonderful world of our water cycle. And how awesome rain is for so many things!
With the eccentric weather as our companion we didn’t stop to gather long in circle time and instead went right into body warming play! We chopped vegetables for our stone soup, warmed hot chocolate, made banana boats, and even sampled dandelions! We went exploring and came across some of the first flowers of the season (prairie pea, non edible), they were all so excited to pick flowers for their moms, and couldn’t believe they survived the snow! This flower actually was a sign to indigenous that buffalo bulls were ready for the spring hunt, and the roots were used as a horse medicine. We came back to camp to warm by the fire and enjoy story time.
Even with hail coming down these wildlings were full of big smiles all day! Resilience in all weather!
After reading about patterns in nature, we went in search of patterns up close with magnifying glasses. From spots, strips and swirls to symmetrical shapes these wildlings were so invested in finding and sharing their finds with each other.
After our travels we settled in to paint on rocks and bark, camouflage, and create all sorts of things out of cattails.
Today we turned into trackers! Traveling in search of animal signs, we plastered animal tracks and took notice of animal dens and scat, learning to tell if an animal is a meat eater or not. We found river shells, crawfish and duck eggs as well! We came back to base camp finding a large body skeleton wondering what dinosaur it must have belonged to :). We ended the day with a surprise bear visitor! (Or a scary werewolf, depending how you look at it! ) We learned how to encounter a bear, when to back off, when to stay put, when to look big and when to lie down, and what to say. These wildlings, hesitant at first, became super invested once they realized that the scary visitor was not so scary after all.
Fire day! We started the day foraging for a homemade “birds nest”, searching for things in nature that are easy to ignite with a spark! Using ferro rods these wildings persevered till they started a fire of their own! We mixed up and made funnel cakes, and baked apples over the campfire.
These wildlings stretched out doing what calls to them most. Many spent most of their time using hammers/nails and drills. Playing on the slack-line and hammocks and mixing up all kinds of soups and potions in the mud kitchen!
The first day is all about connection, connection with the land and spaces we will spend our time in. But mostly we focus on building a good connection amongst the wildlings and each other, finding similarities, sharing laughs and building stories together. Making a space that all feel comfortable to grow.
We discussed risk and listening to our bodies, then allowed our feet to guide our path letting the children explore the land in a way that excited them! We traveled around finding interesting things and recognizing signs of spring! Then gathered back for snacks, play, getting muddy with the mud kitchen and reading books. All the nerves of the first day vanished quickly for each of them, these wildlings did amazing!
