Week 9 Update - Ms. Drea’s Explorers
Hello Explorer Families,
It’s our last week together before Winter Farm Camps. If you haven’t already registered, there’s still time. Here’s the link to sign up.
Friday morning was cold. Really cold. I’d brought hot herbal tea for those who wanted to keep their hands warm— thank you parents who packed a mug— and about half our Explorers imbibed. A lot of them asked if it was the tea we’d made a few weeks past. It wasn’t—though it did have chamomile (and orange and mint and linden flowers). Everyone was invited to close their eyes, while I passed the tea around and asked them to identify the scents.
We played Blind Samurai a little differently this week— I was it. I expected protests, but both days they seemed relieved. New evasion techniques were discovered on Saturday. Mr. Austen and I got to witness mirror neurons in action as everyone instantaneously followed suit. We added some foot stomping and coordination routines with our morning clapping game both days, to get the blood flowing before starting off on our chores.
It’s so important that we keep the weeds down without tilling or disturbing the soil unnecessarily. To do so, we use tarps and we need them to stay down! The wind has a way with them. Our Friday Explorers helped out by filling up bags of sand for weights.
They were all eager to dig, some even choosing to do it during free play. Saturday’s class felt left out and asked “what are those things?”, several times during the morning. They were not too thrilled to feed the chickens, but lucky for them the coop door was stuck, the roosters were trapped inside and they were safe.Those who weren’t interested in refiling the feed bucket played a strong round of freeze tag with Mr. Austen.
Friday we made it to the creek and when it was muddy as could be, we just kept on walking. We’d seen some unusual tracks and big piles of cow dung, so we ventured off path for a “cow hunt”. It led us all the way to the farthest Southeast end of the vineyards where nature pee became an adventure in and of itself. Turns out little people have no trouble hiding behind grape vines. They couldn’t hide from the cows though, who were happy to eat the apple we’d found in the creek bed and lick everyone’s fingers afterwards.
Saturday we didn’t get that far, and by then we were sure there weren’t any cows to “hunt”. We followed Fridays’ trail through the grass anyway, and ended up at the oaks facing the vineyards where we played freeze tag, collected oak galls and discovered burrows until it was time for lunch. We’d spread our towels out before that trek, after I heard the 3rd or 4th request for a nap. We sniffed the tea too, and those mirror neurons woke up again as suddenly everyone could smell the herbs when I named them. We talked about the trees and wondered aloud how they got there. Were they planted as seeds? Saplings? Or did they come up as suckers?
A fitting segue to plant our paper white bulbs in jars. What are paperwhites? They are a white, perennial variety of narcissus— native to the Mediterranean and naturalized in several states, including Texas. Why plant them? They’re beautiful! If you keep the jars filled with water and near a sunny window sill, they’ll bloom just in time for Christmas too. What a wonderful opportunity to discuss life cycles of a plant and to talk about other propagation methods.
Gear up for one more cold morning and pack those mugs. If nobody objects, I can make vegan hot chocolate or I can stick to the tea. Let me know! Until then, take care and enjoy your week!
Ms. Drea