Sharing our Fairy Lane Story

      
I spent the better part of this weekend at a retreat called Sacred Earth at beautiful Camp Fircom on Gambier Island just a 15 minute water taxi away from Vancouver.
         
My daughter is part creator of Community Catalysts and they believe we all have knowledge worth sharing and we don’t have to be a professional speaker to share that knowledge.
   
When my daughter asked me to share my story of Fairy Lane I was very hesitant.  I have a difficult time speaking in front of adults unless they have a child in front of them.  But through her coaching and encouragement I agreed to present. 
 
I’m really glad I did.  The process allowed me to really reflect on each step of the creation of Fairy Lane.  How did it start?  How did the families react? Participate?  Share what was happening?  What motivated each chapter in our Fairy Lane story?  And how did Fairy Lane connect families with nature and together as a community?
   
I shared the story through pictures and words and felt comfortable doing it.  I knew this story so well that I didn’t stumble or search for words as I normally would when speaking to a group.
 
After telling the story we headed outside to find items to decorate our doors.  I brought the Nature Bags for the participants to use to collect their nature items but to also help them remember what children like to feel.
       
As we walked we enjoyed the wonderful setting, the sights and sounds.  We also shared our stories of fairies or other wee folk.  One family (two sisters and their mom) shared a childhood memory of gnomes.  The oldest daughter had created gnome homes on their property and that they spent countless hours outside creating and the younger siblings would write letters to the gnome and it would write back. 
 
Back inside each participant went to work designing their door.  I floated around the room to get to know each better and learn what brought them to this retreat.  Also asking what they wanted to do with their door.
 
Some are planning on taking their door home and finding a special place for it somewhere in the city.  Some want to create more doors with the people they work with and place them around for others to find.
 
Others decided that they wanted to leave their door there at Camp Fircom.
 
No matter their plans this retreat brought us together as a community that was willing to open up and share what we know.  To learn from each other and have a feeling of belonging.
 
By being a presenter I was also a participant and learned more about myself from attending this retreat.
      
        
I have to thank my daughter for being such a wonderful supporter of what I do and of who I am.  We can always learn from our children if we open our hearts and minds to it.  And most important believe in ourselves.

          Yes I can be a presenter!  Yes I'm a catalyst!

Thistle Seed

    
We have had so much fun exploring thistle seed in the sensory
table this week.  Have a look.
 
 
  
 
 
        
Even some silliness being an elephant.

Building a Worm Hotel

    
 Today we went on a worm walk.
 
It was dry out today and we really had to search to find live worms. 
One child told us that worms don’t like the sun so we found a shady
spot and started to search.  We dug and dug under the old leaves.
     
We finally found some, shared them, then pulled out our Nature Bags.
   
Our nature bags was full of the things we needed for measuring worms.
     
  
The children used the cubes to measure how long their worm was. 
They counted each cube till they had the length of their worm.
   
They added marks on their paper to match the blocks.

   
Once everyone had a worm we headed to the garden to build
our worm hotel.  We started by scooping soil into a big jar. 
    
A smaller bottle was centered in the big jar to make the space
narrower so we can see the worms tunneling once they move in. 
We also added layers of dead leaves and sand.
 
We moved the worms into their new home.
       
I explained the reason we added a layer of sand was so we
would be able to see where the worms move around their
hotel.  They’ll move the sand and soil as they tunnel.
  

And as the child said earlier, “worms don’t like the sun”,
we’ll keep them covered when we’re not watching.

Roll-a-Ball

Over Spring Break I set up a new play area for the families
to explore.  I call it roll-a-ball and was inspired by a tube
and funnel post from Fun at Home with Kids.
      
I taped a dryer hose, letting it hang at a couple of points,
on a wall.  Set a basket on the floor at the lower end. 
The idea is to drop a ball at one end and watch it come out the
other end. 
       
But the ball doesn’t roll through, it stops in the droops. 
So where is it in the tube? 
How do we get it out?
 
When it didn't come out he looked in both ends and wiggled
the tube but it still didn’t come out.  Or maybe it did so he
looked around the floor.  When he didn’t find the ball he
came back to the tube and tried again.
 
He continued shaking the tube finally figuring out that if he
lifted the tube high enough at a certain point the ball would
come out.
     
            Then he did it all over again.

 
   The roll-a-ball works well as a cooperative effort too.

Flower Snack

    We made flower sandwiches this morning for snack.

The recipe gives the children a chance to ‘read’ and follow the
directions.
  
They had a choice of cookie cutters to use to cut out the
flowers.
 
They had a choice of jams, strawberry or blueberry, to
spread on the bread flowers.
  
They put the two flowers together to eat and enjoy.

                    And they did.