This week we invited parents and guardians to join us on our adventure. We are so grateful to have these opportunities with your little ones it is a joy we love to share. The children were eager to show their parents the spaces we’ve visited, the games they’ve played and mishaps they recovered from. Sharing put a big proud smile on every child’s face and watching the parents enter play at their level was such a treat! Slipping and sliding down the hill, wolf howling loud to our friends across the way, and racing through fir forest in our biggest tree tag game yet, were all opportunities for the kids to lead the way and demonstrate wholeheartedly all that they have learned.
Sprouting Knowledge Posts
What a lovely last two weeks we had at Sprouting Knowledge Outdoor Adventures you can tell summer solstice is nearby because the park is already warm when we arrive at 8:45 and there was another surprise in the park today…..something missing.
Today was a cloudy, drizzly day which meant that our newfound hideout under the huge Willow tree in North Bank was the perfect place to be! FJ conjured up a train to get us all there, with him and SH hand in hand playing the slow rear engine the whole way there! Many stops were made to let passengers on and off at all our favorite spots and to clean up the creek a bit as we went, but eventually we made it across the low road and into the grassy field at the foot of the willow.
June has been such a special time in our favourite Peterson Creek Park! The creek babbles away back to normal levels, the flowers are out, and the trees in full bloom and cover. Our every morning musical bridge has a full canopy shading it and bringing out the magic of the place even more! Our 1.1km journey to South Bank saw us crawl like beavers through the thick grown Juniper on the lower paths, stroll quietly like deer under the tall wide Hawthorn tree, bounce around the big Willows by the creekbed like foxes, take a quick detour to see the tall Cottonwood that fell into the creek earlier this Spring, and finally meander like bears through Fir Forest and down into our beloved South Bank creekbed. Our morning forest song continues to be a great way to put ourselves in the animals shoes, and really connect with what’s around us!
Ponderosa Palace felt about that big today once we made our way over the big hill and tucked our things under the big nurse Pine. As our Thursday group gains confidence and independence, we take up more and more space to roam, and each child selects their own preferred mode of play. AL lived true to her dad’s words by showing off her impressive climbing ability on the big Ponderosa, and even stayed tough and brave when her climb down caused a bit of a scrape. NS also took his turn at the climb when he craved a little quiet time on his own later on.
Fir Forest was not only our destination, but also very much a theme for our play today. The kids are now embracing our early morning Forest Song, and IB was so excited to sing along and pick which animal we were to be today – rabbits and bears are always on the list! It gets us on all fours and feeling and sensing what nature brings us each day.
Our group is getting very good at slower nature walks that allow us to notice things around us first thing in the morning and today really put that to the test! We started the day with the Forest Song for when the people are gone. We transformed into a herd of quiet deer who moved, so quiet, attentive, listening and ready to be quick. We noticed the river was lower, the grass was high, and there were beautiful new flax and rose flowers on our sandy digging hill. CS couldn’t believe that no more water overflowed on the trail as we crossed the bridge and traveled North down to the creek bed.
Not every day begins the same, and this Tuesday was that kind of day! For some mysterious reason our yellow park gate was closed this morning, so us early arrivals had to walk the length of the road to get to our usual meeting spot, extended our daily hike by a lot for little legs!
This Thursday was a great chance to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather, to head up high and check out Ponderosa Palace; a beautiful place we only go to on extra special days! It was up to the kids today to find their way back to this place we haven’t been since there was snow on the ground, and SH-F led the way with the confidence of a true explorer. EF, CD and JH picked a different route approached the palace from above and tried to sneak up on the rest of the group. They were foiled by CS who used his owl eyes and deer ears to spot their movements from below.
Now in the middle of May and halfway through our Spring preschool session, we start to venture a little further into the park. As we meandered our way South to Fir Forest, we quickly saw the effects of Spring at our feet. A section of Creekside, our usual trail, was entirely washed out! This years spring flooding caused a continuation of last years washout, eroding the bank and taking down a Cottonwood tree as well as the junipers that lined the trail. The children remembered the spot on the trail from last year and were excited to witness first hand the power of spring run off.