We have had such a magical start to the winter session. The cold weather has brought a lot of ice, and with that a lot of fun exploring, skating, breaking, and investigating it. On Monday we had some magical snowfall as we started our day. What a beautiful welcome to the new year and the Winter session. We looked all around Trillium camp to see what had changed since we had been there two weeks earlier. We found a lot can change in just two weeks!

On Tuesday we discovered there was ice that formed on the creek. We spent much of the day ice fishing, skating rocks across the ice, breaking it, and making ice popsicles. 

On Wednesday we investigated how the ice had changed and went on a wander to see how the ice looked at different parts of the creek. We discovered that it looked different everywhere. Some places had almost no ice, while others were almost completely covered! We also found the perfect puddle to smash! 

On Thursday we went on a wander to the bird feeder. On our journey we found so many frozen puddles that made perfect skating rinks. The kids loved skating around on the mini rinks! We also found that there were things frozen in the ice, like leaves, and sticks.

I can’t believe that the Fall session has come to an end! This past week we celebrated every day with special food: nettle and rosehip tea, hemlock tea, fire roasted pumpkin seeds, and popcorn over the fire. What kind of celebration would it be without costumes! It was like a party every day.   

We also retold our Peace Superhero Story. This story was adapted from the Haudenosaunee peace story by Melissa Blake in collaboration with tribe members. In this story we meet Fine Words Fox, who uses their finest words, like please and how are you feeling. We also meet Shadow Tail, the squirrel, who grows in size when they realize how good it feels to help out. Shadow Tail carries the other Peace Superheroes on their back as they journey through the forest. Next, we meet Feel Better Butterfly, who helps others to feel better with their beautiful dancing and kind words. Peaceful Porcupine helps others to find inner peace by guiding them to take deep breaths, saying, “Everybody fill your balloon. And let it all out.” Our final superhero is Unity Unicorn who helps others to find common ground and things they can all agree on. The Peace Superheroes left us five peace stones to help us remember their superpowers and how to use them. 

Enjoy this fun little video from one of the performances.

We have had so much fun playing in both the snow and mud this past week. 

We have also been working on making friction fires with a bow drill. The kids have been helping us gather supplies for tinder bundles, whispies, pencil, and marker sticks. They encourage us, when we are having a hard time getting a coal and are amazed when the fire starts. It has been a fun process to get them involved with and learn about. 

More photos from the week. 

What a wild ride this weather has been.  Warm, cold, snow, rain, wind, and sun! The kids have been making some strong friendships. It is so much fun to watch them bloom. There have been so many games of family and different animals.

This past week we learned about birds. On Monday and Tuesday we went on a wander to fill up a bird feeder near another camp that the homeschool kids use and to see if any seeds had been eaten yet. We learned some bird songs and practiced the chickadee, cardinal, and blue jays calls. We also learned the Gayogohó:nǫˀ word for sandpiper which is Duwisduwi. We had a lot of fun saying that name as it also mimics the sound the bird makes. Duwisduwi is also one of the six clan names of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ people. When the children learned that the song birds who don’t fly south have to forage for food all winter, they were excited to make bird feeders and provide some food for them. On Wednesday and Thursday we made bird feeders with pine cones, peanut butter and birdseed. Many of the children took home bird feeders and we also hung up several around Trillium Camp. We hope we will get to see some birds snacking while we are there some days.

Last week we focused on trees and learned how to tell the difference between Maple and Sycamore leaves. We also made White Pine tea. The children love harvesting White Pine needles.  I’m looking forward to more adventures in the forest this fall and making observations at our bird feeders in the weeks ahead. 

We had so much fun this week with pumpkins! When we arrived to Trillium Camp on Monday we found a large pumpkin waiting for us. The children were very excited to find this surprise. We cut open our pumpkin and removed the seeds. The kids worked very hard to get them all out. On Tuesday and Wednesday we hammered pieces of the meat of the pumpkin to boards to make feeders for the animals. We placed them around camp so we can make observations of what might like to eat it. So far we saw ants and slugs enjoying them. We hope to see some teeth marks of larger animals too eventually. We also spotted a large toad while placing our feeders! On Thursday we roasted our seeds and alomst everyone loved them.

We also got out the costume box on Monday and Thursday and the children had a lot of fun becoming different animals and people. Many became owls. We also had a pizza maker, a parent, a fairy or two, and a few horses.

Another amazing thing that happed this week was that Trillium camp flooded on Tueday night. The children loved playing in the puddles and mud all week. On Thursday we gathered sand and brought it down to fill a big hole left by the raging water.