Growing Together
The Cooperative School Blog
The year winds down. Only a few weeks, a handful of days, left. I’m specifically not counting , but this year’s Tracks class is keeping count in a way that others haven’t. “Is this the last day I play the rhythm,” one asks. I force myself to think. Ada answers, though. She seems better equipped to think of the bittersweet in the beginning/endings, thankfully.
She also never gave up. There were frustrated tears and there was comforting and encouragement. All that was followed by steely resolve and months, months of trial and error, trial and error. This is the kind of confidence builder you cannot manufacture or lesson plan out. And she will carry it with her always.
On our last walk to the forest, the children learned that the new paint markings were indeed the precedent to roadwork as they predicted, but specifically it was for a new sidewalk not road, that led them down the hill. They learned that the vine charcoal that they made on the fire the week before worked perfectly for drawing new maps. They learned about a fascinating phenomenon that only happens in the Spring — the oak pollen, dogwood and tulip poplar petals collect in the eddies on the creek and fool the eye (but not the hand, foot, or stick) into thinking that there is solid ground that can be stepped on. They learned that they could follow the deer path and not get lost. The children also learned that if you fall in the water, you will get wet.
