Levi's Doings

Levi's program celebrated a Fall Festival and All Soul's Day/Halloween. At the Fall Festival the kids did a play depicting part of the Legend of Hiawatha. If I read this story in my past, I have forgotten it. Again, I'll recommend reading it. It's a powerful story about forgiveness. Hiawatha and Degondaweda forged a peace and confederation of formerly warring tribes that our founding fathers turned to when they designed our government.

At the festival, we are also able to enjoy the fruits of the kids' labor. We left with a goody bag of elderberry syrup, calendula salve, essence of chicory, and honey and comb from the program's hives. They syrup was made from elderberries picked on the farm and then cooked along with other herbs and spices to make a healing syrup. For the salve, the kids soaked calendula and comfrey in olive oil, strained it for the essence of the flowers and then combined with beeswax to make a salve good for applying to cuts, burns and scrapes. The chicory essence is a general pick-me-up and said to give one a "glad heart."

Each of the kids also came home with a bowl they had made from a gourd. The outside was decorated by wood burning. On the inside, they glued vegetable-dyed gourd seeds and Indian corn kernels. The seeds were further held onto the bowl with melted beeswax that then hardened over the seeds. They also made rattles--carved the stick handles, soaked and stretched animal skin, sewed it with rawhide string and put corn kernels inside to make it rattle.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Okay, so we're missing the tigers. But not much else. This is the sign I found on our neighborhood bulletin board a few days ago:

RESIDENTS OF LOP

PLEASE BE AWARE--

A MOUNTAIN LION AND A BEAR HAVE

BEEN SEEN ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE LAKE

IN THE LAST 2 DAYS

Now, I have to be honest that I find this more intriguing than frightening. I would LOVE to see a mountain lion in the wild--provided I knew I would be safe which, of course, I can't be provided. Its exciting to me to live in a place where the wildlife is still there--right there!

We do not let the kids or dog go outside alone after dusk. And we've learned, thanks to a CD by a local musician who sings for kids, what to do if we encounter one:

Remain calm (right!)

Back away slowly and don't turn your back

DON'T run

Make yourself look as large as possible by spreading out your arms and waving

Yell

Throw rocks, sticks or anything available if the lion becomes aggressive

Fight back if attacked

They are actually elusive creatures who are not seen all that frequently except that the spring time seemed to bring several of them into town. They are most active dusk to dawn but they do hunt during the daytime too.

Study up so you'll know what to do when you come visit!

Michaelmas

One of the center points of Waldorf education is the natural world and our connection to it. Waldorf schools celebrate the passing of the season with seasonal festivals. Michaelmas is the fall festival. It gets its name from the story of St. George and the Dragon. If you don't know the story, it's worth reading because I cannot do it justice here. So . . . the really, really short and non-poetic version is that George, a knight, is called on to save a princess from a dragon that is terrorizing the village. The villagers have been feeding it sheep, then their own children to appease it. It seems that next, the king's daughter will be sacrificed. George fights the dragon. In some versions he calls on the angel Micheal to help him and he either slays or tames the dragon.

Metaphorically, the Michaelmas celebration is about the coming of the dark (less daylight) and about us entering and battling our own darkness and dragons. None of this is said the the children. They experience the story directly.

So . . . the little kids each went on a quest to mark Michaelmas. One at a time, the children were dressed in a golden cape and given a sword. They then crossed a river of flame (a shaking red play silk), crossed an icy raging river (blue play silk the ran down a wall into a bed around a tree), crossed the dragons spines (a set of low pilings on the playground), and rescued the princess. After the rescue, the were each knighted and had a star bestowed upon them. The stars ones the children had each "stitched" (as Oliver insisted, NOT sewed) out of yellow felt with beautiful blanket stitching around the edge. My child can sew? The blanket stitch? Cool.

They were all so proud of themselves. The celebration ended with an all-school picnic on the campus.