Today was day two of our Natural Kids Summer Camp. We spent the morning building fairy houses in the woods, using whatever natural materials the kids could find to be imaginative with: bark, leaves, sticks, pine cones, acorns, rocks… They worked collaboratively to gather materials, and then to build five little houses together around a very large pine tree, with lots of nooks and hollows in its base. When they were finished, they explored in the woods – the older ones roaming out of eyesight, or so they believed: it’s important for children to have private time, even if in this case we were keeping an eye on them to make sure they were safe. Let them think we couldn’t see them.

Eventually they found a clump of Weeping Canadian Hemlocks that made a large enclosed area, safe from any grown-up eyes that might have happened by (none did, but that didn’t stop them from watching from the peep-holes vigilantly to protect their secret!). We ate lunch in the branches, and then Julia and I sat and watched them climbing and making believe for an hour. She looked at me and asked, “You still think it’s ok that we didn’t make a whole lesson plan, right?”
“I think it’s perfect.” I told her.