Chicks, tools, ropes and mud. A strange combination of activities have helped us have an incredibly fun week!
We've had so many highlights of this week that we struggled to choose the best pics so I'm afraid there are rather a few :-)
Our eggs arrived on Monday, but as they needed a few days to incubate we busied ourselves with nature walks where thanks to the recent rains we were able to find a little frog and some fantastically furry caterpillars. We also this week introduced the 'tool box' to some of our new starters and explained the various tools we use at Little Forest Folk and the safety procedures around the use of them. The children really enjoy the feeling of responsibility and trust they feel from being able to use tools and try very hard to prove themselves suitable by adhering to all the safety rules.
We've also been getting busy with ropes and have hung a variety of rope games across the trees, from rope swings, to rope climbs and ropes to use your imagination with. Most popular have been the rope swings where the children have delighted in swinging around and have shown remarkable consideration on the whole to their friends and take turns pushing each other without being asked, just because they want to help their friends.
On Wednesday our first chicks hatched and we've had the remaining eight chicks hatch over the past couple of days. The children have been utterly mesmerised by the cycle of the chick hatching, from sitting and watching a hole in an egg getting bigger and seeing the little beak poking out to having a gorgeous little chirruping chick hatching has been a remarkable process for them. We've been inundated with questions as to how, why and what is happening - we love it! We see our job in life to enhance a child's natural curiosity and the chicks have certainly helped with that. We've explained that we have to look after them for one more week and then they are going to be taken back to the farm to live with all of their chick friends. We look forward to another week of lovely baby chick interaction before we have to say our sad goodbyes.
Talking of sad goodbyes, today is Phoebe's last day with us at Little Forest Folk. Both the children and the staff will miss her dearly and wish her all the luck in the world. One little boy summed up our feelings when earlier this week he declared he was going to miss Phoebe as 'she is so beautiful'. Bless him!