Gravel hills and Pumpkin Jack
Last week, the school district had an inservice day. That meant that in addition to my usual crew of babies and toddlers, I got four Kindergarten and First-grade kids back for a day! I have genuinely missed them. It always makes my heart happy and full to have my full gang around me. I mean I obviously drink more coffee on days like that. I’m not a crazy font of patience without a little help from my BFF caffeine… but it brings me great joy to have all my little loves with me. It’s worth the insanity. I should note here that all of them have been with me since each of them WAS a toddler or preschooler, and simply aged out as they came of school age.
A couple days prior to this “full-house day,” the toddlers and I discovered a fantastic gravel hill on our usual morning walk. There’s a whole neighborhood of houses being constructed nearby, and this awesome pile of gravel was thoughtfully left for our enjoyment (obviously) in a dead-end cul-de-sac. I thought it would be awesome to bring shovels and buckets and revisit it with the big kids! After everyone arrived and got settled (much hugging/wrestling/ shrieking/ sprinting/etc.), they all found their helmets and chose their bikes or scooters. I strapped Baby B into the Ergo and buckled our slightly older baby friend into the stroller, and everyone grabbed the shovels and buckets they wanted to bring. It was chaos for ten minutes and then…peace.
They are a very well-trained herd when we are out on bike rides, out of necessity. They all yell “CAR” at the top of their lungs as soon as they see one, and every last one of them immediately goes to the curb. They ride right along the side of the road by the curb, and they stop at each street sign or stop sign to wait for all of us to catch up and regather before continuing on. It’s honestly very calm and one of my favorite things to do with them. For reference though, we live in a VERY quiet neighborhood that is perfect for this. It’s a massive privilege that I do not take for granted.
We found this monarch on our walk and it was like a six-bike-pileup - they all just skidded to a halt; they were SO excited!
After a brisk twenty-minute walk/bike/ scooter, we found the gravel hill again! Just as I suspected, it was a HUGE HIT. They rode up and down it, they created paths in it, they dug and scooped and dumped and raked…they did it all. There was an extremely minimal amount of squabbling over gravel territory and tools. It was so peaceful and stress-free for all of us. I was over the moon to see them all back together, getting tons of fresh air, exercise, and unstructured play.
Baby B took a sweet little contact nap on me and our other baby friend played with a pinecone and was her usual chill self in the stroller. The babies are always just as happy as everyone else to be outside!
Then, like dominoes, the shoes and socks started to come off. They really wanted the sensory input of the gravel on their feet! Then the burying of each other's feet became the new game, while some continued to ride BMX-style up and down the hill. And yes, when we got home, there was gravel in socks. AND pants. AND hair. AND diapers. All totally solve-able problems! They’re also all really good at climbing onto the bathroom counter to wash their hands and feet at the same time. It’s an accepted part of our barefoot life.
We stayed at Gravel Hill PlayLand for an hour or so, and then biked and scootered and walked home for snack and baby naptime.
Over snack, I read them PUMPKIN JACK, by Will Hubbell. GET EXCITED because you’re going to hear Pumpkin Jack updates for an entire year. My sister turned me on to this project when she did it with her children last year. PUMPKIN JACK is an excellent read-aloud with beautiful illustrations that chronicles a jack-o’-lantern over the course of an entire year. The jack-o’-lantern (Jack) begins to rot and gets tossed in the garden, where he finishes decomposing. The child who carved Jack covers his few remaining seeds with soil, sort of as a goodbye…and you can guess what happens! By the end of the book, Jack has come full circle.
We began our own Pumpkin Jack observation with two different sized pumpkins in plastic containers. We are so excited to see what happens over the course of the year! Be sure to follow along so you can see how it goes.
When everyone had been fed and read to, the benefits of our two hour walk-and-gravel-hill-adventure really showed up. Of their own accord, they got out markers and crayons and coloring sheets and blank paper and for ONE ENTIRE HOUR they quietly colored and chatted. Two-year-olds, a three-year-old, five-year-olds, six-year-olds…they had clearly gotten what their bodies and minds needed in the way of exercise and sunshine and sensory input, because they were unbelievably calm, regulated, and focused.
I mostly stayed out of the way and enjoyed hearing them catch up with each other, while I played with Baby B and our other baby friend napped.
Then, I blinked, and it was lunchtime! After lunch, it was our usual routine of diapers, stories, and naps for toddlers, which we really have down to a carefully-orchestrated science. Then I got to enjoy some quiet big kid time! I wasn’t sure if they’d want anything structured, so I offered an art project but made sure they knew it was optional. They all chose to participate and ended up loving it! We made crayon leaf rubbings and then watercolored over them. It was fun because the crayon wax resists the watercolor so you wind up with a really cool end product. This is not technically process art, but it’s very open-ended: they choose the leaves, the crayon colors, the leaf placement, the watercolor. In fact, none of them turned out to be even close to the same.
Big Girl and I enjoyed this so much we want to do some more and hang them up like a banner. They are so pretty! I also want to experiment with different types of paper. Confession: sometimes I do art with the kids so that I can do art. Like, it’s not really for the kids. It’s so soothing! This one was definitely better for the preK/K/first grade age range…ask me how I know. In my past experience, toddlers have a very hard time with the leaf crayon rubbings, and it’s not worth the frustration. So I’ve been waiting for a “big kid day” to try this. We really lucked out with toddler and baby naps going as scheduled, and we all got to enjoy this peaceful art experience at the same time. Which really just means that I actually got to do some art of my own, which was really pleasant. I even lit a fall candle for ambiance. I swear it keeps them calmer. I don’t know why, no fancy research or theories…it just does. Maybe it helps to set the mood?
As they finished that up (they all did several variations), they asked to go back outside. So they had some unstructured outside time, while we waited for toddlers and babies to wake up.
When I started writing about this particular lovely day, I wasn’t sure why I felt compelled to write about it. It wasn’t funny or earth-shatteringly creative…but as I wrote it, I realized I wasn’t really writing it for you guys. I was writing it for me…I wanted to remember a great autumn day with my favorite little people, spending time in nature, reading, exploring with our senses, doing a little art and science…we crammed all that into one day and somehow it still didn’t feel like too much for them. It felt unstructured and relaxed and as though they had plenty of time to just be with one another. We went with the flow and learned some things along the way, but most of all we really enjoyed the fellowship of our little crowd.
If there’s a lesson in this, I guess it may be to plan for plenty of things, do what feels like it fits and don’t jam in more than that just because you planned it, but if the mood is right, allow that happy flow to keep going!
Is there a time when you’ve had an experience like this? Or perhaps one when you tried to cram in too much, and it did NOT go as you’d imagined? It’s a fine line to walk, and I’d love to hear about your memories, or answer any questions you have about the things we did.