From st muffins wheel barrow June 2010

From st muffins wheel barrow June 2010

We had such a fun week at camp.  We baked blueberry, apple muffins which were delicious……..not too sweet.  It’s fun to see the kids who have been coming to camp for a couple years able to measure and mix their muffins.  Sometimes it takes a lot of self control for the grownups to step back a little and let the kids go ahead and cook.  For these “experienced” cooks it’s nice to let them ask for help if they need it. 

From st muffins wheel barrow June 2010

From st muffins wheel barrow June 2010

 For our art project we used flowers to paint with instead of brushes.  It was interesting to see that one group loved using the flowers and the other group wasn’t that interested.  Some of the art was gorgeous, all the are was colorful and full of fun!

From

From st muffins wheel barrow June 2010

Before lunch I gave the kids a ride in a wheel barrow.  This is my rusty old garden wheel barrow so I covered it up with a couple wool blankets and the kids rode in the lap of luxury!  Some of the kids wanted their parents to give them their ride and at least one parent wanted a turn giving rides….Fun for all!!!

From st June 2010 kites

It was hot today and everyone seemed to be happy hanging out under the oak trees crafting.  We made a simple little kite  (which really works) and a colorful windsock.  Both crafts were very simple with lots of wiggle room.  With both the kite and the windsock we started by decorating the paper we used to make our craft.  I had stickers and stamps, felt pens and colored pencils.  Some of the kids were finished in an instant, others sat down and meticulously placed stickers side by side in a planned pattern.  We also had play dough out.  The kids seemed to really enjoy working with the playdough too.  Today was an example of how kids like to revisit the familiar.  Paper, felt pens, stickers, stamps, playdough, rolling pins, water play, hanging laundry….these are all things all these kids are familiar with.  This hot day was the perfect time to hang out in the shade and work with familiar materials in a comfortable way.

It was so hot that we didn’t eat our lunch out on the front lawn as we usually do.  It seemed cooler in the craft area so I spread the blankets out on the gravel in the shade.  As everyone ate lunch I read some poetry…..it was a very sweet moment.

From Gnomes

 We had an invasion of gnomes at camp this week.  I had fun cutting branches from my oak and pine trees to create “starters” for the kids and grown ups to transform into gnomes.  I drew faces on some of the sticks and left the rest blank.  Most of the kids chose the blank sticks to create their own interpretation of the project.  We were making gnomes; you know, beards and pointy hats.  Oh no, that’s not the whole story.  Many of the kids wanted clothes, shirts and dresses, some with beards and dresses some with no beards.  Everyone loved this project.  This was something I found online at That Artist Woman.  I’ve used lots of her ideas.  Take a peek it’s a great website.

From st paradchute gnomes

“We have loved Gail’s classes!!!! There is wonder there, and calm away from the chores and mess, etc that can make home feel chaotic. It invites me and my child to explore together and take a respite from the daily grind of whatever power struggles or the like we might be going through and truly enjoy one another and enjoy the day we have been given.”  This is the comment Anna made on the Sono-Ma website in response to the article written about Smiling Tree Camp.

Wonder,respite,enjoy one another, these are the words I love to hear people say about their time at camp.  Thank you Anna for your kind words.

Featured on Sono-Ma…please comment

Smiling Tree Camp has been featured on the Sono-Ma website again and I’m very excited.  Sometimes it takes hearing it from other people to know whether what you’re doing is right or not.  Holly, “the” Sono-Ma has described Smiling Tree Summer Camp in a way I never could and in a way I hope everyone who comes to camp agrees with.  If you’ve got the time please take a minute to visit her site and make a comment on the  article about my camp.  While you’re there look around and find some of the cool things she has to share.  The article about Smiling Tree is in the “Live Local” section, in the “Earth Centered” section of the website there is a story (with tutorial) about a mom who built a play kitchen for her child out of an old entertainment center she bought on Craig’s list for $20……….it’s adorable!!  There is also a local pediatrician, Mark Sloan who writes a regular column.  Dr Sloan’s article about pesticides and ADHD is in the body and soul section of the site.  By the way, I have an ad on the home page.  There’s lots to see in this new website and I’m proud to be featured there.

From Collages

These are the kids’ favorite poses

We Are Peaceful                         From Collages

 A peaceful moment for 6 wiggly kids

This has been a great year of yoga for this group of preschoolers.  The group changes over the school year.  Some kids come in to give it a try and it’s not a fit at that moment, some come and go and come back again, other stay.  This group has pretty much been together for two years and it’s been fun to see them growing.  These kids really enjoy yoga and there are moments in our fun and sometimes crazy class that they are peaceful.  I managed to capture  a peaceful moment in the photos. 

From Collages Art/still life

I brought the still life project to one of my “Nanny families”.   While Amelia’s Grandma was visiting from Wisconsin I set up the still life.  It was so sweet to see the two of them working side by side, using the same materials to create very different, very much the same finished products.  I love that Amelia’s mom framed the paintings and displayed them side by side in her hallway “gallery”.

From st graton art day

I’ve been excited about this class ever since I came up with the idea.  My inspiration was from a kids’ art blog, Laugh, Paint, Create.   I’ve made several trips to the Graton Art Gallery, had several telephone conversations with Pam Lewis, one of the resident artists.  To make this a fun outing for the kids and adults I put together an “I Spy” which directed everyone through the current exhibit.  Each adult/child had a mini clip board and a list of things to find ie angry red dog, spiral strawberry,  white house etc.  I encouraged everyone to talk about the art, look for familiar shapes, favorite colors, texture; we talked about stills life’s and abstracts.  It was great seeing every comfortably exploring the art gallery.  We talked about being respectful of the art and all the kids were welcome to touch all the art that was in the sculpture garden.  Before we left the gallery Pam generously offered one of her art print cards to each of the children.

From the gallery we came to Smiling Tree.  We had a snack, a story and created a still life and abstract painting.  I love when parents and kids work side by side.  Each had their own canvas and their own interpretation of the art.  Aren’t the side by side photos adorable!  I loved this workshop and hope to do it again!!!

Another fun parent/child activity at Smiling Tree Farm here in Santa Rosa.  When parents sign up for this “cooking” class they know they are signing up for a sweet morning filled with sugar and more sugar.  For some of the kids this is their one big sweet splurge.  One of the moms said they elimate any conflict about too many sweets by not having any in their house at all.  A dad said they reserve sweets for special occasions.  So, today was that day.  We had plates of sugar cookies in enticing shapes (hearts of all sizes, doves, teddy bears and little sweet men).  Each child had their own dish of candy toppings including m&m’s, raisins, red hots and of course conversation hearts.  After several cookie decorating workshops I’ve realized this is a way to have portion control and no worries about little fingers and possible “cross contamination”.  Some of the kids piled their cookies high with frosting, sprinkles and candies.  Some ate their candies first then decorated with icing only.  The kids and parents were free to decorate and eat as many cookies as they wanted.  My hope was that they would take home more than they ate but it was probably a toss up. 

After everyone had their fill of decorating we moved into the living room and strung love bead braclets.  It was such a beautiful day that the kids wanted to go outside to play so off everyone went to swing and explore.  We came back inside for stories, songs and a cup of tea and hot chocolate and one more cookie and cupcake for the road.  This was definetly a sweet day of sugar, quality time and memory making.

Special thanks to my friend Robin who helped me set up and keep things going…and clean up too….what a friend!!

 Cookies, cupcakes and frosting were all made for scratch.  Here are my recipes:

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart)

makes 18-24 regular cupcakes …. 83 mini cupcakes

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder                                                                                              1 1/2 cups flour                                                                                                                              1 1/2 cups sugar                                                                                                                             1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda                                                                                                        3/4 teaspoons baking powder                                                                                                      3/4 teaspoons salt                                                                                                                           2 large eggs                                                                                                                                     3/4 cup warm water                                                                                                                        3/4 cup buttermilk                                                                                                                          3 tablespoons vegetable oil                                                                                                            1 teaspoon vanila extract

1. preheat oven to 350.  Line muffins with paper liners.  Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

2.  Divide batter evenly among muffins cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Bake until tops spring back when touched , about 20minutes for full sized, 10minutes for mini cakes.

 Gail’s Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies — my girlfriend Carol named these, I think I found the recipe in a magazine and it’s the one that all my kids took to class and entered in the Sonoma County fair. 

4 1/2 cups flour                                                                                                                               1tsp baking powder                                                                                                                      1/2 tsp baking soda                                                                                                                         1/2 tsp salt                                                                                                                                    1/4 tsp nutmeg                                                                                                                              

1 cup soft butter                                                                                                                             1 1/2 cups sugar                                                                                                                             1 egg                                                                                                                                               1/2 cup sour cream                                                                                                                        1 tsp vanilla

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.  Beat butter, sugar and egg till light and fluffy.  At low speed, beat in sour cream and vanilla till smooth.  Gradually add flour mixture, beating till well combined.  Wrap in waxed paper or foil:  refrigerate several hours or overnight. Divide into 4 parts then roll out and cut.

Bake at 350 degrees aprox 8 minutes

Note:  I still wrap sandwiches in waxed paper but find this telling of how old this recipe is that it reccomends waxed paper or foil…..I wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze

Frosting…..one of the dads asked if it’s easy to make frosting…..YES!

Powdered sugar, some butter, a little bit of milk, sprinkle of vanilla, dash of salt…..beat ’til smooth and fluffy……………I’m pretty sure there’s a real recipe on the box of powdered sugar

We had such fun at our cooking/sewing class here in Santa Rosa.  We made Pumpkin Bread and stitched little fabric pendants.  We snacked on mini muffins and everyone took home their loaf of bread and string  of pendants to decorate their homes. 

From Collages

As part of our cooking theme I set up a little sniff and smell game.  I had dishes of whole spices ( cinnimon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger) and the same spices in ground form the kids and grown ups grated the whole spices and tried to match to the ground….fun/interesting.  We also went out to the garden and picked some carrots, beets and radishes.  The carrots were planted last fall aren’t they pretty!

Sometimes the kids’ art gets left here.  I love these two pieces so much I ”hung” them on the wall under our oil painting of Howard’s Cafe in Occidental.  My photography doesn’t do any of these pieces justice.  The kids’ art has a lot of texture and movement.  These pieces have inspired me to offer some “real art” classes in the future.  I’ve changed the way I set up the paints for class.  Lately I’ve been giving each child a pallete (pie pan) with three colors.  They get to mix their colors and see cause and effect right in their pallete.

From Cassidy & Jackson w/Gail

From Collages

From st autumn

I loved these pumpkin projects.  I like to make a sample of the projects before camp and it’s always fun to see what the kids do with the materials provided.  They always find a way of personalizing their work.  I’ve seen paper bag pumpkins before.  They look like paper sacks stuffed and painted….cute.  Our paper bag pumpkins were little works of art!!  This was a two day project.  Each child  started with a pallet of yellow, red, and a little dab of golden color .  It was fun seeing the kids mix their colors and create orange!!  We talked about how pretty the bright clear spots of red and yellow looked with the blended orange.  The kids put the paper bag on one hand and painted with the other.  I saw these beautiful (I think they’re beautiful) pumpkins on the website That Artist Woman .  We found twigs and real leaves in the yard to complete our project on the second day.  The fun thing the kids did was not limiting themselves to one stem or one green pipe cleaner to finish off their pumpkin.  Some pumpkins had fist fulls of moss covered sticks attached and a whole range of green fuzzy spiraled tendrils….wonderful!!

More Pumpkins!

Our other pumpkin project was made of yarn….very simple.  I found this project at Make and Takes.  We changed the yarn from red to orange and changed a little red apple to a little orange pumpkin!  The kids wrapped yarn around a piece of cardboard 80 times!!!  It was an opportunity to have fun with counting and they ended up with a sweet little pumpkin.

From Collages

More Pumpkins!!

We made Pumpkin Cookies a couple weeks ago and I promised to post the recipe.  Here’s the 2 cookie recipe we used at camp made with whole wheat flour and honey  and another recipe for pumpkin cookies I’ve used for years that make lots of cookies.  As you can see by the condition of “The Great Pumpkin” recipe it has been well used.  I’ve gone from using the full amount of white sugar to none to finally settling on “about” half the original amount.  I don’t usually make these cookies as large as the recipe calls ….too big for little ones.  When my kids were little I made these with the stem, no white sugar and outlined with orange buttercream frosting and two little buttercream leaves on top….plenty sweet

From st misc october 09 pumpkins etc

  We often have the kids do “real” sewing at camp.  Today was a little different, we did a group project.  With real “pointy” needles the kids sewed a face for our scarecrow, stuffed a shirt, coveralls then put everything together to create the body then plopped the head on top.  During the process some kids were stuffing, some were sewing the face and at one point everyone was sewing colorful patches on the scarecrow’s shirt and coveralls.  The group aspect made this really fun.  There were a few pokes with the needles but no tears and everyone learned what sharp means.

From scarecrow collage

I think this guy is so cute!  Here’s the link to find out how you can make one for yourself…..I know, I’ve got too much time on my hands!!!!! http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/10/skeleton-papercraft-project.html

From st october pumpkins scarecrow

From Collages

I’ve been having a blast teaching kids’ yoga here in Santa Rosa.  Right now I have my preschool group at Beth Ami preschool and a group of elementary school aged kids at Spring Creek school.  My teaching has evolved.  As always my emphasis with kids is to have fun and sneak in  some “serious” relaxation techniques and real yoga poses of course.  With kids this age it’s easy for things to get out of control.  I’ve found that switching it up with some outside time on these warm autumn days and alternating using our yoga mats and having freedom from the mat keeps things fresh.  I also bring different props such as little stuffed animals, pinwheels to use during deep breathing exercises,  my parachute is a big hit too and today I placed a smooth glass stone on each child’s forhead during final relaxation……. ahhhh relaxation

 This week I taught my first teacher/staff class for Rincon Valley Union School District staff.  I call the teachers’ class, Yoga R&R ( Rest and Restore).  My idea is to provide  a quiet, peaceful place at the end of the school day for the teachers.  Everyone comes in, lies down, put their feet up on a chair and their heads on a blanket then breaths.  I reminded the group to take a deep breath and heard one of the teachers say it was the first time she took a breath all day.  While we start out slowly and warm up, I will gradually add more and more challenging poses as the group gains strength and flexibility.  The group includes teachers who are new to yoga and some that have a daily personal practice.  After class everyone left quietly rested and invigorated at the same time.  I felt the same way; peaceful and happy.  I’d love to offer more teacher / adult classes. 

From Collages

I often say “it’s the process, not the product”, meaning enjoy the art of getting dirty, learning by experimenting, put out all the supplies and let the kids enjoy creating their own work.  The “tie dye project I had to remind myself of that theory.  Don’t worry about the end product just enjoy the process.  I must admit I was disappointed in the end result but the process was very colorful and fun.  I saw this project online and experimented as I usually do before offering a project for camp.  I used Dollar Store tissue paper and it didn’t work at all.  I searched all over town for “bleeding tissue paper” which was recommended, so once I found it I figured it would work.  But, no,  we barely got any color transfer but like I said, the process was fun.  The other project, marble painting was fun and the end result was great.  I think so any way, on both counts.  I put out small tubs of paint and a big bowl of marbles.  The kids dropped marbles in paint then transferred them with a spoon to a box with a sheet of paper on the bottom.  The kids rolled the marbles back and forth, creating their painting.  One of the interesting things about this technique is that the kids could add as many colors as they like and the art still didn’t get muddy.  The kids got to choose their paint colors, practice transferring with spoons, then picking up paint covered marbles with their bare hands and some of the kids even washed the marbles…..more messy fun at camp.

From chickens at camp

We’ve had a chicken inspired time at camp. In anticipation of our neighborhood chickens coming for a visit we had a few projects for grown ups and for the kids.  The moms cut out felt chickens and spent a few minutes each week sewing as I “worked” with the kids.  We worked in the garden digging compost and  looking for worms.  We planted Swiss chard seeds and painted cardboard chickens .  While the kids and I explored and created the moms chatted and stitched.  One mom said her family would be impressed that she “made” something.  I think even if you’re not particularly crafty or creative just having a little time to “play” with creative materials can be relaxing and inspiring for adults.  We topped off our chicken series with a visit from our neighborhood hens, Rosalita and Mamacita.  Everyone had a chance to hand feed these gentle birds and all the moms who started a felt chicken, finished it!!!   

From mouse house

I had so much fun making this little house.  I saw a similar one at the Bennett Valley Preschool and fell in love with it.  I’m told there’s one at a school in Healdsburg as well and a whole story that goes along with it.  It seems there’s a little mouse that lives in the house and is away working at the cheese factory while the kids are at school.  I built our Smiling Tree, house out of scraps of wood and twigs, stones and moss.  I built the house and painted some little stones with mice and bugs and an owl.  I tried not to draw too much attention to the little house even though I was excited about it.  I’m thrilled to see the kids stop to play with it and sit and imagine.  Today three little boys sat together and discussed what might live in the house.  One of the boys was quite sure that a fairy of some sort lives there…..so cute!!

One of our books this week was ”Not A Box” by Antoinette Portis, also the author of “Not A Stick”.  Who hasn’t at one time in their lives preferred to play with the box more than the gift inside?  In “Not A Box” , the simple stick figure rabbit imagines his/her box is a boat, a rocket ship, robot; everything but a box.  Of course in “Not a Stick”  the stick is a sword, fishing pole, conductors baton…..  I love these books and so do the kids.  It’s an open invitation to imagine whatever they like.

From Collages

Since we did this project I’ve had some feedback from parents and actually got to see how the kids are playing with their “boxes”.  Emma turned her house upside down, and turned it into a “SUV”  she doesn’t have a SUV but that’s what she told me she was putting her stuffed animals in.  In they went , Emma joined them and took them for a drive.  In and out, in and out up and over, she had lots of fun with her box (not a box)car.  Emma’s box was just a box with a door cut into it.  River’s box was a little more sophisticated.  She had a windshield and steering wheel.  I’m told she has been “driving” all over town.  What started as a fun painting project at camp lives on at home.

We also decorated little “treasure” boxes….glue, glitter, sequins, stickers!!!!  what fun