We wish you and your communities a safe and inspiring new year. As many of you know this association has been taking shape for a long time and we are excited to be putting our dreams and values into action this year. Our overarching mission is the renewal of a culture of kinship. We are in service to the development of high quality forest schools to support and protect the land, the children and each other.
One of the ways we plan to achieve those goals is by sharing curriculum ideas from our community so here's a bit of what some of our member forest schools have been learning about this time of year.
Many of us have been celebrating the return of longer days with candle making and songs and stories about light and fire. Here is a blog post from co-president Wendolyn Bird on bees wax candle dipping. Even our smallest forest school explorers can make beautiful candles by rolling bees wax sheets. Candle making is also a wonderful community gathering event, as many of us know something special happens when people that don't know each other very well have hand work to bond over. Story telling and singing together are also natural cold winter time spirit lifters. I love the Karok story of How Coyote Brought Fire To The People. I first heard a version of this story from one of my mentors Solar Steve of the Banana Slug String Band (an incredible resource of ecological songs).
In the meantime you can connect with us through our facebook page.
With Gratitude,
Joanna Ferraro on behalf of The California Association of Forest Schools Board