A jumping mouse is a humble creature. Yet, in the Jumping Mouse story passed down from the indigenous northwest peoples, our hero stretches his edge (see mottos) and emerges a much more complete critter.
Our Jumping Mice Sunday showed many signs that they’re on a similar journey. As individuals and as a group, they walked unfamiliar trails, crossed barriers (streams, fears), engaged risk in a careful and confident way and collaborated on a shared goal.
With the help of a useful tool called a talking stick, they focused better in circle. We discussed that while it’s called a talking stick, as much as anything it’s about listening to honor the speaker. This creates the setting in which any boy is free to speak from his heart knowing his peers will respect his thoughts and feelings. An ambitious goal, to be sure. First step, calm the group. We made good progress with that on this outing.
Led by their appointed Tribal Elder, they planned and executed a project to build a fort while learning about ethical harvesting (our skill for the fall). Wild Whatcom believes that when you engage a child’s natural passions, the boys connect heart and soul with your message and embrace, often unknowingly, the learning. So, rather than talking about how to cut a branch off a live tree for your shelter, we put them to work building a fort using downed materials and a live branch or two which we harvested in a way that minimized damage to the tree. Ask your Explorer what we did with the fort’s insulating leaves when we were finished and why.
With mentor guidance and little else, they also carried out several Boys Explorers Club cultural mainstays such as the sit spot, circular leadership and thanksgiving. On our first ever outing last year, one of the Explorers wound up in a sticker bush in the middle of our sit spot. Given that the 5 S’s of a sit spot are Solo, Silent, Still, Safe and Senses, no one should ever wind up stuck in a bush! Well, what a difference a year makes. We had very few distracting moments on this sit spot, a key building block for connecting with nature in this profound way.
Whew! It was a very full, and fulfilling day.
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| If you've hiked from the N. Chuckanut trailhead, you know the trail...except we went the other way. Ask your Explorer about how the creeks are running (hint: fast, with lots of energy and wonderful noise). |
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| So......how did this Coho jaw bone make it THAT far up the hill? |
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| The boys organized themselves into gatherers and designers/builders and we were soon under way with our fort project. |
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| They don't seem troubled by the lack of insulating material. However, the structure was sound so with more leaves and fern fronds, they'd have a fort that all 12 of them could fit in...mostly. |
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| If your Explorer is having trouble relating what we did with the insulating leaves, show him this picture. |
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| An engineering marvel. |
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| Another child passion is sneaking and hiding. Spider's Web is a great game for learning how best to do that. |
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| Why walk on the trail? |
Mentors Brian and Joey were impressed by your Explorer’s burgeoning inner strength on this outing. Like the jumping mouse in the story, they showed an independence we hadn’t seen before. It feels like our foundation is forming. It’ll no doubt be a two-steps-forward, one-step-backward progression as your boys morph into adolescence. Even the jumping mouse returned home to rethink his actions. But from our perch, we’re seeing the fruits of your incessant labor with these boys. We’re honored to contribute, however humbly, to that vital work.
Remember, we’re going to have an outing during the winter as part of our expanded schedule. Our winter/spring schedule will be posted soon. And the Jumping Mice photo gallery is where you’ll find the rest of the pictures from this outing. Take care.
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