I know I’m not telling you anything when I say that raising a child is a two-steps forward, one-step backward process (on a good day!). From our perspective at Wild Whatcom, the Jumping Mice are making great progress toward self-reliance, resilience and independence in the outdoors. Of late, we see it especially in their respect, focus and discipline as they learn to use knives safely. They once again performed admirably as they started their projects on Sunday. Ask your Explorer about the product on which he’s working. Two significant steps forward.
As you would expect, as they demonstrate that they’re able to handle more, the mentors relax the constraints we place on other activities. For example, on this outing, we gave them more freedom to try that difficult rock face on the beach. And this is where we ran up against their edge on our outing. In the balance between perceived and actual risk, mentor Ellen and I saw several instances where Explorers failed to employ our STOP (Stop, Think, Observe, Plan) process for assessing the prudence of an action. One step backward.
The great news — the arithmetic results in growth (net one step forward). The Jumping Mice are behaving better during our opening and closing circles as well as when we pause to make a decision as a group. In fact, our consensus decision making was also quite good on Sunday.
We first explored the creek just across Chuckanut Drive from the Lost Lake trailhead. With the “wiggles” calmed, the Explorers got to choose their projects — chopsticks, a digging stick or a butter knife — and proceeded to whittle away for better than a half hour. If you’re so inclined, check out your Explorer’s incomplete work and ask “how do you know it (chopsticks, digging stick, knife) is in there”. I told them a story about a young boy who watched a sculptor create a statue of a person out of a block of granite. When it was complete, the boy asked how he knew it was in there. We’re teaching them to envision the end result before starting.
On to Clayton Beach where their improved decision making created an agenda of three short bursts of free exploration followed by a game and our closing meeting.
A note before I sign off. During our closing meeting, we heard the sound of breaking glass come from a rock above us and were quickly showered with broken glass. Fortunately, we all escaped physical harm, although adults and kids alike were a bit shaken. We found the perpetrators who claimed to have dropped the bottle accidentally. I suspect it was thrown without intent to harm us and without STOPping to consider the possible consequences.
The Jumping Mice have a busy spring. We meet again on May 5 for an exploration of the Fragrance Lake trail and work on shelter building. The boys are welcome to pack their knives. They might want to work on their projects during breaks.
