8/09/10
To one side of the road is a mud trail that runs strait up a steep hill, the other was a deserted ski resort circa 1980. We choose to amble up the over grown ski trails until we reached the great divide trail. It's just the two of us.
Moving at the speed of a four year old we alternate between bounding towards the new and engaging it. We are fascinated by the pine trees, the ones which look full but are smaller than both of us, and the ones tall and needle-less whose silhouettes we search for shapes and letters.
We're only an hour from home but we are really a world away from the city. The air is cool, a treat since it's 90 degrees in town and has been for almost six weeks now. Our city life is one of biking and walking everywhere, taking the car and escaping almost feels like cheating.
In my son's hands is a glass pint jar. We want to capture the day and bring it home with us. So we find flowers, rocks and leaves to fill the jar. We add to this mix blue sky and a few songs. Now at our house we have a singing jar of color.
It all seems so casual, so unintentional to my son. Just another one of Mama's fun ideas, but there is a hidden back bone to this simple jar. We are learning to observe the world around us, to listen for the birds, to see the changes in the neighborhoods we walk through every day, and we are making a habit or recording what we notice.
But at just four my son doesn't write and is only just starting to draw what he sees. So we are finding other ways to represent what is around us. We take pictures together, we talk about things and tell Papa in the dark before sleep, and now we have collected our day in a jar.
How to make your own day in a jar:
First of all don't think this is limited to days in the woods or mountains, any day can be collected through ephemera ass well as natural objects. All you need is a pretty jar with a top.
Start by presenting to your child the idea of capturing the day for later. Don't limit what they collect, let them take what inspires them the point isn't to end up with a display piece but a bit of the day. Then head out.
I need to add that it is illegal to collect wildflowers and such on most public land, make sure you know the laws of the place you are before you start picking flowers.