Hi Folks, I know for many of you who have children the “stay at home” order found in so many states is beginning to take it’s toll on the kids. The down side is that many of the children will take to video games, TV and texting to fill their idle time. Granted it keeps them occupied but at what price. Many folks can’t even allow their children to play with other children because of the pandemic fears and rightly so. That is where you come in and fill the needs of your children to stay healthy especially mentally and emotionally. Lets not forget their physical health in that you don’t want to have them turn into couch potatoes. I remember back to my early years with Grandfather and how he would make learning fun and in true Coyote teaching fashion we didn’t realize that we were being taught some of the most vital and far reaching lessons of our young lives. The lessons still teach me to this day and in the weeks to follow I would like to dedicate some of my blogs to teaching the kids while haveing fun doing so for both child and caregiver alike.

A few months ago I wrote about a game that could be played with kids of all ages. Simply it’s called the leaf chase where in the fall as the leaves begin to drift down from trees the kids and adults alike give chase to the leaves and catch them before they hit the ground. The one with the most leaves at the end of the alloted time wins. I also took this a step further in that a child would blindfold themselves and then try to sense the falling leaves and catch them. This also works well with adults trying to develop their Inner Vision and sensing the presence of a falling leaf. Needless to say that only one child or adult at a time should do the blindfold leaf chase because of safety concerns where people could run into each other or possibly into a tree or thick brush. However as you practice this enough with the kids you’ll find that blundering into each other is a thing of the past.

As far a blindfolding is concerned this is something Grandfather had us do and do often. One of my favorites and one I do with the Advanced Tracking & Awareness class is called the Blind Drum Stalk. Your kids will love this one. Have them blindfold themselves at the distant edge of your yard or in the woods and form 30 to 50 yards away begin to play a drum where you hit it every 30 seconds or so. The kids should then move slowly toward the drum until the touch the drum player. This is not a race but a slow walk where you want them to sense objects on the landscape and subsequently avoid them. This will build their sense of balance, their stalking ability, their sensitivity to the landscape and of course their balance. Then you put on the blindfold and let the kids play the drum for you. Enjoy

In Medicine and Blessings, Tom