Nubi: A kids cohousing perspective
Since last I wrote much has gone on at Nubi. We have had many fun community meals in which I often find myself chasing small children around with spoonfuls of rice or vegetables for them to eat…my hard work does pay off when they happily sit down to a bowl of dessert at the end of the meal. At the kids table I am usually asked to “play the manners game” This they love when I ask them questions on how polite I am being. They laugh so hard they forget to eat and we are often asked to quiet down. Later when we are full the kids build forts with the many colorful blocks in the playroom…often asking me to be the “tickle monster”
We recently had a craft day: there was cake decorating and bread making, weaving and pottery, along with painting. Small children were to be found everywhere…noses covered in flour, or hands caked with clay they were happily running from room to room with huge smiles. After a morning of hard….play!…we all sat down to a delicious lunch, including the bread many had helped to bake.
Hanging a sap bucket and waiting for the first sweet drips!
As March blows in and the snow began to turn slightly brown, we begin to feel a slight warmth in the breeze…this was enough to bring us all out in our snow pants and hats to collect sap yesterday. Our small group trooped from tree to tree, drilling a hole in each one then carefully hammering in the metal spout. The younger kids were often distracted until it came to the hammering or drilling part…then they were running over, craning their heads to see the first tiny drop of clear sap fall from the small hole. Soon their tongues were out reaching to catch a small drop of the sweet water on the tips of their small tongues. There was an initial jostling until we hooked a bucket to the tree and placed a top on it then the kids were off into the snow again…jumping and laughing up to the sky. After setting out all the buckets we trooped back to our homes eager for when the buckets would fill with crystal clear sweet liquid to boil down into delicious maple syrup.
The days are slightly gray now…as march hits us with all of its glory…which of course is only small streams of water running down the paved roads, gray skies and wet snow which doesn’t exactly call to be played in. You will often see us out though, kids with mittens and smiling faces, throwing snowballs or checking the sap buckets, waiting for the snow to melt and spring to shower us with flowers and blue skies
Elsbeth 15
For the Nubi kids
Here is a link to the craft Day Photos https://picasaweb.google.com/111rmp/CraftDay?authkey=Gv1sRgCJagz8XMn_zE5QE#
(if this link doesn’t work try the Feb 23rd entry at www.facebook.com/nubicoho )
