Fairy Magic at The Cabin Path

[Sarah Crutchfield]

“Enchanted worlds still exist because the child within us never dies. The doorways may be more obscure, but we can still seek them out. There are still noble adventures to undertake. There are still trees that speak and caverns that lead to nether realms. There will always be faeries and elves within nature because they will always be dancing within our hearts.”

~Ted Andrews~

Our Thursday Home school workshop...topic today: Fairies! We began our workshop with a history of the "Little People" and the American Indians. Storytelling was an important part of the heritage of the Native Americans, and little people in the woods were thought to have revealed secrets of plants, herbs, and nature. We read a Native American story about the little people and the Great Blue Heron, and we also looked at fairy books by Tracy Kane .

We then began our trail walk...looking for nature made materials to use for our projects!

At The Cabin Path, there is a hidden little path that leads up to many hollow trees with secret little homes of the fairies!

We returned to the Gathering Room with bags filled with seeds, sticks, bark, and ideas for our fairies!

There were tables set with "food" of oak and maple seeds, swings, porches, and secret doors....

Fairy dresses of Tulip Poplar blooms....

Brian decided to construct a ferocious BUG..and he helped with the fairy homes, too!

It was a day of friends and fun...sharing and laughing...looking and learning...and I think we all left believing in the magic of fairies!

[Jennifer Kable]

What an inspiring post - thanks for sharing :) So much creativity and imagination, and a beautiful way to get kids out and about in nature. We went through "fairy world mania" at preschool a few months back - it seemed that everyday new fairy worlds were popping up all over the place!

[Sarah Crutchfield]

Thank you, Debbie and Daniele..I love doing the Fairy Workshops...for all ages! We had 22 women to do a Fairy Workshop as part of a Life Coach's workshop here...It turned into a very revealing, self healing experience for all. It is also a great for creative writing for teens, and I had one large workshop with some older boys..I had a "Plan B" ready with another project for them..but they made an elaborate fairy zip line, and they didn't want to leave! We had a 30 foot line of sailing fairies that day!

[Daniele Sharpe]

Our kindergarten class at my school just finished up a unit on constructing fairy houses and writing stories about the fairy that lives in the house they created. They did it as a team activity where the children worked in groups of two. The other classrooms then were invited to come in and view the house and listen to the stories. I never thought of including Native American heritage as part of the unit to add more anti-bias into the unit. Thanks for sharing!

[Debbie Greene]

YOU did a fabulous job! Fairies are one of my favorite things about nature. We use them in many programs in the spring because they bring out children's natural sense of wonder. Imagination and free play go very well together. The mixture of real and make believe are so intertwined in a child's mind. Your photos and story was wonderful! Thank YOU.

[Sarah Crutchfield]

Thank you Juliet and Suz...I think the Fairy Workshop is my favorite!

[Suz Lipman]

Hi Sarah! I love the fairy houses and other fairy magic that takes place at the Cabin Path. The children there are very lucky to have this program. You do such beautiful things to show them the wonder of nature. I'm so glad you shared this. It's extremely inspiring and lovely.

[Juliet Robertson]

Lovely blog posting with super photos. Thanks for sharing.