salve making

This salve will be good for: mild burns, bangs, minor cuts and skin irritations.

What great fun and empowering to use the resources around us to enable our own healing and well being.  We made our own salve this week, which we will use in our first aid kit. We used comfrey and marigold (Calendula) plants which had previously been dried, which we chopped up and made into a strong infusion or tea. We then placed almond oil in a saucepan on the wood burner (in the shed at Coppicewood College) and heated this up with the tea. Slowly the water evaporated and then, right at the end we added the beeswax. Before it set we poured the liquid into small containers so that everyone could have one. The children also made nice labels, for their pots.

We used David Hoffmans excellent book called The New Holistic Herbal.

This was our last but one session this winter term and the weather has become cold. We made sure we did lots of running about to get our internal heat going before playing this game: owls and mice , which involves stealth, quiet and listening.

Using a compass

We have woven this into a number of sessions and so the children get to practise finding north and then in teams will go on some expedition to find something in one of the directions. The more they practise the more familiar and then easier and they have found it.

We had another go at Kazoos and everyone was successful at making one that made a good sound. This involves taking out just enough wood with a knife so that the reed inside vibrates when you blow. Below splitting a piece of hazel (coppiced this term) using a billhook and beatal.