"Turf & Twig" Is Blossoming for April Vacation 2025

April vacation is quickly approaching, with the first day of our adventure scheduled for Tuesday, April 22. Our story is "Turf & Twig" -- a delightful dive into the underground world of homestead folklore from the British Isles and Scandinavia. 

The program runs from 9 AM to 4 PM on Tuesday through Friday, with after hours on Tues, Wed and Thursday from 4 to 5:15 PM. Children in grades three through eight are welcome -- and we have a mix of ages already enrolled.

Here is a link to the description of our story.

I can't wait for the opportunity to make Tomtes with our team -- this is one of the fastest sewing projects I have, so we will have time to augment our Tomtes with handcrafted accessories.

I am working on a 3D needle-felted sculpture of the Turf and Twig, plus some 2D felt maps that will help us navigate the subterranean world of the turf. Some of the artifacts for this week have come all the way from Tucson, AZ, to bring to life some of the inhabitants we will meet.

 

 

New Year, New Programs, Starting with ML King Jr. Day

Happy New Year to Dragon's Eye family and friends!

A whole new list of adventures and art days is finally up on the Current Programs page. I'm offering the usual holiday and school vacation programs, plus a few days that only Brunswick schools have off.

The summer program list of adventures is also on view. I've kept the first four weeks as one-week programs, and am testing a single two-week program at the end of the summer. This seems like the best of both worlds. It gives families some flexibility, if they only want a single week -- and allows my older detectives to take a deep dive into some Finnish folklore.

We start the year with some Tomte Winter Wonderland fun on Monday, Jan. 20. This is an art day for all things Tomte. The boys have already started our winter fun by making sleds for the Tomtes at our November art day -- so we'll make more sleds so that every Tomte can have one. (See the photo of their sleds above this!)

Registration forms are on a new page on the website. I have pulled out the family information into its own form, so that parents fill that data out only once during the 2020 year. Registration for individual programs is done on the Registration Form, and must be filled out either seasonally or by each program.


Quick synopses of the adventures are here, to help with any deliberations over which weeks to enroll.

Session A, Jan. 20 -- An art program focused on Tomtes and winter.

Session B, February break--5-day adventure will be all about Tomtes, lizards and the underground lizard realms where the Jewel of Winter's Dreaming is hidden.

Session C, March 13 -- Art program all about March Hares -- Moon rabbits and their nests.

Session D, April 17 -- Art program all about Moon Landings -- space stations for our April vacation Skeeters (tiny alien robots in flying saucers).

Session E, April vacation--5-day adventure will be all about alien robots again, with a return of the Skeeters, tiny alien robots in flying saucers.

Summer Program

Session I: The Ship of Fools is a Russian-based folktale about a flying ship and the crazy crew that guides it through the heavens.

Session II: Yemaya's Dobbin draws on Afro-Caribbean myths of Yemaya, the Orisha of the ocean. Think Afro-Caribbean mermaids, seashorses and all manner of sea creatures.

Session III: Mask of Dreams is a Dragon's Eye classic about Morpheus the Greek god of dreams.

Session IV: The Market at Wit's End is a sequel to Goat and Ger from last summer. A certain goat from that adventure is missing its bejeebers again, and the detectives go in search of a legendary market where wits and bejeebers are traded by some rather dubious merchants. Too bad this market may only be reached via the sewers of London, guarded by a group of wild, black boars.

Session V: The Forest Apple is the two-week adventure. We'll be taking a deep dive into the wonderful world of Finnish folktales and myths from the Kalevala. Think dark boreal forests, northern lights, reindeer, and stars.

Summer 2019, Session VII: Junkyard Invaders -- Recap

The final mystery of the 2019 summer season was held at the Landing YMCA in August. An experienced team of fifteen detectives tackled the mystery with everything they learned from earlier adventures. They were a little suspicious of the raccoon who led them to Jake's Junkyard in Roswell, NM, but this didn't stop them from going.

It's not easy bringing a junkyard to the classroom, but we managed! Old bins full of the most intriguing "junk" kept things fairly contained -- and gave lots of inspiration for the robots we made.

We met some intriguing and pesky aliens. The Skeeters were out in full force this week, both the earthly skeeters and the alien ones. We met another group of aliens as well, the clan of the Tartars, named after a Cream of Tartar can from the junkpile. They were refugees from an alien planet, searching for their mother ship.

I can't say much more about this, since I will definitely repeat this adventure in the future. We went off page partway through the week, bringing Jake's Junkyard Tomte into the story -- but it was so rewarding that I may include that part next time. Thank you, OE -- that was a brilliant addition to the story!

We're going to have to make more junkyard Tomtes, and more junkyard robots, so I'm thinking sequel next February or April. This will give the robots we made this week a real workout, too -- we need to explore what they do!

Kids and staff were busy all week, crafting alien robots from old tin cans, pieces of old folding rulers, silverware handles, and parts from antique oil lanterns. Pipecleaners became the fasteners of choice for arms, and collectively we made about twenty five glass eyes. The results were fabulous--the robots may be viewed on the Dragon's Eye Facebook page by clicking this link.

Photos of the adventure may be viewed here.

Thanks, once again, to Oliver Van Soest for working as my assistant this summer. His robot may be viewed along with the ones I made for the story, by visiting this link on my Ravenscrawl Studio page.

A very special thank you goes to Jeremy Tardif. He cut the old folding rulers into arms, and drilled all of the holes in our tin cans.