Two years ago I signed us up for the Kids Moon Club, an online “year-long journey and community tied not to keeping up, but looking up.” I wanted Wyatt to be a part of something, to have some sense of belonging to a group, even an online community. And this was such a good choice. The community of people are amazing and gracious and joyful, artistic and sharing and lovers of nature as we are. And the first year that we participated Wyatt made some tremendous gains, saying some of his very first words – snow and moon. February is the month of the full snow moon, it will always be a little special to me for that reason, but January is the full wolf moon, which is always just fun honestly.

We spent our homeschool day learning about Arctic wolves. They are beautiful majestic creatures for sure. Then we made Wolf Paw cookies, while singing along to the Snow album from the Okee Dokee Brothers, with special emphasis on the song Howl, of course. For dinner we had a very meat centric meal, to be wolflike, with pot roast and meatballs on the menu. (Wyatt loves meatballs) And of course, enjoyed our cookies afterwards.

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There was to be a collective howl at 7 pm for the full wolf moon, and I invited my family to howl along from their homes, which sounds pretty odd but it was fun. It was kind of neat to know that we were all doing the same thing together, at the same time. I kind of get why wolves do it. (Although you can see Marlow wasn’t too big of a fan) But the fun wasn’t over yet. We cuddled up on the couch all tumbledy-cozy under blankets, Wyatt still wearing his little hat I made, and read Wyatt’s Gray Wolf letter that was his letter for the month from the Writings from the Wild subscription he has. It was super cute honestly, and really interesting. We talked about how the wolves use their tails to block the cold from their noses, and compared it to how our fluffy cat Miso does the same thing, curls all up tight with her tail in front of her face.

After we read our letter, it was time to choose which wolf we were going to symbolically adopt from the Wolf Conservation Center in New York! A bucket list item for me is to camp there, with the wolves. You don’t actually get to camp with them, but close to them which would be so fun! After COVID I am moving that up the list. Every year we choose a wolf to “adopt” – the first year we picked Zephyr, the second year Deven, and then this year Wyatt picked Lighthawk, a Mexican Gray Wolf.

Over the course of the month, I explored the world of wolves myself. I listened to the Lupinology podcast on Ologies with Alie Ward, which was so fascinating I listened to it twice. Then I watched the mini-documentary Call of the Coastal Wolves, about the sea wolves of Vancouver Island, which was beautifully done. I plan on reading more about these interesting creatures. Paul Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer, joined them on this journey. I follow Nicklen on Instagram and his photos are otherworldly and gorgeous.

We have a few more activities left to complete before the new snow moon moves in, the forest story and our wolf coloring page, but overall this has been a fun month. We are looking forward to the snow moon of February!