Snow Monkeys?!?

As one child began to look for the snow monkeys we wondered where this came from. Of course, we can never be fully sure, but the guess is that it began with the vines that are intertwined throughout the forest space, tangled around and across the trees (both the living and the dead). The vines are called monkey vines. But one particular walk there was a lot of snow that clung to the trees and vines, and when you shook them the snow fell and hit our faces, bodies, and the ground. Perhaps the movements of hands, limbs (human and nonhuman) and snow together storied the mythical snow monkey. Perhaps stories are mythographies?

As the group of toddlers look up and call to the snow monkeys with their boisterous ‘EeeeeeOooooEeeeee’, Shelley and Kelly wonder Snow/monkey/vines  or  snowmonkeys!

Reaching this understanding took communication from a child, a parent, an educator, a researcher, the tree vines, snow, and wind. They say it takes a village. I think this is a pretty good example of that.