The night was dark and cold; the air was crisp and clear, and the moon was full & bright. The full wolf moon appears every January, and thanks to A Wilder Child’s Kids Moon Club, we were inspired with just how to celebrate! ❄️

This is our first moon cycle with Kids Moon Club, and although it’s only been approximately one month (maybe not even, yet) of following along, we have learned so much about the moon cycles! We find ourselves feeling so much differently about the world around us, and we’ve so enjoyed the camaraderie, inspiration and support of our fellow moon club members!

We started off on the new moon with filling in our “moondalas”. A moondala is basically a way to set intentions for the coming month. The children (as well as yourself, if you’d like) draw in what they’d like to achieve or what they look forward to within the coming month. Did you know that setting intentions helps to healthily manifest the things you want in life?! 🌙 How awesome? The club also includes wolf mandala coloring pages, which my kids and I really enjoyed!

We also went on phenology walks with close friends. A phenology walk is when you take a nature walk outdoors and notice the changes you see around you, and then journal what you saw! It especially begins to become particularly helpful after completing the first few moon cycles, when your children can begin to identify the differences around them as compared to a few moons ago. This sets the intention of allowing children to notice nature’s changes; even the subtle ones, with all of their senses. They begin to understand the seasons better and have the chance to appreciate the outdoors a bit more for it!

Our moon craft was fun! We made full moon lanterns together after reading our sweet monthly full moon story. Side note: What I love about the stories is that they link together each month to form a journey throughout the year! Each story also introduces a new supporting character within its chapter, and the supporting characters bring new life lessons and morals into our lives, such as completing an “act of kindness” in order to help the full moon rise. Cutting out a beautiful illustration of the supporting character and gluing it onto our story board is also greatly anticipated by my kiddos. Back to our full moon lanterns – we took tin cans, nailed holes into them, beaded a wire handle and placed a tea light inside. They are gorgeous and we’re still enjoying their simple beauty; especially as the light shines through the holes and illuminates our sweet little moon lanterns!

Moving further towards the full moon, we baked full wolf moon cookies together! We wound up using a sugar cookie recipe from a different source, but used the paw print design from our moon club as inspiration for ours. Nothing beats a sweet moon treat! ✨

Finally, we celebrated with a full wolf moon play date with our friends! We began our festivities by lighting our lanterns and of course some unstructured free play. A little later, we collected kindling for our blazing bonfire and ate some sweet moon cookies! 🍪 We spent the rest of the sleepy winter afternoon playing, catching chickens, collecting eggs and watching the sun go to sleep.

We ended the evening looking up at the moon and, of course, howling like wolves! A magical full wolf moon, indeed. We are loving this moon journey and can not wait to share each month’s festivities! Thank you to Kids Moon Club for all the incredible inspiration and life changes! 🌕