Our program is centered around supporting kids being kids! Each day at summer camp we follow our hearts and create opportunities for them to play in the mud, climb trees, develop awareness of their senses, build and create, ask questions, and explore the incredible world of nature to their heart's content. We value deep connections to the earth, as well as between kids and our community as a whole, and support this by having small group sizes so that we can provide each child with an individualized, caring experience in our program. 

During the summer months, we offer several 3-5 day programs for kids of all ages to help build exciting memories, growth, and learning in a fully outdoor environment! Within these programs, your kids will actively engage with plants, animals, and features of the environment in a play-based way. They will stretch their imaginations with creative art projects, captivating games and storytelling, and working together to create solutions. They will develop outdoor survival  skills such as firekeeping, orienteering, shelter building, foraging, and tool-making. Kids will learn how to 'think like an animal' and expand their awareness of their senses in the wild. They will have opportunities to push their comfort zones and build self-confidence in a safe and supported environment through activities such as learning to fish, climbing trees, learning how to cook and make tea with wild-foraged plants, and more! 

Our leaders use "Coyote Mentoring" techniques - developed by Jon Young and the Wilderness Awareness School to bring spirited experiences that integrate intuitive and playful ways of connecting in deep and meaningful ways to the land and community around us. 

We focus our learning around these key components:

• Hazards and Wilderness Basics - Things that could be harmful to us and others, and what we need to do to avoid or resolve issues once they happen

• Wildlife Tracking and Mammals - Who lives here, and what we can tell about their lives from their tracks and signs, even if we don't encounter them directly

• Edible, Medicinal, and Poisonous plant Identification - how to identify a plant using sketches, field marks and guides, and which ones have poisonous look-alikes in our area

• Ecology and Natural Communities - The cycles and relationships that make up the rhythm of the natural world and what we can learn from them

• Birds and Animal Language - What we can learn from birds and animals that will help us stay safe from predators and locate animals that pass nearby

• Mapping and Journaling - Practicing skills of writing, recording, drawing, and keeping a record of what we see and experience during our time together 

• Stewardship - Developing a deep love and connection to the land around us through exciting adventures and tangible experiences to facilitate care for the earth and its inhabitants, and discussions around how we can be loving caretakers of the lands we inhabit in tangible ways

• Arts, Music, and Creations - a wide variety of  open-ended, in-the-moment promptings to help students connect to their creative and imaginative selves 

• Holistic Learning - Encouraging children to engage intellectually, emotionally, creatively, physically, socially and energetically with their inner and outer worlds

****Please note, payment must be received in order to hold your child's spot- you can venmo @friendofthewoods or message us for other forms of payment