Gabriola Wayfinders

Wayfinders is an offering for kids aged 8-14, for yearlong nature-based mentorship in the 8-Shields model.

In this program, we offer yearlong nature-based mentorship in the 8-Shields model, an approach to education that was developed by Jon Young at the Wilderness Awareness School. The 8-shields “Coyote Mentoring” approach formalizes the child-led, experiential schooling methods apparent in nature-based cultures. This approach cultivates our children’s curiosity and innate wisdom, guiding them into personal and collective learning experiences that reveal their gifts and support their development towards healthy maturity and wholeness. 

Your child will learn without even realizing, and will discover emerging emotional qualities, social skills, self-awareness and self-confidence that seem as natural as the changing of the seasons.

Here are some the things that we will be exploring: responsible harvesting, medicinal and food plants, natural materials, wild crafting, navigation, tracking and stalking, bird language, ancestral heritage and local ecology. With strong core routines of gratitude, circle sharing, storytelling, inquiring, mindful “sit spots”, and mentoring of each other, they will experience and incorporate a nature-connected community-minded culture, grounded in relationships of respect and reciprocity. 

We are committed to low student/staff ratios for quality mentoring of your kids. Our programs have a ratio of 1 staff for every 7/8 kids.

Program starts in Sept 2024 and runs until June 2025. Registration is for the full 32 sessions.

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Seedlings is a weekly offering for kids aged 4-7, for yearlong nature-based mentorship in the 8-Shields model.

Nature is our teacher, and throughout the new year we will discover the lessons being offered by nature that bring us into deeper connection with ourselves, each other, and the land. Kids will learn without even realizing, and will discover emerging emotional qualities, social skills, self-awareness and self-confidence that seem as natural as the changing of the seasons. Through guided exploration in small groups they'll discover personal trails of intrigue and natural mysteries calling out to them.

Your kids will learn of responsible harvesting, medicinal and food plants, natural materials, wild crafting, navigation, tracking and stalking, bird language, ancestral heritage and local ecology. With strong core routines of gratitude, circle sharing, singing, storytelling, inquiring, mindful “sit spots”, and mentoring of each other, they will experience and incorporate a nature-connected community-minded culture, grounded in relationships of respect and reciprocity. 

Program starts in Sept 2024 and runs until June 2025. Registration is for the full year of 32 sessions.

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Tadpoles is a nature preschool program for kids who love to be outside! 

Nature and the children’s interests will guide our days as we explore the forest and coastline and attune to seasonal changes. Children are encouraged to experience and express their knowledge through diverse activities including story, song, movement, and crafts. As they experience their gifts in a natural setting, they will be gaining an awareness of respect for self, others, materials, and the environment. Empathy and social-emotional skill development is promoted through everyday encounters with each other. We welcome unintended happenings and experiment toward open-ended imaginative outcomes. 

Program starts in Sept 2024 and runs until June 2025. Registration is for the full year of 1 day or two days per week. 

Return to Yearlong Programs