Wild Frontiers

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Wild Frontiers is a monthly offering for kids aged 8-14. This program is designed for kids who have previous experience in nature-based skills and long to go deeper. The program is divided into 5 Sunday sessions and 4 weekend overnight trips into the wilds of southern BC.

Your kids will learn about 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. 

Dates:

Sept 15

Oct 5/6

Nov 24

Dec 15

Jan 19

Feb 9

Apr 18/19

May 9/10

June 13/14

More Information:

Nature is our teacher, and throughout the year we will move with the seasons around the “wheel of development”, offering subtle guidance towards the lessons that bring us into deeper connection with our selves, each other, and the land. Kids will learn without even realising, and will discover emerging emotional qualities, social skills, self-awareness and self-confidence that seem as natural as the changing of the seasons. Through games, storytelling, songs, and guided exploration in small groups, they will find personal trails of intrigue and natural mysteries calling out to them and to their growth, their gifts. 

The 8-shields “Coyote Mentoring” approach was developed by Jon Young at the Wilderness Awareness School, formalizing 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. 

The 8-shields model has seen abounding success across the world as an alternative education option for home school communities, and as extra-curricular programming for kids in school. Both Steph and Kes have extensive experience designing and facilitating 8-shields programs at different nature schools in Canada. 

Programs run September-June.

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