Kids’ Nature Connection Programs
Nelson BC Fall 2019
Click on the program names to read more and sign up and pay.
Please fill in the Registration Form.
The Forest Path connects kids to our beautiful natural playground – our birthright to smell, taste, feel and hear the living land around us. In a playful way, we deepen our nature skills, which will also deepen our community skills and our relationship with our own self. The Forest Path has offered camps since 2017. We believe nature is the best teacher that models values such as belonging, quiet mind, generosity, resilience and vitality. Qualities that are most likely to be very much needed for the unknown future. It is time for really taking care of the Earth. Forest school is one step.
Hope to see you in the forest!
Coyote Homelearners Enrichment$3,250.00 + GSTCoyote is a two day a week homeschooling enrichment program for a small group of children aged 6 to 10 years old, based outdoors. We will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 am - 2 pm during 35 weeks of the school year of 2019 - 2020. The location will be within 15-20 minutes from Nelson. There will be 65 programs days and each family will need an adult volunteer to assist the group for six days throughout the year along with the fees. We will be gathering for seasonal celebrations; this is a time for the children to share their learning and to strengthen our community ties. Family feedback and involvement is most welcome. Start: Monday, Sept 9th 2019 To sign up, please fill in the registration form and we will contact you! The fee is $50/day or $3250 + GST for the whole year. The $600 homeschooling funding can be used to fund a portion of the expense. Fees are due in advance for each term (three terms).
Wild Fridays 1 – 4 pm Sep – Nov$264.00 + GSTWild Friday is for kids age 7 - 11 who like to be outside and be active, and practice skills of wilderness survival like fire making and finding food, sneaking close to animals, growing resilience to weather and emotions and just enjoy playing in our beautiful place on earth. Fridays at 1 pm - 4 pm, from September 13 till Nov 29 (11 weeks) (no program on the proD day Nov 8). Location in Nelson or close by. We are welcoming homeschoolers, Waldorf kids, Wildflower kids, and kids who are going to school but prefers a half-day of outdoor education.
Forest Kids Tuesdays 9 am – 2 pm$480.00 + GSTTuesday five hours Forest School for age 3 to 6. All outdoor adventures from 9 am to 2 pm (bring plenty of snacks and a teacup). 12 weeks, September 10th till November 26th. Location in Nelson or close by. We are welcoming preschoolers, homeschoolers, and kids who are going to school but prefers one day (or more) of outdoor education. Contact us for scholarships if your family really needs it.
Forest Kids Thursdays 9 am – 2 pm$480.00 + GSTThursday morning Forest School for age 3 to 6. All outdoor adventures from 9 am to 2 pm (bring plenty of snacks and a teacup). 12 weeks, September 12 till November 28. Location in Nelson or possibly 20 mins outside of Nelson in Beasley. We are welcoming preschoolers, homeschoolers, and kids who are going to school but prefers one day (or more) of outdoor education. Max five kids per adult.
ABOUT
The Forest Path aims to create full-body experiences of feeling alive and connected, to the wild, to within, with each other. the un-ceded We offer outdoor education programs and camps in Nelson BC Canada for children to get outside, learn nature skills and be mentored to grow wholesomely.
In a time of the 6th large extinction of species in the history of the Earth, with widening gaps between rich and poor, climate change and only half of the forests than before humans, there is a need for mindful loving connection to nature and learning from the native people’s ways. We acknowledge that this is unceded homeland, xaʔxáʔ tumxʷulaʔxʷ, of the Sinixt, and that the Ktunaxa and Syilx peoples also lived on this land.
In a safe container of sharing circle, empathetic listening, mentoring and a balance of action and silence, we give children an opportunity to just be in nature. Let nature connect to us, let curiosity and creativity flow. We do crafts, games, yoga, make fire, build forts, look for seasonal signs. We learn about plants and animals and the cycles in nature, about outdoor skills and about our own gifts and how we can relate to others.
The Forest Path began at spring break 2017 by Malin Christensson, who as a child went to the Swedish outdoor education program called ‘Skogs Mulle’, that was started in the 1950:s. She worked many years with sustainability education at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. Malin is also a kids yoga and mindfulness teacher. She has an updated first aid training and insurance. She loves trees, to sing and make a fire.
Read more about all our teachers.
OUR INSPIRATION
We are inspired by nature and the wonder and happiness and aliveness we experience when being outdoors. We are influenced by other wild kids camps and groups, like the 8 shields and Art of Mentoring of Jon Young, Wisdom of the Earth at Saltspring Island and the forest kindergartens in Canada (for example in Victoria and Vancouver) as well where they originated in the 1950s in Sweden and 1960s in Germany. There are now over 1000 forest kindergartens in Germany. We are also drawing on wisdom of Awaken the Dreamer, deep ecology and Joanna Macy, of mindfulness, and traditional First Nations and shaman knowledge.
Our ambition is to nurture deeper relations between parents, children and our surroundings.
Every program balances free nature play and facilitated games, art and crafts, adjusted to the age and interests of the kids. We playfully add mindfulness, yoga, and music into the day. Kindness and community are our other key values, including a deep awe and respect for the natural world. The children learn to watch for hazards and try basic bushcraft skills on how to survive in the wild.