Kids’ Nature Connection Programs
Fall 2018 Nelson BC
Winter 2019 programs coming up soon – email us to make sure you get the info.
Funding might be available for young kids with Stars for Success grant.
Spots confirmed with payment and registration. Here is the Registration Form.
Hope to see you in the forest!
Wild Child Fridays$380.00The Wild Child program is based on Nature Awareness Mentoring (sometimes called “Coyote Mentoring”) and the work of the 8 Shields. From 10 am to 3 pm, for 11 weeks, from September 14th to December 7 (no program on the holidays of Oct 19 and Nov 9). The first week is for free for your family to try it out! Age 6 - 12. We will meet around the Mountain Station Parking Lot. Be ready for a whole day outdoors! We are welcoming homeschoolers, Wildflower kids, and kids who are going to school but prefers one day of outdoor education.
Family Morning – Frogs & Tadpoles$100.00A parent/caregiver and child age 0-6 program in the forest, Tuesdays from 9 am to 11 pm. Bring a snack and a cup for tea and weather appropriate outfits - waterproof boots and extra layers are always good! Come join us! This session runs from September 11 to November 27 (12 weeks). Drop-in $12.
Forest Kids Mondays – Fall 2018$220.00Mondays Forest Kindergarten for age 3 to 6 (if potty trained). All outdoor adventures from 9 am to noon (bring two snacks and a teacup). 1o weeks, Monday, September 10th to November 26th (no classes on the holidays October 8th and November 12th). We meet at the entrance to the Nelson Cemetery and walk in the forest towards the Rail Trail.
Forest Kids Thursdays Fall 2018$280.00Thursday Morning Forest Kindergarten for age 3 to 6 (if potty trained). All outdoor adventures from 9 am to noon (bring two snacks and a teacup). 13 weeks, Sep 13th to November 29th. We meet at the entrance to the Nelson Cemetery and walk in the forest towards the Rail Trail.
Forest Kids Wednesdays Fall 2018$450.00Wednesday longer day Forest Kindergarten for age 4 to 7. All outdoor adventures from 9 am to 2:30 pm (bring snacks and lunch and a teacup). 12 weeks, September 12th to November 28th. We meet at the entrance to the Nelson Cemetery and walk in the forest towards the Rail Trail. On Wednesdays, we are welcoming preschoolers, homeschoolers, and kids who are going to school but prefers one day of outdoor education.
ABOUT
The Forest Path aims to create full-body experiences of feeling alive and connected, to the wild, to within, with each other. 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 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 them, 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 school ‘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.