The Forest Path

Kids Nature Camps

Connect to the wild, to within, with each other.

Kids’ Nature Connection Programs
Nelson BC Spring 2021

Spring sessions starting the first week of April, going till mid of June. Registration will open soon!

HOW TO SIGN UP
1. Select your product on our website. Select payment options.
(For homeschoolers, we can invoice SelfDesign, Home Links, IDCL etc.)
2. Please fill in the Registration Form for the spring break.
3. Apply for a Scholarship if your family is in need.

Email me for questions or if you like to be on a waiting list: forestpathnelson@gmail.com

WHERE
In Nelson or 10 minutes from Nelson. We will email details, locations vary.

COVID19 PROTOCOL

Always outside, more handwashing/sanitizer, less shared things /games involving touch, more distance, smaller groups.

‘Please, go outside’: COVID-19 much less likely to spread outdoors,
Dr. Bonnie Henry says.

‘Outdoor play, in particular, offers critical opportunities for learning, development and well-being
that aren’t generally available through indoor play.
In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the benefits of outdoor play are particularly important’,
says leading play researchers.

Upcoming Programs

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 (and adults!) 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, climate change and only half of the forests than before humans, and with widening gaps between rich and poor and an ugly history of colonialization, there is a need for mindful loving connection to nature and learning from the native people’s ways. We acknowledge that The Forest Path happens on the unceded homeland, xaʔxáʔ tumxʷulaʔxʷ, of the Sinixt, and that the Ktunaxa and Syilx peoples also are and were connected to this land.

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 for 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 and has two kids that are often seen at the tops of trees. She has an updated first aid training and 5 million liability insurance. She loves trees, to sing and make a fire.

OUR INSPIRATION

We are inspired by nature and the wonder and happiness and aliveness we experience when being outdoors. We are influenced by other deep nature connection organizations, like 8 shields and Art of Mentoring of Jon Young, Wisdom of the Earth with the Wolf School at Saltspring Island, Twin Eagles Wilderness School in Sandpoint Idaho, and the forest kindergartens in Canada (for example in Victoria, Vancouver, Rossland and Creston) 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 from First Nations, Awaken the Dreamer, deep ecology and Joanna Macy and mindfulness.

Our ambition is to nurture deeper relations between parents, children and our surroundings.
Here is a video with Jon Young that explains more about deep nature connection.

WHAT DO THE KIDS DO

The Forest Path connects kids to our beautiful natural playground – to our birthright to smell, taste, feel and listen to 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. 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.

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. Nature creates our stage, our nest. The Forest Path mentors create a safe nest by using sharing circles, empathetic listening, positive role modelling and a balance of action and silence. Kindness and community are our other key values, including a deep awe and respect for the natural world. We let nature connect to us, let curiosity and creativity flow in a timeless way – the way kids play. Play is essential for children.

The children learn to watch for hazards and depending on age, try basic outdoor skills on how to survive in the wild. We learn about plants and animals and the cycles in nature and about our own gifts and how we can relate to others, and actively create diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. The Forest Path aims to be part of decolonization culture and we humbly admit we have much to learn.
Planet care. People care, Fair share.