Nature Explorers
Annual Nature Programs
“This principle holds that a reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.”
Young ones who spend extended periods of time in nature are resilient, confident, skillful, healthy, happy, compassionate, truly helpful, and well on the way to expressing their unique gifts.
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Nature Explorers Info:
Days: Monday
Date: Sep 09, 2024 - Jun 02, 2024*
Time: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Tuition: $2,100 plus $100 Annual Enrollment Fee
Mentors: Felise Gutierrez, Jessica Jelinski, Nic Johnson, Sam Mcree, Victoria Pond, Rosina Whalen
Location: Various Drop-off Locations
Ages: 7 - 12 (other ages with mentor approval)
*Annual enrollment is required. Monthly payment plans are available. Outside Now is a vendor with Heartland Homeschool Charter.
Trekking and tracking and mapping and more…school-age children continue on the path of deep nature connection.
Our Monday Explorers are nomads! They climb trees, meander through meadows, and jump the dunes, as we travel to wide open spaces in beautiful San Luis Obispo county. The youthful longing for adventure so alive in this age group is answered through full-bodied experience of the lessons inherent in nature. Nature connection mentors draw children into a deeper relationship with the elements, the land, themselves, and each other through skillful questioning and the practice of Core Routines of Nature Connection:
Sit Spot and Journaling
Singing, Storytelling, and Imagining
Sensory Awareness Games and Animal Forms
Tracking and Timeless Wanders
Bird Language and Mapping
Native Edible and Medicinal Plant ID
Interactions with the Animal Kingdom
Use of Field Guides
Wilderness Survival Living and Ancestral Arts
Sharing Gratitude
This year we are adding a special new location to this traveling day: Santa Rita Creek Ranch at the top of Old Creek Road. We are honored to be invited to explore this incredible property, owned and protected by SLO Nature Conservancy.
Fresh mud, bugs and birds, sage and willow are waiting just up the trail…
Nature Explorers Info:
Days: Wednesday
Date: Sep 04, 2024 - Jun 04, 2025*
Time: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Tuition: $2,450 plus $100 Annual Enrollment Fee
Mentors: Nic Johnson, Victoria Pond, Rosina Whalen
Location: Trailheads adjacent to El Chorro Park, SLO
Ages: 7 - 12 (other ages with mentor approval)
*Annual enrollment is required. Monthly payment plans are available. Outside Now is a vendor with Heartland Homeschool Charter.
Growing and gathering and crafting and more...those a step ahead mentor the next circle of young ones.
Our Wednesday Explorers settle in and come to know one place very well. Together we bring forward the cultural elements of a thriving Village, sometimes weaving the littlest Coyote Pups into our days or stretching forward to learn from teens and elders. Nature connection mentors guide our return to the wisdom of earth-based cultures as we shape a village center and bring it to life through
Singing, Storytelling, and Improvisation
Naming, Honoring, and Celebrating
Growing Food and Feasting
Tracking and Mapping to gain Knowledge of Place
Being of Service to Community
Growing Individual Gifts and Passing these to the Next Generation
Crafting and Honing Wilderness Skills
Garden plans, crafts and cooking, tracks and tales are waiting for you around the central fire...
Nature Explorers Info:
Days: Thursday
Date: Sep 05, 2024 - Jun 05, 2025*
Time: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Tuition: $2,450 plus $100 Annual Enrollment Fee
Mentors: Nic Johnson, Victoria Pond, Rosina Whalen
Location: Trailheads adjacent to El Chorro Park, SLO
Ages: 7 - 12 (other ages with mentor approval)
*Annual enrollment is required. Monthly payment plans are available. Outside Now is a vendor with Heartland Homeschool Charter.
Listening and noticing and tending and more...those who come to know and love a place deeply learn that they belong to the family of all things. They show up to protect and preserve these places for all time for all people.
On Thursdays, we continue to learn the lessons that live in the hills, creeks, meadows, flora and fauna of our beloved park and the adjacent wild lands. Our place teaches us where to find shelter and what plants to gather to soothe a skinned knee. Our place gives us stories in the tracks the night dwellers leave behind, songs in the wind whistling through holes in rocks, and works of art when the sycamore leaves float over shadows and reflections in Dairy Creek.
Here we fill our days by
Moving our bodies playing games, dancing, climbing
Storytelling, creating rhythms, and singing
Adventuring, hiking, playing in the mud
Learning the language of the birds, tracking land animals, mapping
Gathering food, cooking over a fire, feasting
Sharing gratitude, seeking to be peacemakers, tending the wild
Learning wilderness skills and ancestral arts, making useful tools and objects
Growing our unique gifts, encouraging others, and being of service
Stories of the day, earth arts, wilderness survival skills, and your own nature name are waiting for you around the central fire...