To register:  https://form.jotform.com/240593080538155

JOIN US for days filled with magic, wonder, connection and nature! Your child is sure to love it!

All camps meet from 9:30-2:00

CREEKSIDE ADVENTURES: 

June 3-6

With Tory Monigold and Rhianna Warrick

Ages 3-6

Cost: $250

Gather round for songs, stories, and the wonder of nature. We shall frolic in the forest and splash our toes in the cool water of the softly singing creek. Each day will include an invitation for creative exploration, whether it be building boats and fairy houses, investigating with nets, making mud pies, or painting with water from the creek. Come play with us

NATURE NINJAS

June 3-6

With Asher McLaughlin and Matt Fowler

Ages 7-12

Cost: $250

Nature ninjas is a playful exploration of what it would be like to move over the landscape completely undetected. We will learn to move silently and slowly in the shadows of the forest in order to sharpen our awareness and know nature more deeply. On this journey the Coyote and Fox will be our close guides teaching us to be stealthy, tricky, and wise. Like them, we will get muddy, close to the earth, and close to each other so we can know our landscape and our community more deeply. It is our deepest vision that your child will have a beautiful week of play, connection, and magic while also walking away with a bit more awareness of themselves and our natural world.

WILD FORAGERS AND HERBALISM 

June 17-20

With: Ashley Meek, Victoria Monigold and Rhianna Warrick

Ages: 5+

Cost: $250

Join Ashely, Tory and Rhianna as they share their passion for wild foods and medicines.  During our four days spent together, we will be immersed in foraging, tasting and cooking wild foods, as well as preparing handcrafted medicinal remedies. Children will deepen their knowledge of identification, use, and relationships to the local flora here in West Michigan. We will practice ethical and sustainable foraging practices, reciprocity and gratitude to the Earth and all it gives to us. With three guides, our youngest children will have ample time for full exploration and play as well as age appropriate immersion in foraging, preparation of foods and medicines and, of course, tasting! There will be times that the group separates into smaller groups to allow a slower pace for the younger kids. The wide age range allows for a beautiful experience for all. We will enjoy a foraged community meal with the Wild Hunter’s Camp on the last day! 

WILD HUNTERS

June 17-20

With: Asher McLaughlin and Matt Fowler

Ages 9+

Cost: $250

Imagine crawling through the thick underbrush on your belly, every moment inching closer and closer to a deer. You notice their breath, their footsteps, what they eat, what makes them nervous. You notice your movements, each slide forward, each leaf touching your body, each breath. You notice the stillness, there is nowhere else to be but here, in this moment, in this forest. 

These moments are what we hope to share with your child through this class. We will learn stalking, tracking, and camouflage, as well as practice archery. Though we won't be hunting any living animals in this camp, we will be learning and honing our skills of hunting with foam-tipped boffing arrows. With these foam arrows and play bows we can "hunt" each other and practice our skills, just as a young bobcat would do with its siblings. 

We will also get the opportunity to cook some wild game meat over the fire. We will share gratitude to the animals for their life, and work together to cook the meat over the fire while singing songs and playing our drums and flutes.

We will talk about hunting ethics as well as what feelings this whole experience brings up. 

We hope for this class to be a beautiful mix of so much play and fun as well as a lot of slowness and learning about the ancient practice of the honorable hunt.

NATURE ART EXPLORATIONS

July 29-August 1

With Ashley Meek, Rhianna Warrick and Victoria Monigold

Ages 5+

Cost: $250

Join us in using natural and foraged elements to spark wonder, artistic discovery and unique works of art and wonder. Children will use a variety of mediums from rock pigments, clay, fibers, and more to create, connect to community, and the Earth. Campers will break into groups by age for a portion of the day allowing them space to delve into nature art experiences suitable for their age group.

MUSIC MAKERS: Music in the Woods

July 29-30

With Matt Fowler and Asher McLaughlin

Ages 8+

Cost: $125

Music in The Woods will be a time of finding our voices, finding our inner rhythms, and spending time attuning to nature, to ourselves, and to the instruments we hold dearly.

Children will be encouraged to bring their own collection of instruments, to use (and/or share). Instruments are not required, all levels welcomed. The guides will also be bringing a bedazzl’d selection of easy-to-use instruments, such as, but not limited to; lap dulcimers, djembes and drums, shakers, flutey whistley things, harmonicas, etc.

Our time together will be spent with our instruments as a group, discovering what sounds are possible together in some super fun and creative naturey ways. We will also spend time in focused, guided groups, split up by instrument. 

We will also be working with our voices by singing silly, spontaneous soundscape songs and such and we’ll  explore finding a few notes we can all play together, echoing over the pond with perfect unison and blissful  music vibes. There will be time exploring the emotional sides to playing music as well. What it feels like to... make a, a, a mistake… pre-game butterflies, the joys and sillines, fears and insecurities, how to breathe with the feelings, and let the music live on!

Oh, and at the end, we will show the parents what we’ve been doing, and maybe the parents should come with some instruments and we can ALL play together!?! 

Draw, Draw, Draw!

July 31-Aug 1

With Matt Fowler

Ages 8+

CostL $125

We’ve all enjoyed the wonders of drawing in our childhood, here’s a chance for your kiddos to explore drawing in the forest with a professional artist, and a chance for your kids to learn some new tricks to boost their confidence. We will work mostly with black ink pen drawing and pointillism techniques. We will be playing some contour drawing games, taking “inspiration hikes”, listening to the creek, and slowing down some of the feelings that can arise for young artists, to help them feel free and happy to be expressing their art. On our hikes we will be finding nature items to draw and inspire, the kids can choose either an animal or a plant to draw, and we will help them bring it to life on paper as a keepsake forever! They’ll each leave with a new drawing pencil and a black ink pen, as well as a finished drawing and some silly scribble pieces as well.