On October 24, 2011 we had a wonderful field trip with the second & third grade classes of The Children’s School of Berwyn, Illinois. The students had elected to study dunes ecology so we were charged with the responsibility of finding a site and developing a program to meet their desires.

We chose Rainbow Beach, a dunes/prairie natural area on the shore of Lake Michigan about 8 miles south of downtown Chicago. After a community service segment which consisted of picking litter from the beach, the students were free to explore the 4-acre site. They enjoyed fabulous weather along with soaring seagulls & turkey vultures. Along the shore one student found a stick that had obviously been cut and stripped by a beaver! Were there beavers in Lake Michigan?

Luckily, one of the dad/parent-helpers was an ecologist familiar with the area; in fact his company had done the restoration of this prairie some years earlier. Mr. Wachtel informed the class that beavers had migrated into the Jackson Park lagoon, about a mile north and that this stick was most likely a remnant of their busy-work.

After lunch the day ended with the children taking photos for journals that they were creating

In early January we were scheduled to spend a half day in a local forest preserve with the kindergartners & first graders of The Children’s School. However, the weather forecast predicted high temperatures of only 15-17 degrees, a bit nippy for 5-7 year-olds to be out for hours without shelter.

So we modified our program, went to the school, and mixed some indoor fun with outdoor exercises.

For the first hour we looked at animal skulls–elk, cougar, wolf, black bear, and beaver. But the names were unimportant. We wanted the children to learn from the skulls. How big is this animal? Is this animal a predator or prey? What does it eat? How would its diet compare to yours? Is it a sight-hunter or a scent-hunter? Can you tell where it lives? The enthusiasm was high and the answers were remarkably accurate.

We then went outside and learned to walk quietly like deer and wolves; they walk like a baby crawls. Bears have few natural enemies other than man, so they lumber with little need to be quiet. Rabbits and squirrels are prey to everything from hawks to coyotes to the neighbor’s cat, so they are built for instantaneous speed and their gait reflects that characteristic.

The day was as much fun for us instructors as it was for the children. One young lad told his teacher, “That was awesome and I learned a lot.”

We just completed a great weekend workshop with 11 enthused, motivated, & good-humored students; 10 adults and master ridge pole-breaker* and bowl-maker, 11 year-old Noah.

The facilities, food, and staff at Camp Minikani in Wisconsin couldn’t have been better.  The weather felt as if it had been transplanted from early October to early November.  And the skills we taught–respect, awareness, fire by friction, shelter building, walking, seeing, and hearing techniques–challenged and rewarded the class.  Most students were asking for more.

We hope to offer another class in the spring of 2011, so keep your eye on our site and/or send us your name and we’ll put you on our mailing list.

*If you want to know what a ridge pole is and why or how you would want to break one, you’ll have to take our next class.  Or ask Noah.

Student comments:

“The course content [was something] I could not have gotten from books.  I loved the entire weekend.”

“FOOD
The food exceeded my expectations.

INSTRUCTORS [without naming names]
… Good storyteller…Very thoughtful and down to earth…Easy to talk to and entertaining. Nice to see that some people can laugh at themselves… Very personable guy. Great storyteller…Helpful as needed and interesting to talk to. Overall, a very diverse group that gave a lot of depth to the experience.”

“…the class was amazing it really opened up my mind to everything that’s out there that I’ve been missing…Overall the facility was excellent, couldn’t ask for a better place and great food.”

“…we covered quite a bit of useful info and how to slow down and see the entire picture of whatever situation you find yourself in…my wife told me I look different…I started thinking on everything we covered and come [sic] to the conclusion that I am different and always will be…I see how it all comes together a little more clearly. I gotta say it gives me a nice warm feeling inside.”

[From Noah's Mom]:  “He had such a great time. He was so excited to share the funny stories, great adventures and all that he learned over the weekend (I finally had to tell him I needed some sleep . He woke early Monday morning and immediately said “Mom, I’ll be in the backyard building a shelter.”  It is an amazing shelter but even more impressive is the confidence he has in himself and the initiative he is taking in other areas at home.

In late October we designed and presented a workshop for The Latin School of Chicago.   The sixth-graders are studying early humans and 67 of them, along with 7 chaperonse,  joined us on a beautiful fall day to get a sampling of primitive skills.

Though we had only 3 hours Tom, Ellen, Tim, & I exposed the students to awareness skills, tracking, shelters, fire-starting (every student was successful with a flint & steel), and a raucous, fun-filled session “hunting fresh meat” with throwing sticks and paper targets of rabbit, raccoon, and squirrel.

All in all it was a wonderful experience for students and instructors alike.

This is a weekend adult class designed to reconnect our students to the skills practiced by indigenous folks for millenia.  It is not “Rambo” training.  Rather you will learn survival skills grounded in a respect for and appreciation of the Natural World.  The workshop runs from Friday afternoon, November 5th through Sunday afternoon, November 7th.  All meals are provided, as are dorm lodging, hot showers, and indoor plumbing.  See the “Schedule” portion of our website for more details.

Our What 2 Know B4 You Go! program was a very big hit with the three home-school groups who came out to hear us in May and early June.  Though some of the younger children (under age 10) got a bit “antsy” during our stories, most participants found these true-life accounts, the demonstrations, and the hands-on experiencesto be interesting and rewarding.

Here a a few comments from parents who attended the workshop:

• “The way [the instructors] used stories to drive a point home made the impact of the lesson more real.”
• “The hands on and demonstrations, the way the guys took turns telling us important things and the marker board were great teaching tools.  Thumbs Up!!!!!!!!!!”
• “I thought it was very well done, the stories were excellent teaching tools for the kids and adults. All the information was very useful, easy to apply and easy for kids to understand and hopefully remember.”
• “My kids talked about it the whole rest of the day.”

You can find more comments on our website as soon as our tech person plugs them in.

We just completed a very successful, 3-season–fall, winter, spring–outdoor ed program for The Children’s School in Illinois.  For a half day during every season of the school year we reconnected children ages 6-12 to the Natural World.

The weather was sometimes “iffy”, but it never dampened the wonder and enthusiasm of the children.  They learned to walk like a fox, to hear like an owl, to increase their awarness, and to respect everything they encountered in the Natural World.  Some “adopted” their own tree for close study during all three seasons.  Others sat in a meadow in October, January, and May and reveled in the simple things they observed and the changes they saw.

One class had an eight-point, whitetail buck walk within 30 feet of  the forest preserve pavilion we were using as an outdoor classroom.  Another class was gifted with a chance to examine a deer day-bed melted into the winter snow.  And a third class found fox tracks in a suburban park.

The older classes studied the skills necessary to survive in a natural environment.  The younger ones during one session explored the simple wonder of playing with a stick (much less expensive than a video game).  All finished the year with a renewed appreciation of and respect for the Natural World.

We instructors enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and we are told the children did as well.

We continue to work with home-school educators to present unique, high-quality, outdoor education programs for their children.

In recent months we specifically designed and presented a program for a northside home-school book club to coincide with lessons  learned from their reading of Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet”.

On each of three days in May and early June at a local forest preserve in DuPage County, Illinois we are presenting our 2 1/2-hour “What 2 Know B/4 You Go!” program to another Chicago area home-school group–children and parents.  The initial registration response was so overwhelming that our contact person had to expand the presentation from one class to three; and we are told there is still a waiting list.

On April 30, 2010 Tim and Ron presented a “Wilderness Survival Skills” workshop to approximately 50 adult leaders enrolled in the Northeast Illinois Council, Boy Scouts of America High Adventure Resource Course.  The program called “2010 Powder Horn”  was held at Illinois Beach State Park in northern Illinois, and the participants went home with a number of helpful hints and two free items for a recommended 6-item survival kit.  Instructors and students finished the afternoon program sharing a delicious pig roast.

After teaching the Scout leaders the benefits of reconnectiong with the Natural World, Ron & Tim “connected” in a more realistic way when a whitetail deer broadsided Ron’s Prius on the drive home; damage to the Prius–about $2,100; damage to the deer–”lifeless”.

The Children’s School, a school of progressive education located in Berwyn, Illlinois, has asked us to help develop an outdoor awareness curriculum for its students, kindergarten through 5th grade.  Once the curriculum is in place, Nature Education instructors along with The Children’s School faculty will engage the stuents in half-day outdoor experiences emphasizing the “Wonders of the Natural World”, the registered name given to the program.  Appreciation and respect will be the key philosophical themes.

These classes will take place during the three seasons of the 2009-2010 school year–fall, winter, and spring.  Each class wil have an age appropriate curriculum–K-1; 2-3; 4-5–and each will build upon the preceding year’s experiences.

Having been an elementary school teacher for a short time in his early adult years, Ron is particularly excited about this opportunity.  As he often says to adult students as the close of a workshop–”Take what you have learned and pass it on to the children, for it is they who hold the fate of our Earth in their hands.”