TrackersNW Homeschool Outdoor Days
Outdoor Adventure: boats, tracking, wilderness skills, martial arts & more
Ages 6-10
Next Taster Day(s) September 16, 18 or 19, 2008, 9:30am-2:30pm
10 week sessions
Every Tuesday, begins September 23, 2008, 9:30am-2:30pm or
Every Thursday, begins September 25, 2008, 9:30am-2:30pm or
Every Thursday, begins September 26, 2008, 9:30am-2:30pm
Special Sessions (see sidebar)
Mondays, Boat Building Mondays: a 12 week program
Check out our Home School FAQ
In one world, children are made to behave as machines. All movements are to be performed in a grid, at right angles and under the hum of fluorescents. All questions are to be polite and eliciting a didactic response. There are penalties for laughing out of turn, for expressing grief or anger, for dirty pants. Boredom is rewarded with screens, programs to approximate the experience of living in a body in the context of place. Many of us came from this world, packed our fear in the night, climbed through that dark window into the world of stars...
You know there is another world. Where frogs slip through muddy hands, deer are named, naps happen in the tall grass, order is established among siblings and neighbors and kingdoms are built in the trees. As homeschooling and unschooling parents you have made the decision to enter that world, often without the support of a community, like any diaspora; huddled around the center fire of your family, moving toward an invisible promise deep in your anscestral memory.
We don't teach children about nature, we make the natural world an everyday reality in our lives. Reclaiming adventure from TV and video games we enter our senses and a time outside of clocks, where benchmarks are initiation ceremonies administered by the land herself. Instructors, children and parents enter a relationship with that land. This relationship is not a metaphor or a dogma, it is tangible and living, it means our survival depends on our collective health; both the health of humans, non-humans, and that of the land.
For millions of years, and most of human history, hunter-gatherer cultures raised their children competently, aware of their roles, and aware with their senses. Spending nearly every moment out-of-doors they formed real relationships with their place through their lives and livelihoods. TrackersNW Homeschool Day Program moves beyond conventional schooling and returns to this timeless way of learning; collaborative and rich in experience. We want to make 'common sense' common again. And guide children and adults to their innate competency and accountability. Through continuous conversation we take care to develop a diverse range of experience in many areas, including; wild edible plants, animal tracking, awareness of ecology, wilderness living skills, outdoor savvy, martial arts, theater improv and more.
At TrackersNW we reiterate our commitment to families who choose home schooling and unschooling. Many of our instructors and core founders spent their youth in independent and self-motivated learning environments such as home schooling. By supporting families who make independent and intelligent choices for their children, we help shape the greater health of the community, where people are more connected to one another and to the land.
Set up an appointment to learn more, register over the phone, online or Contact Us.
We may not be for you, you may not be for us: We help children to feel like that group of kids wandering country backyards 50 years ago: ecstatic, autonomous, tired, muddy, wet and happy from the woods and wild. We are acutely aware of full and real hazards of the out of doors after years of working in environmental education. We try to move away from the highly structured and limiting tolerances of conventional environmental education while keeping kids truly safe but not encapsulated from, or phobic of nature. We are deep patriots to the value of offering guided yet very free and transparent experiences for kids. We believe it is okay to be thirsty at times, cold at times, and wet at times. It builds empathy and care for the gifts of life. It fosters adventure and sincere accomplishment. We also believe it is critical to feel supported and cared for as they truly explore their passion and responsibility. And through a healthy life immersed in nature, they test the limits and great potential of the often untapped physical and emotional resiliency they possess. WE LIMIT group size to 8 children per age group, making a more well rounded personal experience for everyone involved.
TrackersNW Homeschool Outdoor Days Ages 6-10Skills covered include
For information see our Home School FAQ Who Ages 6-8 & 8-10 Register Online (below) or by mail |
Taster Day Sept 16, 2008, $40 |
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Taster Day Sept 18, 2008, $40 |
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Taster Day Sept 19, 2008, $40 |
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10 weeks Tuesdays only, begins Sept 23, 2008, $350 |
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10 weeks Thursdays only, begins Sept 25, 2008, $350 |
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10 weeks Fridays only, begins Sept 26, 2008, $350 |
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10 weeks Tues & Thurs, begins Sept 23, 2008, $600 |
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10 weeks Thurs & Fri, begins Sept 25, 2008, $600 |
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10 weeks Tues & Fri, begins Sept 23, 2008, $600 |
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10 weeks Tues, Thurs & Fri, begins Sept 23, $750 |
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| Arriving National & International Participants Its easy to fly into Portland's airport and get a ride out to your workshop. We pick up and host up to two nights before. Fees $75 for each non-workshop night: meals and safe lodging included. Contact Us to make your travel arrangements. | |
