Wildheart Nature School offers unique outdoor experiences in an enriching, safe, educational, and fun environment. Our programs provide a framework for deepening intimate connections with nature through stillness exercises, sensory attentiveness, artistic expression, and experiential activities. Wildheart Nature School also fosters self-confidence and encourages empowerment in nature. Environmental education is integrated into programs naturally, as participants ask questions and become curious about the world around them. Topics discussed include plant identification, uses of plants, animal identification, tracking, geology, ecology, geography of Central Oregon, and environmental stewardship. We also teach survival skills, craft making, art in nature, and primitive skills such as animal hide tanning. Although we teach factual information about the environment in our school, we also emphasize the importance of simply feeling the aliveness in nature without needing to label things with words. Indigenous perspectives from North and South America inform our modern approach to facilitating nature connection and the discovery of our nature. By awakening a sense of unity with the grander whole of life through nature immersion, we plant seeds of respect for the Earth so that future generations may have motivation to live in harmony with the environment. We are grateful for the native elders and wisdom keepers who have inspired our vision to honor the land, to all of our ancestors for giving us life, and for the Sky and the Earth for supporting our very existence.
We currently offer nature adventures for children ages 4-10.
My boys get so much out of Wildheart Nature School, from learning survival skills, to polishing their powers of observation, to increasing their appreciation of all living things, but one of the very best things is their desire to show us where they’ve been – Shevlin Park, Tumalo State Park, Dillon Falls… Every weekend following nature class, the boys ask, no insist, that we go see what they have seen. I couldn’t be happier that they want to spend their time outdoors, in the forest or by the river, looking for animals or signs of animals, telling us what plants are edible, and more. Wildheart Nature School is truly phenomenal!
-Nicole H, May, 2012
