Description:

Our Woods Wise Camps will be an experience your kids will never forget. Advancing through the different levels of our camps In a safe learning environment, with experienced instructors, our campers will learn ancient & practical skills, become more aware, and more comfortable in the forests.

Participants are guided through experiences that nurture their connection to the earth and allow them to feel at home in a natural environment.

Woods Wise I Come explore our natural surroundings, becoming more comfortable in the wilderness. As we wander and explore our local forests, this nature program provides an exciting week of discovery, adventure and games. The participants will learn; how to blend and flow within nature, build a proper camp fire, make natural cordage, track animals, basic wilderness survival techniques and lost proofing. The campers will work together in small groups honing their awareness and connecting with the natural world.

Woods Wise II - This nature based program is the next step in becoming closer to the earth. Our campers will learn more advanced wilderness skills like Fire by friction, natural basketry, primitive pottery, natural camouflage, atlatl, and animal tracking! (must be 9 years or older and taken Woods Wise I)

Ages: 7 - 14 (we place kids in age and skill appropriate groups)
Price: $289
When: 9am-4pm (aftercare is available)
Location: Greenbelt MD
*Aftercare is available: Once you add the camp to your cart use Back Arrow and add aftercare to your cart.

• We have several discounts available (Only one coupon code can be used at a time. Discounts will not apply if you register without codes)
  
  • 10% Family Discount* With two or more siblings attending the same camp, use Coupon Code; family
    
  • 10% Multiple Camps Discount* When you register for two or more camps use the code: multi
  • 5% Returning Camper Discount* When you have previously attended our camps use the code: return
  • 5% Military Discount* if you are an active member of the military: military
  • Early Bird Discount automatically receive and additional 5% if you register before 2/28/21)

To maximize you discounts please add all camps, aftercare, and transportation reservations to your cart before submitting registration form or payment. Discounts will apply only at the time of registration.

• Meet the Staff

  Noah Wakeman - Field Instructor

  Noah grew up spending most of his time exploring and climbing trees.  He remembers feeling deeply contented sitting up in a tree losing track of time while looking out over the world.

  A native of Northern Virginia, Noah participated in Ancestral Knowledge programs in middle school.  During this time, he discovered his love of skills such as fire by friction and cordage making.  Even more valuable than these hard skills were the deep sense of connection with and reverence for nature that he developed while participating in these programs.  Some of his fondest memories are of the awareness exercises he learned during this time.  During his time in college mindfulness meditation became a big part of his life.  He drew from the awareness skills he learned in Ancestral Knowledge while developing his meditation practice.

  Noah recently graduated from Penn State with a Materials Science Engineering degree and rediscovered his connection with nature during his newfound free time.  He now lives next to the park where he participated in Ancestral Knowledge growing up and spends lots of time there practicing fire by friction, flint knapping and other skills.

  Ravo Brown - Field Instructor

  Ravo Brown has been skating for 4 years. He was drawn to skateboarding from the very first push! When he realized how inclusive and supportive the local skate scene was, he began to explore all the terrain from skate parks to vert ramps and backyard pools. He finds inspiration in the individual creativity that each skater brings to the session.  Ravo has skated many of the local parks in the DMV area but his true love is finding and skating backyard pools.

  Ravo has always been an athletic person participating in gymnastics, boxing, lacrosse, and basketball. As the oldest brother of 4 he has great kid skills and a positive attitude toward life and having fun!

  When Ravo isn’t skating he enjoys doing his own car repairs and currently works in his uncle’s auto shop in Waldorf MD.  He is a talented musician of 12 years playing a multitude of string and percussion instruments and enjoys composing hip instrumental tracks using fruity loops. We are stoked to have Ravo on board!

  Mike Escol - Field Instructor

  Mike grew up camping, hiking and backpacking in the mid-atlantic region with his family and friends. As a child, he remembers sneaking through the undergrowth of the forest after dark with a fern crown, hiding and trying to blend in with the forest around him to surprise his friends.

  He has spent most of his life in the Baltimore region where he calls home. He has been inspired in recent years by the knowledge that nature can be found anywhere. Mike's journey to a deeper connection with nature began in 2012 at the Spruce Knob Mountain Center, where he learned a few of the survival and awareness skills that we teach at Ancestral Knowledge. The experiences and inspiration gained from the people there stoked his curiosity and propelled his desire to learn more. He continued this journey by completing an intensive adult class at the Living Earth School in Charlottesville , VA in 2018.

  He believes firmly in cultivating a relationship with the surrounding environment in which we live, and learning about the connections between various living beings and ourselves. By learning respect, gratitude, and consent with all living beings we can bring ourselves back to a reciprocal relationship with the Earth and each other.

  Mike has a passion for wild edible plants, gardening, herbal medicine, nature-based navigation, carving, survival, cross country skiing, and fire making. He looks forward to providing opportunities to share his knowledge with people from all sorts of background in a variety of circumstances

  Chelsea - Field Instructor

  Chelsea grew up in Baltimore County, where the small patch of protected forest behind her home served as both a playground and classroom, fostering in her a deep sense of curiosity, wonder, and respect for the natural world. On family camping trips, she could often be found in the early morning by the fire ring, awake before anyone else and nursing to flame a buried coal with dry grass and sticks.

  She began her work as an outdoor educator as president and trip leader for the hiking and camping club at Goucher College, where she received a Bachelor degree in Psychology. She was drawn to study how spending time in nature improves mental health and wellbeing. In her spare time, she began bringing groups of people without much outdoor experience to explore trails and rocks and waterways, while sharing her knowledge and excitement about the beautiful, intricate ecological system we are all a part of.
  Along her journey, she realized her love of working with children, and after college, she started her own after school nature program with a small group of children from Roland Park Elementary in Baltimore. They often explored a local park, splashing in the stream and finding plenty of plants, bugs and insects to keep them busily flipping through guidebooks. From there, she began working with the Waldorf School of Baltimore’s Forest Aftercare Program. While there, she practiced an approach that integrated the styles of both Rudolf Steiner and Jon Young to create daily nature connection experiences for kindergarten and elementary students.

  Chelsea is always excited to learn new things by observing the world around her; she finds wild edible and medicinal plants endlessly interesting, and loves to work with cordage and primitive crafting techniques.

  Eden Cornelius - Lead Instructor

  Growing up homeschooled, Eden first found the primitive skills community in upstate NY through enrollment in a program called Primitive Pursuits at age seven. From that time until her teen years, she participated in Ancestral Knowledges Homeschool program for many years and attended primitive skills gatherings. In her teens, her time was spent hiking, camping, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and filling her journal with detailed sketches and facts about the wildlife around her.

  All of her free time was spent outdoors, building debris huts, making cordage, and adventuring in the forest. Schooled by her fiber artist and aspiring naturalist mother, her love of the natural world was fueled by a rich curriculum with a focus on hands-on learning and her intense interest in insects and plants.

  Now, Eden is a multimedia artist and painter who continues to share and learn skills, with a particular passion for pottery, wet felting techniques, needle felting, and natural pigments. With a background in youth leadership, she enjoys working with groups and fostering a creative connection with the earth.

  Josh Roberts - Field Instructor

  Josh Roberts discovered his passion for wilderness survival skills in Vermont in 1998. Through Tom Brown Jr's books he was inspired to practice survival skills which lead him to pursue these skills as a vocation. For over 15 years he has gained experience in this field with various summer camps, organizations and schools in over ten states. These include The Vermont Wilderness School, The Wild Earth Programs, The Roots School, The Institute of Natural Learning, The Fairview Lake YMCA, The Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, and The Student Conservation Corp among others. Josh's goal in life is to share his passion for the benefits of wilderness survival skills. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Adventure Education and Environmental Studies from Prescott College in Arizona.

  Josh has been working with Ancestral Knowledge in the DC area since the spring of 2012. Before moving to the DC area he taught similar survival programs in the Swanguak Mountains of New York. He is currently involved in instructing and developing Ancestral Knowledge’s home school programs, it’s summer camps and his own survival skills workshops. Josh has been actively involved with Mid Atlantic Primitive Skills youth programs and plans on continuing that involvement. He enjoys flintknapping as well as pursuing his interests in permaculture, primitive archery, wild edible foraging, guitar playing and snowboarding.He is best known for his warm personality, fire making skills, his mentoring and teen rites of passage programs, as well as his dedication to teaching wilderness survival skills.

  Bill Kaczor - Co-Founder/ CEO 2007-Present

  

  Bill is the CEO and co-founder of Ancestral Knowledge. Bill has worked and studied intensively with the masters in the fields of; youth mentoring, naturalist studies, primitive technology and tracking. He has been teaching children and adults in these subjects since 1998 — Bill was a lead instructor at Children of the Earth Foundations- Coyote Tracks summer camps for 5 years, and two years as the assistant director. He has instructed students at the University of Maryland, Georgetown University, Rivercane & Falling Leaves Rendezvous, Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills Gathering (MAPS Meet), Bill can often be found instructing at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School teaching primitive traps, bow making, flint knapping, pottery and hide tanning. In 1999 after 11 years, Bill chose to leave his skateboard/snowboard business and dedicate his life to helping people connect with the Earth through ancient skills. Shortly afterwards, Bill designed and was granted an after school and summer program for the 21st Century Learning Community in Public School District 150 of Peoria, Illinois. This program was successful in that it led the children to a respect for nature, respect for themselves and others, self-discipline and adventure. Bill is a specialist in bow making, stone tool technologies, hide tanning, fire by friction and hunting and experienced in many more skills.

  A letter from Tom Brown Jr