Maryland Homeschool Naturalist - Takoma Park/Silver Spring (Jan 3th- May 29th, 2024) Wednesday's

Description:

The Homeschool Naturalist Program provides participants with a deep nature connection as our experienced mentors use the knowledge of our ancestors to guide them through meaningful nature-based experiences.

We will explore the flora and fauna of the local area through animal tracking and plant identification and experience first-hand the interconnectedness of things. This 100% outdoor program is like no other, as nature is not only our classroom and our teacher it's the foundation of every lesson and experience.

Through countless numbers of Earthskills and natural crafts, your child will learn how nature has provided us the four basic elements of survival - shelter, water, fire and food. We will go on adventures and learn how to manage these resources and become stewards of the land.

This ancestral knowledge is your birthright and has been passed down from past generations. Through the ancient tradition of coyote teaching, we are building a community of natural leaders that will hold this ancient wisdom and continue to pass it on to future generations to come.

This is a drop off program with age-appropriate activities.

Ages: 7-14 (Participants must be of age at the start of the program)
Registration fee: 19 weeks $1100 (payment plans are available, see below, includes material fees & a nature journal)
Where: Wheaton, MD
When: Wednesday's 10:30am-3:00pm once a week (please refer to our calendar for the exact dates)

Discounts available: Only one coupon code can be used at a time. *Discounts will not apply if you register without codes *discounts only apply when paying in full.
10% Family Discount* With two or more siblings attending the same camp, use Coupon Code: family
5% Returning Homeschooler* When you have previously attended our homeschool program use the code: return

TWO WAYS TO PAY:

Pay with Installments for 19-week program - First submit your registration Form then return to this page and scroll down to the bottom and subscribe to the installments. ***You must Subscribe to a separate installment plan for each participant *discounts only apply when paying in full.
Pay in full With Credit Card - Submit your registration below and follow PayPal link to submit payment.

Meet the Staff

Ben Kamm - Field Instructor

Raised in the DMV, Ben spent his summers camping and hiking all over the east coast, even to Canada. He developed skills in plant ID and tracking, on these trips, and continued to draw inspiration from his childhood experiences as he was mentored by Ancestral Knowledge Staff. During this mentor-ship, Ben honed his skills around fire making and carving, with a strong focus on friction fire (Bow Drill method).

Ben is passionate about History and the way that ancient people lived, he strives to share the ways that our ancestors used to thrive and survive. As a home schooler and one of seven, Ben has experience with mentoring younger children and working in a group!

Always an active person, Ben enjoys weight lifting and exploring his local landscape.

Eden Cornelius - Program Coordinator and Field 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.

Keith Grenoble - Instructor

Keith Grenoble has been a product of the Back to the Land movement and developed close ties to Native communities from an early age. Keith started his journey by making stone tools represented in the rich archaeological record of Tidewater, Virginia and has been teaching earth skills since 1987. Over time, Keith has become skilled in a variety of earth skills. He is very passionate about making simulations of prehistoric cookpots, and enjoys working with people of all experience levels and interests. He can often be seen catching a knap here and there.

Ancestral Knowledge instructors are First Aid / CPR certified, have completed CJIS Criminal Background Checks, and have been checked against the National Sex Offenders Registry

If you did not pay in full when you registered, please subscribe to the installment plan below.