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)

Woods Wise III - This our most advanced day camp! This camp focuses on the skills that were the most important for sustainable wilderness living and survival. Our ancestors had the skills to live anywhere in the world. This camp focuses on the skills of the ancient Hunter/Gatherer. We will explore several advanced skills that include; archery, open fire cooking, wild edible plants, advanced camouflage, hunting, trapping, stone tools, advanced fire making, and the art of invisibility.  (Must be 10 years old and attended Woods Wise I & II)

Ages: 7 - 14 (we place kids in age and skill appropriate groups)
Price: $325
When: 9am-4pm (aftercare is available)
Location: Greenbelt MD
*Aftercare is available: Once you add the camp to your cart, come back here and add aftercare to your cart OR register for aftercare separately via the link in the registration info packet

• We have several discounts available (Only one coupon code can be used at a time. Discounts will not apply if you register without codes, we can't make adjustments or issue refunds for registrations submitted 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

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.

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• Meet the Staff

  Bill Kaczor - Executive Director/Co-founder 2007-Present

  Bill is the Executive Director 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.

  Read what Tom Brown Jr said about Bill

  Ben Kamm - Lead 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.

  Keith Grenoble - Lead 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.

  Kyle Dexheimer - program coordinator/instructor

  Kyle has joined AK with a diverse background. He attended the Coyote Tracks and the Tracker School. He has also studied various subjects under former Tracker instructors. He served in the Peace Corps in Tanzania where he should have hung out more with the potters and basket weavers instead he was focused on agriculture and trapping the rats that ate his avocados and soap.