Current Programs & Offerings
ROOTS OF LEARNING
Roots of Learning is a course designed to bring our children into deep intimate relationships with the environment and the animals who are so greatly affected by our lifestyle choices. Through exploration, story telling and skills-based games, the children learn how to co-exist and interact in positive ways with the natural world. All this happens while having a lot of fun and learning ancient ways of survival.
Skills include: tracking, primitive tools and shelters, poisonous and edible wild plants, forest ecology, and animal relationships.
We break it up into two age groups that each meet once a week for a 10 week session in the Spring and Fall. Classes typically run from 9am-3pm.
Red Efts (Ages 6-8)
Here, we basically romp through the woods, exploring and adventuring. The main focus being the childrens’ own creativity, imagination and curiosity. This helps develop a comfort and confidence that will aid them in all aspects of their lives.
Weasel Tracks (Ages 9-12)
At this age we start to focus more on skills. While keeping it fun and light, core survival skills are learned through games and challenges. Comfort zones are expanded and an emphasis on being able to focus when necessary is encouraged.
Pre-registration is requested for any Roots of Learning program with a $50 deposit per child. Cost- A sliding scale tuition from$300-500 per 10 week session. You decide what is affordable and sibling discounts are available.
PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Teen Adventures (Ages 13-15(
At this time, great care is put into honing skills and we encourage these young adults to push outside of their comfort zones. Participants’ days are filled with challenge and adventure. Our intention is to foster confidence, independence, and accountability while having profound experiences and lots of belly laughs. Backpacking, canoe trips, and other extended adventures are part of this program.
Gray Fox Clan- Boys Rites of Passage (Ages 12-14)
This age old tradition is a three year commitment that includes a 24 hour solo experience, Elder mentoring and a community celebration. Monthly meetings prepare the participating youth for this culmination of the Roots of Learning, which happens over Memorial Day weekend. It is intended to prepare and welcome the boys into their next stage of life in which they will fill a new role in the community with new privileges and responsibilities not as boys, but as young men. Every culture around the world, since the dawn of man, has had this as a part of their life ways. It is only in our modern industrialized lifestyle that we have neglected these important transitions. Our intentions are to re- establish this practice in our time. COST: $35/meeting
MULTI-DAY PROGRAMS FOR YOUTH
For Winter 2011-2012:
Otter Slide Day Program (Ages 8-12): December 27-30, 2011
Four days of having fun in the snow and learning how the animals survive the long winter! Snow shelters, building effective fires, and following animal tracks are just some of what will fill our days. Sliding scale: $170-250
Wintercount Day Program and Overnight (Ages 10-13): February 21-24, 2012
Could you survive outside in a Northeast winter? Have fun learning some techniques and testing them out in a wintry overnight campout. Sliding scale: $200-$270
PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS
Animal Tracking – Winter 2011-2012
We spend many adventurous days tracking moose, bobcat, bear, fisher, fox and coyote throughout the winter. Contact us for schedule. $30/day.
Going Native ’Reclaiming our Past’
In “Going Native, Reclaiming our Past” participants will be
re-introduced to this way of life through a series of weekend emersion experiences. Sleeping under the stars, wandering the landscape and following in the footsteps of the local wildlife, we will be experiencing the world the way forest animals do. The way our ancestors did. And the way some peoples around the world still do today. We’ll meet once per season for an overnight. The focus will be awareness skills and animal tracking, but will also include some basic primitive survival techniques, crafts, and living skills. We will also delve into the ancient art of story telling and how that relates to our survival both in the woods and in the modern world.
Pre-registration is requested and can be made for individual sessions or all of them. Cost- $100 per session or $375 for full course
Apprenticeships
We offer a residential apprenticeship program that is full of unique, life enriching experiences. Apprentices live in a large lake house that was a Bed and Breakfast in former times. Today, it serves as our community retreat and overnight get-away spot for the teachers and children of the Albany. It’s beautiful location on a small private lake makes it a great dormitory for our apprentices as well. The program activities include:
-At least one day per week working on primitive living skills with instruction (i.e. tracking, shelters, food gathering, tools and crafts, hide preparation and more) Free School
- Participation in all children’s and adult programs
- Interaction with the Albany ( a chance to see, in action, one of the oldest functioning democratically run Free Schools in the country!) Free School
- One on One Mentoring
- Participation in planning, visioning and implementing Permaculture design techniques in gardening, building and maintenance
- Maintenance of old and creation of new trails on the 230 acres of land that we call home
- Participation in and discussions on core cultural practices used around the world for thousands of years and how to integrate them into our lives everyday
