Winter Survival Course

Join us in learning some of the key skills used and needed in the outdoors. We work with the basics of Fire-Water-Shelter-Food-Navigation and Lost preparedness.

Survival skills are not only useful and empowering, but connect us to our surroundings and to the direct world. Not to mention a ton of fun too! We play themed games throughout the day to build friendships and help us become more aware of our environment.

Week 1- Fire

Week 2- Water

Week 3- Shelter

Week 4- Food/Navigation and Lost Prepardness

Fridays and/OR Saturdays 9:00-2:30

January 3-25

$220 for the for the four sessions

○ Backpack preferably with a chest strap

○ Snack, lunch, and full water bottle

○ Tea cup (can be attached to the backpack with a carabiner)

○ Journal and colored pencils/crayons

○ Hand sanitizer and tissue

Be sure to check out the old-fashioned skills we will be reviving throughout the 2024-2025 school year during our homeschool enrichment program, Walking in Wellness, below!

While personal & environmental wellness will always be at the heart of Walking in Wellness, each set of sessions will also focus on reviving an old-fashioned skill!

Raising Chickens: April-May 2024

Let’s raise chickens! Week 1 we will learn our daily rhythm, and Week 2 the children will watch chicks hatch. Throughout the weeks, the children will participate in raising the chicks from hatching to coop-ready! We will learn the anatomy of the egg and chicken, different breeds of chickens and categorizing them by their purpose, the chicken life cycle, the reciprocal nature of chickens and the garden, learn about growing and fermenting feed, regenerative agriculture, nose to tail approach, chicken behavior (pecking order, communication, dirt baths), testing eggs for freshness, assessing health, and more!

Medicine Making: August-September 2024

Wellness toolbox…first aid kit…call it what you will! This set of sessions is focused on creating healing remedies with wild-grown and harvested herbs. We will make plantain salve, mullein*/garlic oil, and pain potion (tincture with dandelion root*, mullein leaf*, peppermint leaf, turmeric root). Each student will also learn the benefits of activated charcoal and add that to their toolbox.

*ingredients that grow wild on the property, all other ingredients will be grown in our garden

Come back August 2025 to add calednula salve, mullein* tincture, elderberry syrup, and digestive bitters to your toolbox!

Harvest & Sharing the Bounty: October-November 2024

Fall is harvest time! We will harvest and learn how to cure sweet potatoes, harvest and ferment carrots, harvest ginger and prepare it for winter, plant garlic for spring, and more. Throughout the weeks, we will prepare to make a big vat of butternut squash sweet potato soup with all ingredients down to each spice (other than salt, pepper, and coconut oil) from the garden. This entails curing, washing, peeling, chopping, and freezing everything to be ready for coming together feast day! We will also be learning the process of making sourdough bread to pair with the soup. In our final week (the Friday before Thanksgiving), we hope to either share this meal with a senior living center in Anderson or a group of families with foster children.

Zero Waste Living: February-March 2025

In our winter months, we slow down to make and mend. We will learn sewing skills to mend something children bring from home that needs love or we can supply them with something of ours to mend. Younger students will use cotton binca fabric and blunt, wood needles to get accustomed to sewing and move on to mending if they show readiness. We will make toothpaste and each child will go home with a Brush With Bamboo toothbrush. Our hope is the visual reminder of a new toothbrush will help them integrate their mindfulness skills into the everyday activity of brushing their teeth. Each child will make a collection of Waldorf-inspired block crayons by sorting broken crayons by color and melting them down in a mold over the fire (parents- we would love it if you started collecting any broken crayons!). We will talk about food waste, the importance of composting, the enormous amount of landfill waste created in modern society, and everyday ways to reduce our waste.

All Things Goats! April-May 2025

We’re not kidding when we say our Silly Nilly will be kidding next year! Our sweet Saanen goats, Bobo (the clown) and (silly) Nilly will be expanding their herd. With that, we want to teach our kiddos about all things goats! We will learn how to assess goat health, learn their dietary needs & behaviors, learn about milking, and many endeavors one can do with the milk. Throughout the weeks, our family will be milk sharing (milking in the morning and letting the kids nurse throughout the day). Each family has the option to pick one week to come early as a family to do the morning milking to have the hands-on experience! Learners will learn to make goat kefir, goat milk soap, goat milk butter, and cheese (if I can perfect it between now and then!).

And there are so many more skills to come!