Summer Programs

Nature Immersion Summer Sessions

9am – 3pm | Ages 2 – 14

Outdoor, self-directed, all weather nature immersion.

Deepen sense of wonder through games, stories, crafts and hands-on exploration of field, forest, and stream ecology. We’ll co-create and learn by investigating curiosity, exploring the water, land, and meeting the beings that live there. Naturalist skills, crafting, laughter, and unknown adventures will make these exciting weeks for all ages.

Each session shares similar activities and daily flow. We play games upon arrival, then transition to morning circle to hear about the day’s projects, sing songs, and share naturalist knowledge about our surroundings. Activities include archery, wood craft, fire tending, shelter building, swimming in the stream in Hampden or the pond in Monroe, and plenty of time to explore trails and our surroundings.

Attending multiple weeks? Participants have the opportunity to select a skills based competency badge to work on or complete one they began during Spring Semester.

June 27 – July 1

Hampden

Almost full

July 4 – 8

Deer Isle

July 25 – 29

Monroe

Almost full

August 8 – 12

Monroe

Ages 2 – 6 Waitlist
Ages 7+ 3 spaces open

Nature Immersion Overnight Session

August 16 – 19 | Ages 7 – 15

Sleeping under the stars, opportunities to experiment with various sleeping systems, including individual and group shelters, cooking on the fire, working on handcrafted projects and crafts, plenty of time to swim, and playing games will shape our time together. We’ll spend four days and three nights on Thistle Pond in Monroe where we’ll build our camp together. Participants should be excited to be away from home and outdoors in all weather for the duration of the session. Contact us if you have questions about readiness for overnight camp.

Access the new registration system below. We appreciate your patience as we navigate this transition.

Rising Moon Summer Immersions

A space for people of marginalized genders ages 10-15 to explore and deepen into transitions in their lives, families, and communities while celebrating a spectrum of diverse ways to embody masculine and feminine energy.

Learn More

Sliding Scale Tuition

The sliding scale tuition model is a type of fee structure that accounts for variability in assets, income, and expenses as an attempt to increase accessibility for people with less financial and/or class privilege. We recognize there are social, physical, and material barriers to accessing this type of programmaing as well.

If neither the subsidized or scholarship rates are accessible for your family, please contact us and let us know what your needs are. We are committed to making programs accessible to anyone who is interested and are actively fundraising to increase our capacity to reach this goal.

This model allows self selection of registration cost, please pay the actual cost of attendance if you do not experience difficulty meeting your family's basic needs such as housing, food, and transportation.

Make a payment online

Pay your balance for the spring semester, extended day, early drop off, or day camp.

Where do you fall on the tuition scale? We believe that examining the intersection of privilege, wealth, and class is a lifelong process. The following questions are offered to provide starting points for exploring these topics, and not a definite tool for evaluating privilege and wealth.

You might qualify to pay full tuition if some or all of these apply to you:

Own property.

Can afford to take time off or go on vacation.

Receive unearned or gifted income.

Have a retirement account or other investments.

Choose to work part time or not at all.

Make more than 75K per year.

Have no debt.

You might qualify to utilize the sliding scale if some or all of these apply to you:

Living paycheck to paycheck.

Struggle to pay minimum payments on debt.

Experience difficulty meeting basic needs like housing, food, and transportation.

Do not have savings.

Your ability to work or earn money is affected by illness, mental or physical disability.

Have to work more than 40 hours a week to make ends meet.

Read more about Sliding Scale: A Tool of Economic Justice.

Day Sessions

Weekly Rates

Pay it Forward

$395

I have financial comfort or wealth.

Supporter

$325

Actual cost — Basic needs are met.

Subsidized

$255

Occasionally I experience difficulty meeting basic needs.

Scholarship

$185

Meeting basic needs is an ongoing challenge.

Overnight Session

Pay it Forward

$795

I have financial comfort or wealth.

Supporter

$675

Actual cost — Basic needs are met.

Subsidized

$550

Occasionally I experience difficulty meeting basic needs.

Scholarship

$425

Meeting basic needs is an ongoing challenge.

Day Sessions

Reeds Brooks Trails

28 Main Road S #A

Hampden, ME 04444

Unceded Wabanaki Territory

Deer Isle

19 Fieldstone Road

Deer Isle, ME 04681

Unceded Wabanaki Territory

Bear Camp | Steadhaven

559 Dickey Hill Road

Monroe, ME 04951

Unceded Wabanaki Territory

Just a few of the benefits of a nature-based learning environment:

• Whole child development
• Increased fine and gross motor skills
• Increased language and communication skills
• Integrative approach to incorporating academic subjects
• Self-directed: based on participant interests and observations
• Practice regulating one’s own behavior
• Increase competence in social interactions and collaborative skills
• Development of problem solving skills and independent thinking
• Curriculum is not pre-scripted but instead inspired through nature-based play and skill building
• Deepening relationship with the more than human world