Mentors support and supervise self directed learning while offering project based activities.
Literacy, Spanish, math, science, creative play, art and crafting are components of each day. Participants are encouraged to identify their unique learning interests by following their curiosity and develop learning strategies that meet their needs while setting educational goals for themselves.
‘Children’s learning is an underground river, you can’t see it, can’t even feel it at times. Then suddenly they soar. You can’t control it; you can’t take credit for it. It’s theirs. You have to be there, providing warmth and stability, providing tools and resources, answering questions, telling stories, having meaningful adult conversations and doing meaningful adult work in their presence. But when they soar, it’s on their own wings’. (Black, 2016)
What the research says:
Children . . . want and need to take risks. They do this “naturally” in the sense that, left to their own devices, they seek out and create encounters that carry degrees of risk or uncertainty. This process of risk-taking necessarily entails exploration, discovery, and learning—about oneself, one’s capabilities, and the wider world. To take a risk is to assert one’s autonomy and power of agency. It is to learn by doing that actions have consequences. It is an aspect of moral education. Play and risk-taking are creative acts. Bernard Spiegal (2017).
The everyday lives of most infants, toddlers, and older preschoolers are made up of hundreds of everyday experiences, events, and activities that are sources of naturally occurring and informal, unstructured learning opportunities (e.g., Crinall & Somerville, 2019; Laird, McFarland-Piazza, & Allen, 2014; Wilson, 2018). Informal learning is embedded in meaningful and functional activities, is guided by a child’s interests and preferences, involvesguided participation by a parent, caregiver, or sibling, has no predetermined goals or expectations for the learner, and does not involve direct teaching or instruction (Callanan, Cervantes, & Loomis, 2011; Rogoff, Callanan, Guitierrez, & Erikson, 2016). In contrast, formal learning is didactic and involves teaching or instruction to promote a learner’s acquisition of predetermined knowledge or skills. Findings from research syntheses of both nature and non-nature related activities show that young children benefit from informal, everyday learning opportunities (Dunst, Hamby, Wilkie, & Dunst, 2017; Sawitri, 2017).
Findings from both quantitative and qualitative studies of young children’s participation in everyday activity settings illustrate how the social and nonsocial characteristics of these different activities, experiences, and events are rich sources of informal, unstructured child learning opportunities (Crinall & Somerville, 2019; Ernst, 2018; Geerdts, Van de Walle, & LoBue, 2015; McClain & Vandermaas-Peeler, 2016; Schauble, Beane, Coates, Martin, & Sterling, 2013). Informal child learning in the context of everyday activities is defined as those settings where child interactions with people, objects, materials, organisms, and other entities (e.g., animals) provide opportunities to use or acquire behavior or skills to have environmental consequences where those consequences provide opportunities to learn about one’s abilities and the response patterns of the social and nonsocial environment.
Recommended Reading:
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- Free to Learn, Peter Gray
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire
- Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work, Akilah S. Richards
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My 10 yr old LOVES these camps. Only organized program that he has ever unequivocally LOVED and thrived in like this.
My daughter LOVES “Forest school” it’s her favorite thing and my favorite thing for her. She gets more benefits than I can name but most noticeably she’s happier calmer and more grounded, it gives her confidence and such a strong sense of self and connected to her natural world. I’m beyond grateful for this incredible resource, it’s all I ever wanted for her.
I have noticed beautiful expansion of Birch’s personality and self autonomy since starting this program. The container you all create for him and his peers to gather together outdoors and play and learn and support one another has brought him so much joy and built his confidence. I am so thankful for finding this program. Thank you deeply.
Warren loved both weeks he did this summer with White Ash. He especially loved the Monroe location. We’ll be doing it again!!
Winter camp really helped us break out of a rut and open our eyes again to possibility.
My sons have been enjoying the program immensely. I hope you continue to offer it!
My 10 yr old LOVES these camps. Only organized program that he has ever unequivocally LOVED and thrived in like this.
I couldn’t be happier with Clover’s experience with White Ash Learning, the value it adds to her life to just be a free kid in nature supported by loving individuals is invaluable. If you’ve been considering sending your little one, I highly reccomend you do!!!
