Blog

Nature Connection Challenge - Day 1

day 1

Hello Nature Lovers!

Welcome to the beginning of a journey into nature with us. As we all settle into our new reality of Social Distancing, Through The Trees challenges you to lean deeper into your connection with Nature. Each day for the foreseeable future, we will post a challenge that will help guide you into Nature in a new way.

Day One’s Challenge - Mindfulness and the Sense of Sight

  1. Think of a place in nature that you can get to easily, safely and often. Maybe a favorite tree, strea…

Read more…

Water Boiling Challenge

water

This week at many of our programs we gave kids the opportunity to try a water boiling challenge. The task was this: make a fire, melt some snow, boil the water.

We have been exploring all things fire since December and many of our participants have made so much progress understanding how fire works, how to be safe around a fire, and how to build and light a fire using only materials from our landscape. Below the surface, the timeless act of making fire has taught us about patien…

Read more…

Veggie Chili Recipe

veg
We love campfire cooking at Through the Trees, and we do a lot of it in our Homeschool and After School Programs and Youth Camps. Campfire cooking is part of our FIRE topic, which we are focusing on for the months of December and January. The kids often help with food prep and roast their own food over the fire. This time of year, it’s so nice to warm up outside with any hot food, sitting around a fire in good company.

Veggie chili has been our most recent hit, so we decided to share our recipe…

Read more…

Icy Adventures

icy
20191216_105422.jpg

Our Camp Woodland Homeschool Program friends had an amazing day this week exploring Mother Nature’s wintery gifts. The morning began with lots of smiles and giggles, sliding down some icy trails on the grass. It was pretty fast! Afterward, a short hike through the woods on the trail down to Camp Ironwood resulted in the discovery of some beautiful icicles. The sunlight shining through the trees made the dripping icicles sparkle and the green moss almost glowed. It was a magical place!

Read more…

The Magic of a Snowy Day

snowy day
This week Mother Nature gifted us with something magical- our first real snow of the year. While most adults were busy worrying about the road conditions and other mundane details, children everywhere were enamored by all the sparkling snow.

Our Camp Ironwood kids were no exception. After sledding for the first part of the day, we made the trek down the hill to camp. Almost immediately kids and teens organized themselves into an hour long snowball fight. Some kids created a snow ball shop to keep…

Read more…

Through The Trees is On Fire!!

ttt

We have had an amazing Fall at Through The Trees! This Fall has been a time to get to know each other, explore our interests, and enjoy lots of playtime in nature. We have done some debris shelter building, campfire cooking and nature art projects, learned about basic tool use and foraged for wild foods. As the days have gotten shorter we have enjoyed being outside after dark with opportunities for stargazing, flashlight tag and enjoying sitting around the campfire together.

Our focus for the m…

Read more…