Curriculum - Location - Instructors - Community - Registration - Contact

Tracks & Tales Nature School is designed to give children a foundation in outdoor exploration and creative expression by using games, songs, stories, art projects, and the natural bounty of a pristine, mature northwest forest.

Open House Potluck!
Come join us for our Open House Potluck on Friday, Sept. 3rd from noon to 2pm. We will be exploring Cherry Creek near Duvall (bring swimgear) and playing lots of nature-based games. This event is targeted towards children age 3 to 10 and their parents and siblings. Please contact us for directions.

Now enrolling for September classes!

In the past decade, more and more people have been turning to "nature education." Books such as Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv, Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell, and Coyote’s Guide to Connecting Kids with Nature by Jon Young and Ellen Haas, help show the profound impact nature can have on children, bringing them a sense of peace, self-confidence and joy.

Classes for children age 2 to 18!

Morning Class Offered Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to noon for children age 2 through 4.

Afternoon Class Offered Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 4pm for children age 5 through 11.

Wednesday Wanderers Offered Wednesdays from 8:30am to 3:30pm for children age 12 through 18.

New adult-level classes for parents and community members!

Wild Edibles Class! Come once or come monthly. Classes start in September. Click here for more information!

Kamana Connection Group! Weekly gatherings for Adults studying the Kamana program. Classes start in September. Click here for more information!

Art of Mentoring for Parents! Monthly gatherings to support and empower parents. contact us for details!

Tracks and Tales Nature School cultivates not only the connection between children and nature, but also the connections between children and their families, between families and nature, and between families and community. Special classes for parents and community members include a customized, parent-centered Art of Mentoring class. Community thanks-giving dinners, family-friendly gatherings, and special storytelling evenings further celebrate and strengthen our community.

Our curriculum is based on seven branches of activity.

• Story circles, where children and teachers share real and imaginative stories about their outdoor experiences, bringing our group together and setting the theme of the day.
  
  
• Songs and games kickstart the day and get our blood moving. Singing songs written with the students’ words helps empower children to create. Group games like Eagle Eye, Run Rabbits Run, Foxtail, Lynx and Fawn and Drip Drip Splash help the children form relationships with their peers.
  
  
• On Nature Walkabouts we will freely explore fir and cedar forests, growing gross motor skills and learning about our ecosystem, the lost art of tracking, edible and medicinal plants, and how to understand bird songs. Agility and scout skills are also enhanced.
  
  
• Plant and Animal study will take many forms, including identification in the wild, drawing and pretend play. We will learn how to walk like a mountain lion, chirp like a wren, feel the forest floor like a raccoon and smell like a coyote. We will learn the edible and poisonous plants and animals, fire safety, navigation and how to be found when lost.
  
  
• With art projects, students will exercise their imagination and develop the ability to articulate thoughts and feelings. Crafts help build fine motor skills, and teach the principles of the physical world. Working with raw materials helps to build a strong connection to and understanding of nature. We will draw, paint, sculpt, weave and do many other crafts within the children’s ability.
  

• The Seven Directions model and Earth Fire develops spatial awareness and establishes a foundation from which the children can create anything they choose. The Seven Directions are Earth, Sky, East, South, West, North and Center. Earth Fire is the creativity that comes from the center of the Earth and our own hearts, giving everyone the power to create joy, kindness and knowledge from within oneself. We teach that each of us is an environment, connected to the larger environment of our ecosystem, part of the entire planet, and that the health of all three are connected. The Seven Directions and Earth Fire is universal knowledge held by all native people.
  
  
• Free playtime & Passion-based Learning, where children can choose their own games and activities, interact and pretend with each other, and develop connections to nature ... without even knowing it! Unscheduled time to imagine, pretend, and follow our interests is the way that we grow to be independent critical thinkers, and fully aware of our own gifts and talents.

We recommend the Wilderness Awareness School's research page for more information about why nature-based learning is so important.

For more details about our teen program, the Wednesday Wanderers, click here.

Our program is based in the beautiful forests available just minutes from the heart of Duvall, Washington. Acres of pristine, mature forests and streams provide infinite natural exploration. Contact us for our exact address.

Richie Booth is a graduate of the Wilderness Awareness School's intensive Residential (now "Anake") Program, and also a summer camp instructor with W.A.S. He is graduating from the Anake Leadership Program Apprenticeship in June, 2010. He grew up in Yelm, Wa. where he spent his summers camping in the Weyerhauser forest with his father, and developed a great love for our Mother, Nature. In high school he became a counselor at Camp Cispus in Randle Wa. where he realized his passion for working with youth. During his time at Cispus he found himself also connecting with the enthusiastic and energetic little ones labeled as ADD/ADHD, and now sees how nature connections can help to bring out their gifts. Family is something that has always been very important to him and the Anake program has shown him the true power of community. He has now dedicated much of his life to helping create community and the valuable connections between our children and Mother Nature and is truly inspired by the great impact this has on all of us.

Natalie Rivera-Esperance comes to Tracks and Tales as a Wilderness Awareness School Anake graduate on with an apprenticeship beginning in September, 2010. She spent a year in the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness Essentials program in California, lead by Jon Young. On days she is not at Tracks and Tales, you can find her listening to birds, learning about plants, playing in the forest, storytelling, and keeping things ship shape. She lives her life through her passions and wants to help people become fully alive and connected to themselves, nature and people.

Johnny Miller has been working and playing in the wilderness for over 20 years. Most recently he has been teaching at Wilderness Awareness School with students from ages 6 through adult. Some of his passions include: traveling by foot, by canoe and by kayak through various environments and learning about the varied natural landscapes the world has to offer. He loves to create functional and beautiful projects from natural materials, (such as sewing his own clothes from buckskins). His background covers a wide range of accomplishments and adventures. Johnny has worked as a Forest Service Wilderness ranger, forest fire fighter and trail crew leader for over 10 years. He has taught survival and primitive living skills at Boulder Outdoor Survival School in Utah. He has traveled extensively in many locations including: studying traditional medicine in eastern and southern Africa, climbing on Mt Kenya, backpacking in Turkey, hiking and swimming through parts of Central America, diving in the Virgin islands, paddling in many locations such as: the Sea of Cortez, Glacier bay in Alaska, the Everglades in Florida, and British Columbia as well as often exploring our local Washington rivers and salt water environments. Johnny is an avid sea kayaker, rock climber, whitewater kayaker, backpacker, gardener, and homesteader. He strives to provide an example of how to live and thrive in this modern world while leaving it a healthier place for future generations. He resides in the foothills of Duvall, Wa in his small off-the- grid geodesic dome home.

Lindsay Huettman has adventured in the Pacific Northwest for the last 12 years as a ethnobotanist, horse trainer, organic farmer, arborist and white water guide. Lindsay has a deep love for the land and plants which she shares in her many classes she teaches a Wilderness Awareness School and around Puget Sound. She has a degree in Ethnobotany from Western Washington University and has worked in supporting deep human connection with nature through plant studies. She also has many years of helping homeschoolers and writing K-12 curriculum for Washington State requirements. Lindsay loves the rivers, lakes and oceans and has been a white water guide for 7 years (also a Swiftwater Rescue Technician). She spent many years helping to run an organic farm in the Upper Skagit where she learned many homesteading skills and food preservation techniques. Lindsay is rediscovering her love for fishing and is pursuing bow hunting this summer and fall. Plant technologies, natural dyes, cedar clothing, trip plotting, running, playing music and being with friends keep her busy when she is not instructing!

Ute Christine Jarlik-Bell has a Masters degree in Botany and Soil Science from her native Germany and has used wild plants as food and medicine for decades. She attended classes in permaculture and practiced those principles on her Biotopia Family Farm in Yelm,WA. She has taught Vision training (single and groups), plant walks and yoga. She participated in the Art of Mentoring at the Wilderness Awareness School (WAS) in Duvall in 2009 and applied those skills as an apprentice for Tracks and Tales throughout the 2009-2010 year, as well as in every day life. She is the mother of a 15 year old naturalist named Merlin.

Maya Wallach, parent, volunteer, and registrar, helped start Tracks & Tales Nature School after seeing how students of all ages blossom in the amazing outdoor programs at the Wilderness Awareness School. Maya spent much of her childhood on the Pacific's rocky beaches, and splashing in the clear blue lakes of the high Sierras. After several careers in New York (social work, arts administrator), Paris (dance writer & photographer) and Bangalore (computer programmer), living on a creek in the forest feels like coming home at last.

Our programs are tailored to focus on each child's and each group's abilities and interests.

There is also a $30 annual registration fee per student or $50 per family for our children's programs. Siblings get a 10% discount. Please contact us if you need financial aid.

Signup now!

Children less than 30 months old need to be accompanied by a parent or caregiver. Our child / teacher ratio is never more than 8 to 1.

Click here to download our registration form (as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file).

Don't see the program you're looking for? Use the form, below, to write us and tell us what you'd like to see! We love creating new programs!

Please fill out the form below to arrange a visit, RSVP, sign up, or inquire further.

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	Your message: If you include your phone number and a good time to call, we'll be happy to call you. Registration forms and other correspondance may be mailed to us at: Tracks & Tales Nature School 15321 Main St. NE, Ste 102 PMB 124 P.O. Box 5000 Duvall, WA 98019

Tracks & Tales is part of the Natural Learning Center.