COYOTE EXCITES.

MENTORS GUIDE.

ROUTINES TEACH.

NATURE IS THE TEXTBOOK. 

​Wildwood follows the coyote mentoring model, developed by Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School over the past 25 years, as our standard for nature connection and personal development. Coyote mentoring uses children’s innate enthusiasm for the natural world as a context to actively engage them in the learning process.

It begins with child passions, or the aspects of the childhood experience that lead to joy and enthusiasm, such as music, hiding/seeking, adventures, asking questions, catching critters, getting dirty, climbing, chasing, performing, building forts, using tools, spying, and exploring. Child passions are the vehicle for introducing core routines of nature connection; core routines are the underlying practices that become a part of how we connect with the world. Gratitude practices, storytelling, sensory awareness practices, questioning and tracking, and nature journaling are just some of the core routines that shape the Wildwood experience. For more details on the core routines, see the drop down list to the right.



"The Core Routines of Nature Connection are things people do to learn nature's ways. They aren't lessons. They are learning habits."

~ Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.35​

The mentor artfully encourages the core routines to become a natural part of the child's daily habits. The practice of these routines produce our learning outcomes for personal development.

  • "The idea is simple: guide people to find a special place in nature where they become comfortable with just being there, still and quiet. In this place, the lessons of nature will seep in”

    - Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.37

  • After time in nature, we gather round and share stories from the day. Guides and children practice the art of storytelling, sometimes verbally and other times through drawing

  • This is where we imitate animals physically, mentally, and emotionally as cultures do across the globe in such activities as martial art, yoga, and dance. Animal forms provide both physical education and animals as teachers.

  • Tracking wildlife offers plenty of learning opportunities in itself. “The discipline of tracking nurtures quality observation, observation guided by intense curiosity, question after question. So “tracking” like scentific inquiry, always egins with a question. Then it includes gathering evidence and reasoning deductively, defining, refining, and proving hypothesis.”

    - Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.48

  • “Orient to the compass directions, and perceive the landscape from a bird’s eye view. Draw maps to locate features of the landscape or tell stories that map your explorations”

    -- Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.58

  • Nature Journaling is a creative and observational practice that involves recording your observations of the natural world in a journal or sketchbook. Nature journaling typically combines written notes, sketches, and sometimes watercolor or other artistic elements to document what you see and experience in the outdoors.

    Key elements of nature journaling may include:

    1. Observations: Carefully observe and record details about the plants, animals, landscapes, and natural phenomena you encounter.

    2. Sketches: Create detailed and accurate drawings or sketches of the things you observe. These can be helpful for capturing the visual details and for improving your artistic skills.

    3. Notes: Write down your thoughts, questions, and descriptions of what you're observing. This can include details about the habitat, behavior, and any other relevant information.

    4. Dates and Locations: Record the date and location of your observations, as these can be important for tracking changes in the natural world over time.

    5. Personal Reflections: Include your personal thoughts, emotions, and experiences related to your interactions with nature. This adds a more personal and reflective dimension to your journal.

    6. Scientific Accuracy: While nature journaling is a creative and personal endeavor, it often aims for scientific accuracy in observations and documentation. This can make it a useful tool for citizen science projects and for deepening one's understanding of the natural world.

    Nature journaling can be a meditative and mindful practice, helping individuals connect with the environment, improve their observation skills, and deepen their appreciation for the world around them.

  • “When people want scientific information…leading them to explore field guides makes them life-long, self-sufficient citizen scientists of the natural world”

    - Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.61

  • This routine centers around focused skill learning in your place, including shelter building, finding and filtering water, building fires, finding food, and using tools.

    Not only are these valuable life skills, but they help us develop a connection to place and nature in the oldest, most fundamental way. - Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature pg. 68

  • Wandering is where curiosity leads the way.

    “Wander through the landscape without time, destination, agenda, or future purpose; be present int he moment; and go off trail wherever curiosity leads.”

    “Wandering through the landscape being led solely by curiosity and open eyes is the fertile ground for true discovery. Wandering allows us to get in touch with what excites us. When we’re not pushing a learning agenda, curiosity comes to the forefront and guides th learning process.”

    -- Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p. 53 and p.56

  • “This routine develops our imagination and our ability to re-experience events with our eyes closed.

    If our goal is nature literacy, then we must go one step beyond plain reading into reading with the intet to “learn by heart.”

    - Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.69

  • This routine not only teaches about noticing our surroundings, but it also teaches us to keep our own presence quiet.

    “Observing and understanding meaning in subtle patterns of sound and behavior can be applied more broadly to the rest of human life. “

    - Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature p.71

  • Giving thanks, expressing gratitude. A routine we all need.

How do you measure outcomes?

What will they learn?

​Our goal is to instill in our children a love of learning, centered in nature, with a focus on personal development rather than academic outcomes as the criteria for measuring success.

You may still be wondering: What subjects are covered in the curriculum?

At Wildwood, learning isn't compartmentalized; academics and life experiences intertwine like the roots of the trees. Math, history, science, engineering, literacy, art, and music are woven into our days and experiences. Our curriculum isn't a rigid syllabus; it's a dynamic dance between exploration, discovery, learner interests and real-world application.

For example:

  • MATH may be practiced by collecting data on seed dispersal mechanisms in the forest, observing the patterns etched in fern fronds, calculating the height of various trees with basic trigonometry, measuring and building birdhouses and shelters, or simply playing with various card and board games available.

  • Science is a thrilling expedition into the heart of the forest, where students analyze the intricate ecosystem, their pocket microscopes revealing the hidden wonders teeming beneath fallen leaves. It’s tracking animal footprints and practicing the art of questioning as scientific inquiry. It’s creating a sundial to understand the relationship of time to Earth’s rotation. 

  • Language flourishes in poems written in their special sit spot and performed at the amphitheater, stories told around the campfire, and songs sung in the forest. It’s found in our nature journals where we write, draw, and document our experiences and imaginative stories.

    We believe that knowledge isn't just about memorizing facts; it's about understanding their context, their relevance, and their impact on the world around us. It's about fostering critical thinkers, compassionate problem-solvers, and responsible global citizens.

In coyote mentoring, the personal development outcomes are called “Indicators of Awareness”, and are what we strive to produce through the Wildwood experience.

As written in Coyote’s Pocket Guide to Connecting with Nature:

    • Learns from experiences; nature smarts

    • Sensible choice making

    • Cautious, but not fearful

    • Practices good hygiene-reduce, reuse, recycle

    • Respectful. Listens before knocking

    • Comfortable outdoors

    • Truly alive, sparkle in the eye

    • Physically quick and agile

    • Glint of Mischief, flash of daring

    • Whole hearted

    • Bright Curiosity, inquisitive focus

    • Wholly absorbed, intense

    • Nature smart-scientific

    • Exploring, questioning, perservering

    • Tenderness, caring and tending

    • Empathy, protection, encouragement

    • Grounded, centered, emotionally comfortable

    • Stand up for common decency

    • Tend faithfully

    • Appreciative

    • Comfortable with ones owns gifts to the grouo

    • Other-centered

    • Enjoys connection with the human community

    • Open to being stunned, speechless, awestruck

    • Respectful of wild things

    • Wonder in presence of something bigger than self

    • Aware of connection with the wild world

    • Sense of humility, sacred responsibility

    • Meets challenges with clarity, calm

    • Flexible wisdom and true personal power

    • Adapts to the flow of life

    • Ingenuity, creativity, leadership

    • Hope, resilience

    • Unobtrusive receptivity, intentional invisibility

    • Belonging, at home in nature, quiet kinship

    • Finding fit, knowing home

    • Empathy, imagination

    • Humble, well rounded, patient