Woodland Words Day Camp – A week of storymaking, nature, and magic

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Enrollment: Open! Complete the registration form below.

When: 9am-3pm, Jul 25 – 29 (Mon-Fri), 2022.

Ages12 – 15 (other ages by permission).

Where: Whetstone Ledges Farm, Marlboro Vermont (20 minutes from downtown Brattleboro).

Cost: $315 – 415 (sliding scale).  The true cost per camper is $350. Scholarships available.

Join us for a week of storymaking, art, magic, nature connection, and resonance with new and old friends in the great outdoors!

Woodland Words is entering its second year with a new name to reflect some magical spice we’ve added to the mix! In our fully outdoor, immersive day of nature connection and awareness we will settle into our relationships with ourselves, one another, and the natural world. Following the emergent flow of staff and participant interests, we will spend part of the day taking up a wide variety of fun activities, including nature based writing and art, storymaking, medicine and edible plant exploration, and personal and collective empowerment. We’ll also explore the edges and hedges where the wild meets the tamed; both within ourselves, and in the physical world, including woods, fields, and streams. 

If you’ve ever attended another VWS program, you’ll see the same games, skills practice & lessons, and time immersed in nature. In addition to that, this program will spend some time exploring themes important to “tween” and “preteen” youth walking the path into the teen years. This will be a place where all genders of participants are encouraged to investigate their edges, discover their gifts, and begin to explore their own particular way of being in the world.

Activities will be based on student interest, and can include:

  • A wide variety of writing forms and inspirations/prompts including
    • Poetry
    • Journal writing
    • Freewriting
    • Fiction writing
    • Nature observation
    • Character creation
    • Writing as activism
  • Nature based art 
  • Materials craft (quills, pens, ink, natural paper, etc.)
  • Storymaking & mythopoesis
  • Firemaking
  • Wild edibles and medicines
  • Age appropriate conversation around emergent issues important to the students
  • New/Full moon practices
  • Awareness building practices
  • Movement for health and vitality

 

Instructor Bios

Ani’s great joy is working with youth who are moving from childhood into their teen years. She is a licensed teacher, and has been teaching and mentoring elementary and middle school youth in alternative and public schools since 2007. She is also a private writing tutor, former yoga teacher and dancer/dance teacher, and mother to one middle schooler and one high schooler. During the academic year, she teaches Humanities at Hilltop Montessori Middle School, in Brattleboro.

Evan “Ash” Young’s passion as an educator is to help students map & nurture their unique gifts, and especially students who experience outsiderness. This passion arises out of their experiences of being raised in cultures outside the US, claiming their power as a queer person, and winning an understanding of the gifts that come from neurodiversity. After graduating from the Wilderness Awareness School’s Anake adult training program in 2015, they have been teaching at Vermont Wilderness School programs since 2017. They also work part-time in the Vermont Wilderness School’s office.

REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. When registration re-opens, there will be a different & longer form below. Complete out the registration form below and be sure to click the SUBMIT button. A submitted registration will generate an automated confirmation email with the subject “[Youth’s Name]’s Woodland Words Day Camp Registration has been received.” Save that for proof-of-registration.
  2. Your spot is secure once we have received a payment. You may pay in full now, or a $65 per week per child deposit. Any remaining balance is due June 1st (or upon registration, for those registering after June 1st). If you have requested a scholarship or opted in to the BIPOC Reparations Fund, payment instructions are in the registration form below.
    1. Note: if you sign up for multiple weeks and wish to withdraw your child from some, you may do so. However, your deposit for the week you withdraw from will be retained (and potentially more of your payment for that week, see here for details about our cancelation policy).
    2. To pay:
      1. Make a secure online payment by credit card or via PayPal in the box to the right –>
      2. OR
      3. Send a check payable to “Vermont Wilderness School” to: VWS, PO Box 2585, Brattleboro, VT 05303.
  3. Click the tab at the bottom of this page: “Complete the VWS Medical Form.” The form is due by June 1st.

Looking for Scholarship? Complete the registration form below, indicating your scholarship request. Read our scholarship and cancellations policy page for more information.  The deadline to submit scholarship requests is June 25th.

Questions about camp?  Please contact us at office@vermontwildernessschool.org or call 802-257-8570.