Nature School and Education Centre

Enjoying the warm day today!

Our latest ad campaign :)

We've now got all three of our tents set up and had our first fire today! Thank you to Calvary Gospel Church for sharing this massive field with us, and the indoor areas are perfect!! Thank you, neighbours, for welcoming us - we promise to leave to space better than we found it! We love Beamsville!!

We had an extra special guest at extended care this week! We think this is a Screech Owl, it seemed just as curious about us!

Great to see Niagara here - and a clip from Nature Camp (yellow shirts). Thanks so much Shelly!

We all know that time in nature is good! Are you looking for ideas on what to do with your children when you are there? Let us help with these kits! ... This is our Wonders of the Woods kit (compass included, not pictured). Show us in the comments how you've been enjoying the Nature in Niagara this fall! 10 photos will be randomly selected each week of November to receive a free kit Open to residents of Beamsville, Vineland, Jordan, Campden, Tintern, and Rockway. Let's get outdoors, all year round! Made possible with funding from The Town of Lincoln, Grow, Prosper, Belong Fund.

https://www.facebook.com//4394/permalink/1459243754264535/

We love our new book! Students found this scat, and the best guess is fox! As a facilitator, I get so much joy when the students run up and ask for reference books rather than Google.... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0811737748?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Saturday Explorers - Today we found this little one at the pond. What an amazing moment, im excited for us to learn more about snapping turtles! This little one was found just at the side of the pond, we put it back in same spot, just a bit more hidden! Good luck, little one!! (The red is leaves...not to worry!)

Nature School Elementary update. We are now full and are accepting students onto our waitlist - we also would like to introduce to you our friends at Balls Falls Nature School, who are now accepting registrations for students grades k-2. https://www.cognitoforms.com//BallsFallsNatureSchoolRegist

We have lots of kits to give away, thanks to the Town of Lincoln Grow, Prosper, Belong fund! Send us your photos - we have 19 kits to give away this week!

What are you looking for when choosing a Forest School for your children? https://www.yellow-door.net//sorting-the-forest-school-fr/

What does September look like for your child? Full and Part time spaces available - kinder program is filling up fast! https://local.google.com/place

Let's get this amazing organization sold out of wings!!! They have been so great to our little Nature School - not sure if we'd be having camp this year without them!!!

Our summer camp is in full swing! I love when parents ask what is it we DO all day - there is no easy answer, as it all depends on the children and what's happening in Nature! Our qualified teachers and teachers in training on staff work hard to enrich the expereince of each camper based on their interests - There is no way we could plan any better adventures and discoveries that the children do themselves. We chould not anticipate that tiny toadlets we found in the woods - w...hich lead to a full week working on habitats, disscusions on how we can protect these tiny beings and water cycles, as we saw the water levesl in the pond go down as the temperature went up! Alix (8.5yr) summed it up nicely, he says: 'At Nature Camp, we decide what we want to learn about, and the counselors decide if it's safe or not'. Spaces filling up fast! Explore our website for more info and registration.

We really appreciate all the help from Grantham Lions Club and the City of St. Catharines for making this possible for Nature Camp! We can't wait to explore the woods, feilds and beaches with our campers! Spaces are still available. Plesae see link to register!

Good News! We are running our Nature Camp this summer! We have confirmed one location, and waiting to hear about an alternative site (we'll hear by Saturday). I understand this is really short notice for our Monday Campers - and appreciate your understanding. We are dedicated to providing a Nature rich environment! Families will receive an email by the end of day tomorrow with more details.

THINK OF IT. Today, whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school, the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that... we must therefore teach more of it. If 200 hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try 400 hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten. But Benezet had the opposite opinion. If kids aren't learning much math in the early grades despite considerable time and effort devoted to it, then why waste time and effort on it?.... Benezet followed his outrageous suggestion with an outrageous experiment. CLICK BELOW. See more

Citizen scientists - let's looks for this bee :)

Hello everyone, We hope you and your family have been well during these extraordinary times. We've been waiting until we had everything figured out - we still don't, but we wanted to send an update because we do have news.... For the safety of Scouts Canada Staff and volunteers they will remain closed until at least August 31. This is also true of our local school boards (via Community Use of Schools). So, no Wetaskawin this summer. We are no strangers to the nomadic life at Nature School, and we are trying all we can to secure an appropriate location (one with woods) for our Nature Camp. We are excited that we will be able to comply with the regulations set out for child care providers in Ontario with only a few changes to our regular program. We've reached out to the City of St. Catharines, and now we're reaching out to you - do you live on land that has access to the woods? Do you know any businesses or friends that do? We want to rent some space! Please reach out if you do! Thank you all, for your support, patience and understanding. Details on refunds and any alternative programming will be available once we exhaust all options for locations. Nature School Team

Happy World Environment day! We'd like to send a shout out to ALL the species of bees today! Did you know, most bee species are solitary http://beesinyourbackyard.blogspot.com/p/poster.html