Mondays | 9am to 4pm
Our full year Cedar Grove program is designed for the home school community within the Guelph and surrounding area. If you attend a public or private school one of our trimester programs is likely a better fit but get in touch if you'd like to discuss options.
Cedar Grove is full outdoor immersion throughout the year and changing seasons. The program delivers invisible learning and healthy development through responsive mentorship, sensory awareness games, primitive skills & self-sufficiency challenges, as well as timeless journeying among surrounding valleys, swamps, waterways, cedar groves, open fields, hardwood stands, and rocky outcroppings. Key moments and discoveries are integrated into group learning and culture through well placed questions, pouring over field guides, sketching, stories, mapping, and repeat visits to best locations. We even get in a couple of field trips to local trails and landmarks to help tie the varied landscapes of Guelph together.
As with all our GOS programs, Cedar Grove is a balance. It features hands-on experiences of ancient fire making, mapping, plant identification, storytelling, shelter building, and tracking animals, balanced wit the so-called 'soft skills' of careful listening and using best words, of co-operation and peacemaking, thanksgiving and sharing the story of the day.
Cedar Grove Full Year features opportunity for more long term projects and better reflects our commitment to sustained mentoring relationships. Professional facilitators have an increased opportunity to identify areas for growth and development for the individual and group. Our model seeks to foster the character attributes of resilient, capable, and service minded people. Our daily work promotes Quiet Mind, Common Sense, Aliveness and Agility, Inquisitive Focus, Caring and Tending, Service to Community, Awe and Reverence, and Self-Sufficiency. The learning experience is dynamic, emergent, multi-sensory, exciting.
Registration for 2023-2024 is full!
“The science on nature connection is rolling in, showing significant benefits in the emotional, cognitive, spiritual, physical, and social lives of those who engage. Hope to see you out there.”