October 24
We started the day by leveling up our fire skills, foraging for materials and starting our own fires (which these wildlings are getting fantastic at!).
We settled in to make spiced pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing and apple cider over the fire, and we tested the best ways to maximize damage when smashing pumpkins.
We ended the day by heating up rocks, coloring them with melting crayons, and, of course, roasting marshmallows.
November 7
We kicked off today at full speed, chasing the remaining daylight hours! We acted as if we were lost, learning about the importance of always packing the five C’s of survival when hiking. These wildlings were then on their own to use the five C’s of survival that each team “packed.” They dove into erecting their shelters, making water filters and purifying their water, starting fires, and figuring out what they would do for food! Using some freshly picked mullein from Lethbridge, we made glycerine tinctures to support our health and help with any coughs this winter. We ended the day with donuts, hot chocolate, and a group storytelling session around the campfire!
We don’t even have to say it—we are 100% obsessed with all your wildlings! Thank you so much for giving us an awesome fall!! ❤️❤️
Previous Weeks
We started the day by having to re-hide our geocache in a new resting place as our previous coordinates were too close to another. Then, passing the community snake, we decided to add our own rocks to it.
We ended the day working on our knife skills, whittling whistles, cooking hot chocolate, and playing games!
We didn’t get far, or any distance really, before these wild minds and excitement were captivated…. Communication, articulation, and metacognition were key today as governments, guards, personal spies, knights, and even the Vice President and President joined the woods. These wildlings created secret names and secret codes with secret bases that stretched far and wide as they built a full-scale, evolving, story-building play that involved every single person! Every person had missions and titles. Can we just harness these wildlings’ imaginations?!
We took a temporary hiatus to settle down and test our carving strength with the incredibly hard Buckhorn wood, to whittle some butter knives.
After foraging to create our fire-starting ‘bird’s nest,’ we gave them a treat incentive. They all took it very seriously and worked extra hard to start their fires using nothing but nature.
We foraged for goldenrod leaves, dandelion flowers, and rosehips to add to our cookies, and mint to add to our hot chocolate.
After working extremely hard to create their fires, they settled in for a day of making and eating frittoli with foraged rosehips and goldenrod (an Italian cookie recipe my Nonna always made), playing games, establishing bases, and testing their balance on the slackline!
Survival cordage is a harder skill to learn for smaller hands, but a few of these Wildlings were dedicated to making their bracelets!
Cordage made from cattail, licorice, mullein, thistle, and cambium were all on the table.
We created two different survival water filtering systems and tested them against each other—one cleaner, one faster, both 100% effective!
The rest of the day was spent down at the river with large-scale mud and cattail play, adding to the growing fortress and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to our birthday boy, Beckum :).
There’s always a lot of excitement when foraging and discovering all the goodies you can sample in the woods. It’s a great activity to do throughout the seasons because everything changes so much! After our foraging walk, where we learned about plants like licorice, goldenrod, wild rose, silverberry, and many others, we added our finds to the lemonade. We quickly settled in, with everyone doing what called to them. We ended the day by giving out nature journals, where they can record any thoughts, senses, observations, or even add nature pieces!
Just Fun!
That’s what this group is—instant besties! It was a day to remember, starting with a discussion on water survival and ending with a lesson on how to go number 2 in the woods :). Life skills all around! We explored to find a spot for our first-ever “Academy in the Wild” geocache. Afterward, we headed back to the fire pits, got a fire going, and settled in for a safety debrief on knives and saws, followed by whittling, s’mores, games, and mud hill sliding!
