Nature Learning Community
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Backyard Campfire     Mondays from 4-5:30 pm

Spending lots of time at home? Looking for creative ways to engage with family in the relative safety of the out of doors? Building a campfire is an essential skill, useful anywhere from a backyard cookout to a survival situation. Mesmerizingly beautiful, fire connects people to themselves, nature and others like nothing else can.
In this online class we'll take you through the process of setting up a campfire area, gathering materials, building fire, maintaining it, and using it for cooking and crafting. We'll teach using photos, videos, digital handouts, storytelling and discussion. Participants will be encouraged to try out the skills we share. And we'll be available to celebrate your successes and troubleshoot your sticky spots.

Here's what you need to participate:
  • ​A computer, tablet or cell phone with internet connection and a microphone.  It's helpful if your device has a camera, but not required.  Classes will be by zoom, so it's good to have this application installed in advance.
  • Outdoors space: A yard is great, but any outdoors environment - preferably close to home - where you can build a campfire will do.
  • A variety of equipment and materials will be discussed during class, but you'll be able to do the projects we suggest with little to no financial outlay.

Details
Class meets Mondays 9/21, 9/28 and 10/5 from 4-5:30 pm online. Participants sign up for all three classes. Please pay on a sliding scale from $25-$40 by mailing a check to Nature Learning Community at PO Box 3333, Ann Arbor, MI 48016 or through PayPal to 
paypal.me/natureclass.  Then tell us your name, email address and phone number. You can email us at naturelearningcommunity@gmail.com.


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Instructor
​Rowena Conahan
 is a founder of Nature Learning Community, where she teaches nature connection and outdoors skills and consults with educators seeking to increase outdoors experience for their students.  She’s an anthropologist, healer, storyteller and Montessori teacher, with a background as a homeschool parent and assistant in a Waldorf-based forest kindergarten.  She attended Tom Brown’s Tracker School in New Jersey and Wilderness Awareness School’s Art of Mentoring and is a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training program.  She volunteers for the global 8 Shields movement.  Rowena is also a founding member of Sunward Cohousing Community, where she’s lived and learned for more than 20 years.  ​

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Instructor
​Catherine Fritz
 is a lifelong nature-enthusiast. She grew up playing and exploring in the sand dunes along Lake Michigan. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a dual degree in German and Arts and Ideas in the Humanities, she moved to Washington State where she worked for a number of years doing Youth Advocacy and Arts Education.  There, she deepened her nature connection by learning the plants and animals of a new bioregion. She returned to Michigan to be nearer family and bring her magic back to the Midwest.  In addition to teaching with Nature Learning Community, she's a Music Together Teacher,  does youth theatre, and works with Ann Arbor Forest School. She's worked extensively with children and finds them to be an absolute delight.

Website by Nature Learning Community  PO Box 3333 Ann Arbor MI 48106  734-531-8330 for messages naturelearningcommunity@gmail.com