Bird Hills After School Class Tuesdays 4-6 pm
Please note: Returning students will receive priority registration through May 26.
Nature Learning Community’s after school classes are designed for children to relax, play and share in nature connected community. Children collaborate with nature mentors to plan their time together as we explore, and play in the river, forest, field and ponds and grow in our understanding of the biology and ecology of our Michigan wildlands. Children may choose to create art, play games, climb trees, learn wayfinding skills, carve, find animals and learn about edible and medicinal plants. Or maybe just relax in nature, sink into our senses, sit quietly, climb a tree, build a fairy house with a friend, or enjoy story telling and sharing circles about our day or big questions… What is the best way to find a beetle? What is beautiful to us? What is beautiful to a dragonfly? Who lived and worked on the land before us? How did it become a park? Who comes here now?
All the while, we’ll honor and protect our natural places and care for our collective safety and comfort in wild places. Children will learn knife wood carving skills and safety skills for encountering unfamiliar dogs. A tasting of local wild foraged tea and a fruit snack is provided.
Campers should enjoy wandering and exploring new places and be ready and able to cooperate with leaders, follow directions and make decisions with peers for the good of the group.
All the while, we’ll honor and protect our natural places and care for our collective safety and comfort in wild places. Children will learn knife wood carving skills and safety skills for encountering unfamiliar dogs. A tasting of local wild foraged tea and a fruit snack is provided.
Campers should enjoy wandering and exploring new places and be ready and able to cooperate with leaders, follow directions and make decisions with peers for the good of the group.
Details
This class is for children ages 6-12. Class meets in Bird Hills Nature Area at the Newport Ave entrance across the road from Wines Elementary and Forsythe Middle School on Tuesdays from 4-6 pm. In very challenging weather (thunderstorms), class may be shortened or canceled. The Fall Session runs from September 6 through November 1. Last year our nature mentors super enjoyed being at Bird Hills in the beautiful transition from summer to fall. We can’t wait to do it again!
$225 is the cost for the series. Payment and health/liability forms are required for enrollment (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships of 25% or 50% off, and payment plans are available upon request. You are also invited to consider donating additional funds with your full tuition, if you're able, to support scholarships for students in need.
This class is for children ages 6-12. Class meets in Bird Hills Nature Area at the Newport Ave entrance across the road from Wines Elementary and Forsythe Middle School on Tuesdays from 4-6 pm. In very challenging weather (thunderstorms), class may be shortened or canceled. The Fall Session runs from September 6 through November 1. Last year our nature mentors super enjoyed being at Bird Hills in the beautiful transition from summer to fall. We can’t wait to do it again!
$225 is the cost for the series. Payment and health/liability forms are required for enrollment (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships of 25% or 50% off, and payment plans are available upon request. You are also invited to consider donating additional funds with your full tuition, if you're able, to support scholarships for students in need.
Keeping it Safe in the Time of Covid
We've been paying close attention to emerging research around safety in the time of COVID. Current reports indicate that outdoors activities are safe within certain guidelines. Please check out our safety protocols.
We've been paying close attention to emerging research around safety in the time of COVID. Current reports indicate that outdoors activities are safe within certain guidelines. Please check out our safety protocols.
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Instructor
Syndallas Baughman grew up on the water and in the forests of Michigan and Florida and earned a B.S. in Biology at University of Michigan and M.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Along the way she’s camped and studied plants and pollinators in the Siskiyous in S.W. Oregon, swamps, forests and fields of Michigan, Kauai, coastal and desert California, and the California Sierra Nevada. She taught at El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative, learning from wise and loving mentors to step back and follow and support kids’ ideas. At Wildcat Community Free School she followed kids through creeks and forests, set up experiments, supervised the use of power tools, knives and fire, facilitated democratic decision making and mediated a lot of arguments about Pokemon Card trades. She’s planted native gardens with preschoolers to high school students, and camped all over the U.S.A. with her two teenage sons.
Syndallas spent much of the past decade at an automotive manufacturing plant where her responsibilities included developing accountable health and safety systems with teams of union leaders, production operators and supervision. She recently served on a Michigan State working group developing guidance for community centers and public events around COVID safety and is currently in school earning her secondary teaching certificate in biology. She participates in consensus decision making with her cohousing neighbors. The beautiful wild world is the place Syndallas wants to be! She loves sharing nature connection with people and other living things and you!
Syndallas Baughman grew up on the water and in the forests of Michigan and Florida and earned a B.S. in Biology at University of Michigan and M.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Along the way she’s camped and studied plants and pollinators in the Siskiyous in S.W. Oregon, swamps, forests and fields of Michigan, Kauai, coastal and desert California, and the California Sierra Nevada. She taught at El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative, learning from wise and loving mentors to step back and follow and support kids’ ideas. At Wildcat Community Free School she followed kids through creeks and forests, set up experiments, supervised the use of power tools, knives and fire, facilitated democratic decision making and mediated a lot of arguments about Pokemon Card trades. She’s planted native gardens with preschoolers to high school students, and camped all over the U.S.A. with her two teenage sons.
Syndallas spent much of the past decade at an automotive manufacturing plant where her responsibilities included developing accountable health and safety systems with teams of union leaders, production operators and supervision. She recently served on a Michigan State working group developing guidance for community centers and public events around COVID safety and is currently in school earning her secondary teaching certificate in biology. She participates in consensus decision making with her cohousing neighbors. The beautiful wild world is the place Syndallas wants to be! She loves sharing nature connection with people and other living things and you!
Instructor
Fonsea Bagchi (He/Him/His) grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mostly you can find him zooming school at Huron High, walking PawPaw Goldenheart (his dog), and running and walking in all weather - trail running, town running, cross country and track and mega-walks (a word he made up with friends). It only rains on the other guys! He loves wandering in the woods, by the river, in the UP, by Lake Michigan, in the desert, and also canoe camping, getting lost in the mountains, checking dumpsters for racoons and possums. He basically loves being anywhere outdoors unless there are swarms of vicious bitey flies!
Fonsea lives at Great Oak Cohousing sharing in community work, including childcare, cleaning, and grocery shopping for neighbors. He loves music and plays the French Horn in band and (kind of) the piano. He likes to create and share music and enjoys its connection to nature. He’s very excited to work as an assistant teacher at Nature Learning Community, he hopes to help kids find their own love and appreciation of nature. He’s been camping since he was very young. He loves nature and nature loves him!
Fonsea Bagchi (He/Him/His) grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mostly you can find him zooming school at Huron High, walking PawPaw Goldenheart (his dog), and running and walking in all weather - trail running, town running, cross country and track and mega-walks (a word he made up with friends). It only rains on the other guys! He loves wandering in the woods, by the river, in the UP, by Lake Michigan, in the desert, and also canoe camping, getting lost in the mountains, checking dumpsters for racoons and possums. He basically loves being anywhere outdoors unless there are swarms of vicious bitey flies!
Fonsea lives at Great Oak Cohousing sharing in community work, including childcare, cleaning, and grocery shopping for neighbors. He loves music and plays the French Horn in band and (kind of) the piano. He likes to create and share music and enjoys its connection to nature. He’s very excited to work as an assistant teacher at Nature Learning Community, he hopes to help kids find their own love and appreciation of nature. He’s been camping since he was very young. He loves nature and nature loves him!