Coyote Nature Explorers Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10 am - 2 pm
All sections of Coyotes are full. If you'd like to join the wait list, please share a little information with us by filling out this form and we'll get right back to you.
Coyote Nature Explorers gather weekly to experience community in camp life through the seasons. Each day includes storytelling, nature crafts, learning about safety in wild spaces, study of local plants and animals, outdoors skills, and games and activities to stretch sensory awareness.
Our classroom is the forest, fields, ponds and streams - all sessions will take place out of doors. Our instructors are versed in a variety of ancient and modern camp skills and experienced working with a broad age group. Class is structured to meet the interests of different ages and personalities.
Details
This class is for children ages 6-12. Class meets at Nature and Nurture Farm in Dexter, MI on Mondays or Wednesdays from 10 am until 2 pm. Children bring their own lunch and snack.
Our classroom is the forest, fields, ponds and streams - all sessions will take place out of doors. Our instructors are versed in a variety of ancient and modern camp skills and experienced working with a broad age group. Class is structured to meet the interests of different ages and personalities.
Details
This class is for children ages 6-12. Class meets at Nature and Nurture Farm in Dexter, MI on Mondays or Wednesdays from 10 am until 2 pm. Children bring their own lunch and snack.
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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Keeping Kids Comfortable in Winter
In a normal year we make use of indoor space on very cold days to keep kids comfortable. Because that isn't possible this year we've been hard at work devising new strategies. We have many ideas, including the use of wind breaks, hand warmers, extra fires and regular movement activities. Even so, we have some contingency plans for the coldest days:
Typically we'll be able to make these calls the day before, giving you a little time to re-organize your own plans. Winter temperature forecasts seem to be pretty reliable, so if you wish to plan further ahead you can always scan the weekly weather to see what might be coming. It will be essential that families signing up for Winter Session send kids to class warmly dressed with a full set of winter gear and extra clothing items on hand, including extra masks (we're learning that masks can become damp and non-breathable in wintery weather). |
Early Spring Session - Mondays
The Early Spring Session runs from March 1 through April 19 (no class 3/29). The cost of the series is $238, or $224 for each additional sibling. Payment in full is required for enrollment (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships are available upon request.
The Early Spring Session runs from March 1 through April 19 (no class 3/29). The cost of the series is $238, or $224 for each additional sibling. Payment in full is required for enrollment (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships are available upon request.
Early Spring Session - Wednesdays
The Early Spring Session runs from March 3 through April 21 (no class 3/31). The cost of the series is $238, or $224 for each additional sibling (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships are available upon request.
The Early Spring Session runs from March 3 through April 21 (no class 3/31). The cost of the series is $238, or $224 for each additional sibling (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships are available upon request.
Early Spring Session - Fridays
The Early Spring Session runs from March 5 through April 23 (no class 4/2). The cost of the series is $238, or $224 for each additional sibling (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships are available upon request.
The Early Spring Session runs from March 5 through April 23 (no class 4/2). The cost of the series is $238, or $224 for each additional sibling (see payment and refund policies). Scholarships are available upon request.
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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 in 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 three years ago to be nearer family and to bring some of her magic back to the Midwest.
In addition to teaching with the Nature Learning Community, she is currently apprenticing with Rowena. She is a Music Together Teacher, sharing music with young children, and does youth theatre with the Ann Arbor-based Spinning Dot Theatre Company. She’s worked extensively with children and finds them to be an absolute delight!
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 in 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 three years ago to be nearer family and to bring some of her magic back to the Midwest.
In addition to teaching with the Nature Learning Community, she is currently apprenticing with Rowena. She is a Music Together Teacher, sharing music with young children, and does youth theatre with the Ann Arbor-based Spinning Dot Theatre Company. She’s worked extensively with children and finds them to be an absolute delight!
Instructor
Fia Ervin really enjoys the simple complexity of nature; the balance between life and death and how everything she witnesses is a lesson and reflection to her of her. She's passionate about slowing down and observing the world around her and encouraging others, especially children to do the same. Her 12+ years spent with children as a nanny has kept her curious, adventurous and fearless. She enjoys creating things with her hands and is very excited to learn more about: identifying plants, creating shelters, pottery, tracking and so much more.
Fia Ervin really enjoys the simple complexity of nature; the balance between life and death and how everything she witnesses is a lesson and reflection to her of her. She's passionate about slowing down and observing the world around her and encouraging others, especially children to do the same. Her 12+ years spent with children as a nanny has kept her curious, adventurous and fearless. She enjoys creating things with her hands and is very excited to learn more about: identifying plants, creating shelters, pottery, tracking and so much more.
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 has homeschooled 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. She participates in consensus decision making with her neighbors at home at Great Oak Cohousing Community. 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 has homeschooled 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. She participates in consensus decision making with her neighbors at home at Great Oak Cohousing Community. 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
L'Oreal Hawkes-Williams has a passion for nature and feels her purpose is to help steward an environment where people can reconnect with nature. Having earned a degree in Ecology from the University of Michigan, she’s coordinated and taught her own ecology classes for all ages. She’s also the founder and director of New Leaf Detroit (No Earth Wasted – Living Ecological Awareness Farm), where she uses gardening as a teaching forum. L’Oreal’s garden is a gorgeous bounty of wild and domesticated food and medicine, which she knows how to use! She’s always looking for patterns – big, small and all in between. No matter where you look there’s always a pattern to be seen. She can sometimes be found looking through the lens of a camera, as she and her husband have a film and photo business. L’Oreal has also attended an intensive wilderness medicine training course through U of M.
L'Oreal Hawkes-Williams has a passion for nature and feels her purpose is to help steward an environment where people can reconnect with nature. Having earned a degree in Ecology from the University of Michigan, she’s coordinated and taught her own ecology classes for all ages. She’s also the founder and director of New Leaf Detroit (No Earth Wasted – Living Ecological Awareness Farm), where she uses gardening as a teaching forum. L’Oreal’s garden is a gorgeous bounty of wild and domesticated food and medicine, which she knows how to use! She’s always looking for patterns – big, small and all in between. No matter where you look there’s always a pattern to be seen. She can sometimes be found looking through the lens of a camera, as she and her husband have a film and photo business. L’Oreal has also attended an intensive wilderness medicine training course through U of M.
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!
Instructor
Lauren Hunt's journey through Environmental Studies led her to biodynamic homesteading. For several years she raised big vegetable gardens, berries, medicinal herbs, chickens, honeybees, biodynamic vegetable seeds, and grass-fed beef. She hunted morels and harvest wild foods such as burdock, nettles, chickweed, violets, wild parsnips, dandelions, etc. She built community as a board member and volunteer with the Driftless Folk School in Wisconsin and learned about plant medicine with local herbalists. Parenting two teens eventually brought her family to Ann Arbor, where her children attend the Steiner School, and she has taught gardening. Along the way, she became a wellness coach and yoga leader (learn more at www.laurenmhunt.com). When we asked Lauren if she’d consider teaching with us, she mentioned a month-long course she took in aboriginal living skills. She made practical things like cattail sleeping mats, made fire with a bow drill and went backcountry camping with few supplies for several days. It sounded like a fit! When she mentioned she’s also a singer and song catcher, we just couldn’t wait to welcome her to class!
Lauren Hunt's journey through Environmental Studies led her to biodynamic homesteading. For several years she raised big vegetable gardens, berries, medicinal herbs, chickens, honeybees, biodynamic vegetable seeds, and grass-fed beef. She hunted morels and harvest wild foods such as burdock, nettles, chickweed, violets, wild parsnips, dandelions, etc. She built community as a board member and volunteer with the Driftless Folk School in Wisconsin and learned about plant medicine with local herbalists. Parenting two teens eventually brought her family to Ann Arbor, where her children attend the Steiner School, and she has taught gardening. Along the way, she became a wellness coach and yoga leader (learn more at www.laurenmhunt.com). When we asked Lauren if she’d consider teaching with us, she mentioned a month-long course she took in aboriginal living skills. She made practical things like cattail sleeping mats, made fire with a bow drill and went backcountry camping with few supplies for several days. It sounded like a fit! When she mentioned she’s also a singer and song catcher, we just couldn’t wait to welcome her to class!
Instructor
Alix Gaither is currently enrolled in a Master of Science program in Curriculum and Instruction. She also holds an A.A.S. in Early Childhood Education from Delaware County Community College and a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Arizona State University.
Alix has over ten years of experience working in toddler, preschool, and elementary classrooms across the country with both neurotypical and neurodivergent children, as well as three years spent teaching ESL in Japan. With a background in Montessori education, she’s also a certified trauma and resilience practitioner, trained in anti-bias education and restorative practices for the classroom, and a certified children's yoga instructor.
Alix is originally from the Philadelphia, PA area and is married to her high school sweetheart. Together they have one son and live in Ann Arbor. In her free time, Alix enjoys reading, spending time outside, traveling, and taking photos. The foundation of her nature connection is water, and she’s happiest next to (or in) natural bodies of water.
Alix Gaither is currently enrolled in a Master of Science program in Curriculum and Instruction. She also holds an A.A.S. in Early Childhood Education from Delaware County Community College and a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Arizona State University.
Alix has over ten years of experience working in toddler, preschool, and elementary classrooms across the country with both neurotypical and neurodivergent children, as well as three years spent teaching ESL in Japan. With a background in Montessori education, she’s also a certified trauma and resilience practitioner, trained in anti-bias education and restorative practices for the classroom, and a certified children's yoga instructor.
Alix is originally from the Philadelphia, PA area and is married to her high school sweetheart. Together they have one son and live in Ann Arbor. In her free time, Alix enjoys reading, spending time outside, traveling, and taking photos. The foundation of her nature connection is water, and she’s happiest next to (or in) natural bodies of water.