Nature Awareness Summer Programs 2012

Nature Explorers Day Camp – Huddart Park, Woodside

June 18-22, 9 am – 3 pm

Ages 6-12

Drop off/Pick up at Huddart Park

Nature Explorers Day Camp enables children to create deep connections to the natural landscape through experiential nature awareness and hands-on wildcrafting activities. Campers will explore the environment through their senses, games, survival skills, tracking, and much more! Our proven approach with highly skilled naturalists uses cultural mentoring and best practices in nature awareness with low student to instructor ratios.

Cost: $370 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Nature Explorers Santa Cruz – UC Santa Cruz Arboretum

June 25-29, 9 am – 3 pm

Ages 6-12

Drop off/Pick up at UCSC Arboretum

Nature Explorers Santa Cruz Day Camp enables children to create deep connections to the natural landscape through experiential nature awareness and hands-on wildcrafting activities. Campers will explore the environment through their senses, games, survival skills, tracking, and much more! Our proven approach with highly skilled naturalists uses cultural mentoring and best practices in nature awareness with low student to instructor ratios.

Cost: $370 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Nature Together Day Camps - NEW

Age 3-5 plus parent

2 Sessions:

June 18-22, 9 am – 1 pm at Huddart Park, Woodside

June 25-29, 9 am – 1 pm at UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz

Spend a week in a village-style setting experiencing nature alongside your child, learning about plants, animals, birds, and tracking. We also play nature-inspired games, do crafts, wanders, sit spots as well as develop our senses and awareness.  We start our days with gratitude and tea time and end with stories of the day. Come out on a summer adventure you’re sure to remember!

Cost: $250 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Bay to Sea Santa Cruz

June 18-22, 9 am – 4 pm

Ages 6-12

Drop off/Pick up at Wilder Ranch

The Bay to Sea Day Camp will travel from the biodiversity-rich Monterey Bay to the mountain tops of Santa Cruz and everywhere in between.  Each day brings a new adventure and destination. We will track bobcat, explore cool swimming holes, practice survival skills, and play lots of fun games as students learn to view their “backyard” through a new lens of nature awareness. Drop off and pick up will be in the parking area of Wilder Ranch, where we will load into the Riekes van for a different local destination each day.

Cost: $385 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Bay to Sea Menlo Park

Session 1:  June 25-29

Session 2:  July 16-20

Session 3:  July 30-Aug 3

9am -4pm

Ages 7-12

Drop off/Pick Up at Riekes Center

The Bay to Sea Day Camp will travel from the waterfowl-rich wetlands of San Francisco Bay to the sands of the Pacific Ocean and everywhere in between. Each day brings a new adventure and destination. We will track bobcat, explore riparian river mouths, and play games that teach nature skills. Students will learn to view their “backyard” through a new lens of nature awareness. Drop off and pick up will be at the Riekes Center, where we will load into the Riekes van for a different destination each day.

Cost:  $385 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Family Wilderness Experience - NEW

East Fork, American River, Sierra Nevadas

July 8-14, 3 pm Sunday-Noon Saturday

All Ages

Instructors: Rick Berry, Ken Clarkson, Michelle Sauceda, Jennifer Bresee, and other guests!

Are you experienced?!!!

Join us for an experience that will connect your family to the landscapes of the upper American River in the Sierra Nevadas.  This week-long family camp in the heart of beautiful forested Sierra wilderness will awaken your senses and allow you to walk through nature with a new perspective while connecting with other families.  We will spend parts of the day together as families and then split into adult and kids groups.  At the end of the day we will gather around the fire to share stories of our daily adventures.   Kids ages 12 and up may attend without a parent but will need to arrange for their own transportation to the campsite.  Limit 10 families.

Some of the unique offerings will include:

• Fire by friction
• Shelter building
• Edible/medicinal plant use
• Tracking
• Scout skills, invisibility, and camouflage games
• Hands-on wildcrafting and survival skills
• Awareness Games
• Afternoon wanders and dunks in the swimming hole
• Parent discussions about Coyote Mentoring
• Songs and stories around the campfire

Cost: Adults $450

Kids 12-17 attending without a parent $450

Kids 4-17 attending with adult $225

Kids 3 and under free.

* Cost includes all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) from Dinner Sunday thru Breakfast Saturday.  Also includes camping fees and material costs for hands on

projects.

Early Bird Discount of 10% off thru Feb 15

Scholarships are available

Click here to sign up!

Camp AFCANA (Athletic Fitness, Creative Arts & Nature Awareness)

Riekes Center, Menlo Park

July 9-13, 9 am – 3 pm

Ages 7-13

What is AFCANA?

Athletic Fitness, Creative Arts, & Nature Awareness

Join us for the ultimate summer camp that fuels creativity, develops fitness, and connects us to the natural world around us! Camp AFCANA integrates programming from the 3 departments at the Riekes Center: Athletic Fitness, Creative Arts, & Nature Awareness. This camp creates a full mind-body learning experience. We will create opportunities for students to experience:

• Three worlds of exciting experiential learning all in one facility
• Staff trained in multi-disciplinary programming and best practices in education that enable growth in multiple intelligences
• Exploration of interests and new worlds of learning
• A unique summer camp experience found nowhere else!

Instructors will choose group activities from each department based on group interest. Options may include:

Athletic Fitness

• Speed and running mechanics
• Agility training
• Tread-wall climbing
• Giant physio-ball and dodge ball games
• Flume and swimming mechanics
• Archery
• Fitness games

Creative Arts

• Drum and rhythm circles
• Band classes (student play guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards )
• Vocal training
• Introduction to recording
• Process painting (releasing creative energy through flow with color and shape)
• Drum and Draw (art created to drum rhythms – artists and drummers switch creative medium without missing a beat)
• Video interviews (journalism and creating your own video characters)
• Digital photography – telling a story with images
• Urban Graffiti Art (ages 13 and up)

Nature Awareness

• Fire by friction
• Cooking with fire (plus pizza oven cooking)
• Wild edible, medicinal, and useful plant identification plus plant processing and wildcrafting
• Woodworking skills (burn bowls, spoons, or gourds)
• Tracking
• Awareness games and activities at nearby parks

Each day students will rotate through learning experiences at the Riekes Center in our 3 departments.

Cost: $340 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Wild Skills Week - NEW

July 23-27, 9am -3pm

2 Age Groups:  7-12, 13 and up

Drop off/Pick Up at Riekes Center

This is the ultimate of hands-on skills classes.  Each day offers a new hands on wildcrafting or survival skill. By weeks end, campers will go home with several finished projects. Choices will include making fire kits, containers such as burn bowls, burn spoons, or gourds, making arrow heads by flint knapping, atlatls or quickie bows, woven fiber arts, wild edible or medicinal plant creations and more.

Cost: $370 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!

Surf Camp

Ages 6-18

3 Sessions:

July 2-6, July 23-27, Aug 6-10

8:30 am -1:30 pm

Drop off/Pick up at Riekes Center

Have you ever dreamed of learning to surf, or wanted to spend days on end improving your surfing?  If so, seek no further!  Join us for 5 days of surfing in Pacifica this summer.  This camp will teach the fundamentals of surfing, body boarding, and body surfing.  Surfers will also learn wave judgment, ocean safety, and explore tidepools from certified lifeguards and experienced surf instructors.

Cost: $390 – Limited scholarships are available

Early Bird Discount – 10% off through Feb. 15

Click here to sign up!