By Shealyn Elstein | Durham Program Coordinator
Unlike our other camps, each Tuesday and Thursday, a group of homeschoolers come to Piedmont Wildlife Center (PWC) to learn, to play, and to connect with the outdoors. Thanks to your support we were able to offer 7 full and partial scholarships to homeschoolers this fall!
This week marks the end of our Fall Homeschool in the Wild season. We learned how to find edible plants, make natural dyes and pigments, construct fire, and filter water using only materials found in nature. Building a community is an important aspect in all of our programs, but particularly in Homeschool in the Wild. We open and close every session with a small ceremony to welcome back our returning homeschoolers, and integrate new members into PWC's homeschool community.
This session, our homeschoolers were smudged using cedar smudges on their way to their first opening circle, and on their way out of their last closing circle of the session. A smudge is made up of aromatic plants that have been bundled, and dried, to allow them to catch fire and smoke. Once the fire is blown out, the scented smoke from the bundle is wafted over a person to help refocus positive energy and release negative energy. The same technique is used in many Native American ceremonies for purification or cleansing of the spirit. This year, two of our new homeschoolers, Mary and Tyler, got to experience the smudging ceremony and the homeschool community for the first time. At the beginning of the session, they would walk into homeschool hiding behind their parents. Within 30 minutes after drop-off, they would be welcomed in by the other kids, and everyone started smiling and laughing as we ate snack.
By December, Mary and Tyler came in each week with a smile on their faces ready to start the day. On the last day of the session, Tyler and Mary's mom said, "My children have enjoyed the program so much. They are so excited to come back in the spring." We finished the day with a special smudging ceremony that Tyler and Mary were excited to be a part of. "They were very happy to take their smudges home as a symbol of their first session in Homeschool in the Wild." Your generous support helps children like Tyler and Mary come out of their shell and find a community in the outdoors!
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