Dawn Song Village Homeschool Program

The Dawn Song Village Homeschool Program is an experiential outdoor classroom where youth (ages 7 and older) learn and grow side-by-side with compassionate, knowledgeable and creative role-models in the forests and fields bordering the Shawangunk Ridge.

At Dawn Song Village Homeschool Program nature provides the lessons and learning is embodied.

Our goal is for your child to emerge with a deeper sense of belonging to the greater community of life as we link what your child already loves to an expanded connection to place.

Using experiential learning our team works with your children to cultivate self-confidence, aliveness, creativity, curiosity, helpfulness, appreciation and compassionate communication.

Each week our teaching team creates a custom nature, science, somatic, arts-based curriculum that allows your child’s excitement and passion to lead.

At Dawn Song Village Homeschool Program we build natural shelters, learn to make fire-by-friction, create natural art, use natural features for “aidless” navigation, play active and intuitive games, practice primitive skills, follow and find animals through their tracks, learn bird language, enjoy storytelling, sing songs, and celebrate our learning and family village at monthly overnights.

Come join the fun with the Dawn Song Village Homeschool Program!

Try Dawn Song Village School for a day.

You can try this program for the first day.
Register now for your first day.
Be sure to include a note that you’re only registering for one day. Scholarships and Financial Aid are available from Wild Earth.

DSV Homeschool Program Curriculum Includes:

Woods Adventuring and Wilderness Skills:

• Naturalist Skills: basic identification skills, experiential field ecology, using field guides as elders.
• Shelter: understanding and building debris huts, lean-tos, and other shelter options.
• Fire: primitive bow-drill and hand-drill, fire safety, fire tending will be demonstrated and taught.
• Water: finding potable water, purifying, etc.
• Wandering and Aidless Navigational Skills: lost proofing, directional awareness, song lining, map reading
• Nature Games: a variety of energetic and intuitive games that inspire learning in embodied ways.
• Natural Crafts: basket weaving, natural teas, wooden spoons, burn bowls, natural paints, natural dyes, nature journaling.
• Night Skills: mindful and compassionate embrace of fears at night, storytelling, nature-at-night ecology, outdoor cooking, village potluck

Camp Craft:

• Tarp Setup and maintenance, primitive shelter building
• Knife safety training and basic carving
• Fire safety and fire tending
• Rope maintenance, knots, etc.
• Outdoor cooking skills and appreciation

Forest Etiquette:

• Woods Safety: Identifying and dealing with hazards
• Owl Eyes, Fox Walking: Opening the Senses, connecting with the body
• The Honoring Routine: Building relationships with the animals
• Scout Communications: Communicating to each other without words
• Quiet Mind: Practicing stillness to build deeper relationship
• Leave a positive trace: Leaving no trace and leave spaces visibly better
• Gratitude: Cultivating gratitude and gift-giving
• Bird Language: Know what is happening in the forest by listening and interpreting bird song

Self-Care / Interpersonal Skills:

• Basic Needs under Duress: Developing awareness and paying attention to needs in rain, low sleep, fear, darkness.  Instructors will support you in learning to notice and ask for what you need.
• Connecting with the body: Noticing when you are hungry, thirsty, tired, etc and taking care of yourself.
• Basic conflict resolution skills: Getting what we want by identifying & communicating our needs and emotions instead of our judgments.

Land Tending Skills:

• Permaculture land stewardship
• Basics in landscape ecology
• Plant identification
• Edible mushroom inoculation

Register Now for Dawn Song Village Program