Home-school Nature Santa Cruz, California

Home-School Programs In the Bay Area
We offer home-schooling families and families in more traditional schools many options to supplement with enrichment, academics, recreation, and leadership programs during the school year. Wilderness Skills Institute, LLC is an approved vender for OGCS and FAME charter schools.
What we do at Wilderness Skills Institute, does not feel like a school or a camp but doing really cool things with a really cool family. Kobe Pole "Nick said 'Booohhhyahhhh yes yes yes yes yes yes, Im happy' (that is a direct quote!)" Genevieve Sollecito Mother of Nick

Home-School Introduction to Nature Connection for Kids Santa Cruz County Location Dates and Times: Santa Cruz, California Fridays 9:00AM – 3:00 Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to all Kids and Preteens. Ages 6 - 12. Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fee: $300 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 Each day the participants take a short hike into pristine redwood forest creeks, and bay for supervised undirected free play and exploration in the trees and along the creek. The participants will be introduced to the core routines of deep nature connection including wandering and sit spot, storytelling, music, and journaling, expanding senses and awareness, questioning and tracking, animal forms, mapping, exploring field guides and science-based natural history, and primal crafts.
Home-School ages 12-17 -- Deep Nature Connection Santa Cruz County Dates and Times: To be arranged with the instructor 12 hours per week Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisite: None Ages 12-17 Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $600 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 This is a total immersion, experiential study of nature from both scientific and indigenous perspectives. This program's focus is about developing deep nature connections. Each day the teens will start the day by wandering in the forest or beach spending some time alone in their own area of land that they will connect with during their time with us observing the plants and animals. They will return to our base camp and debrief; sharing what they saw with their peers and mentors. The rest of the day will be spent storytelling, music, journaling, expanding senses and awareness, questioning and tracking, animal forms, mapping, exploring field guides and science-based natural history, tending the forest, wild crafting, playing scout games, and just having fun with their peers.
Home-School ages 12-17 Primal Skills, Tracking Skills, and Absailing Skills For Deep Nature Connection Dates and times: To Be Arranged with the instructor 12 hours per week Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: None Ages 12-17 Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other local wilderness areas Open to: Because of the nature of this program… Must have instructor approval to enroll and Not open to charter school enrollment. Fees: $600 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 This program is fun and packed with those skills that our indigenous ancestors needed to know to thrive. Skills, activities, and projects are planned with the instructor. Some are individual; some are collaborations with other participants. Not all participants will choose to participate in all activates offered. Participants may learn, apply, and master the skills necessary to thrive with simply their skills and what nature can provide: food, water, fire, shelter, etc. The participants will learn to make those items that we need in everyday life, like eating utensils, water containers, baskets, clothing, musical instruments, hunting tools, wood working and leather tools from wood, plant fiber, bone, horn, leather, raw hide, stone, natural adhesives, and steel. Making leather and buckskins, soap from plants, animals, earth, and fire. The participants can learn a wide range of shooting sports. Since many areas in nature and industry are hard to get to rope access is also apart of this program. We teach using the rope for safety in case of a fall as in rock climbing, as well as absailing rope, going up and down using rope techniques used by both arborists and industrial climbers. This program provides continued mentoring in the core routines of deep nature connection including wandering and sit spot, storytelling, music, journaling, expanding senses and awareness, questioning and tracking, animal forms, mapping, exploring field guides and science-based natural history, thanksgiving, and tending the wild.

Home-School Archery Dates and times: To Be Arranged with instructor Open Entry Prerequisites: None Ages 8-17 Location: Santa Cruz Open to: Because of the nature of this program… Must have instructor approval to enroll and Not open to charter school enrollment. Fees: $15 per 1 1/2 hour lesson Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 This program focuses on establishing good solid archery form using the National Training System as taught to the US Archery team. This form can be used for target, instinctive, and hunting.

Field Lab for Applied Math and Physical Science in Nature Dates and times: Each Thursday from 9-3 Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to: Teens 12-17 Must have good study habits and a desire to learn Must have scientific calculator or laptop with MS-Office professional Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other local wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $300 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 Wilderness Skills Institute’s Math and Physical Science Field Lab is not an enrichment class but a total immersion wilderness experience applying algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, and chemistry; using the tools commonly used in occupations found in wilderness like surveying, conservation, and forestry. If you are looking to do math proofs this is not the class for you. However, if you want to learn and apply real skills, doing real work, in an intense experiential-based course collaborative experience, then this is the class for you. Each lab is structured to provide experience with particular techniques in math and physical science in a real world setting using the tools used by professionals in the field. Students work at their own pace.
Field Botany and Zoology in Nature Dates and times: Each Thursday from 9-3 Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to: Teens 12-17 Must have good study habits and a desire to learn Must have scientific calculator or laptop with MS-Office professional Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other local wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $300 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 This Field Lab is not an enrichment class but a total immersion wilderness field biology. This course introduces students to the terrestrial ecosystems in the local biome, and the basic sampling designs and census methods used in wildlife and habitat research. This is a small, experientially-based course collaborative experience. Each lab is structured to provide experience with particular species or techniques.
Principles and Skills of Permaculture Dates and times: 6 hours per week To Be Arranged with the instructor Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to: Teens 13-18 Must want to work and get dirty Location: Los Gatos with trips to other local farms Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $300 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 Permaculture is an approach to creating human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. What we demonstrate is not merely self-sustaining but regenerative, not to leave the land the way we found it but to make it better, to heal the land.
Crafts from Nature Dates and times - 3 hours per week/To Be Arranged with the instructor Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to Preteens and Teens 9 - 17 Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other local wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $150 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 This program is about going back to a time when objects of everyday life were objects of art and pride. This is about developing a deep connection to materials from nature that we will make the objects of everyday life from. Go back to a time when there was no zip lock bags, Tupperware, cardboard boxes, plastic buckets, plastic combs, brushes, eating utensils, synthetic fiber, rope, fabric, or acrylic paint. Go back to a time when we used baskets, pottery, and canteens made with tulles, clay, rawhide and leather. When we combed our hair, put on our shoes, ate our meals with objects made of wood, bone, or horn. When we used plant and animal fibers for clothing, cordage, or rope. When we used soil, plants, and animals for dyes and pigments.
Art of Nature Dates and times - 3 hours per week/To Be Arranged with the instructor Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to Preteens and Teens 9-18 Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other local wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $180 per 4 week block Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 Go into a world without technology become deeply connected to a member of that world and then convey that connection to others using the same media that your ancestors did. The participants will make charcoal, paint, dyes, and chalk from nature then use them to create objects of art.
Leadership and Mentoring Dates and times: 3 Hours per week to be arranged with the instructor and 3 Hours assisting instructor in kids program Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: None Ages 13 -17 Location: Santa Cruz with trips to other local wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $180 per 4 week block of 6 hours per week Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 Learn and use the tools of cultural mentoring and ecology of leadership to build a healthy community and how history shaped California and US federal government, and how laws and change come about within those governments. Public speaking.
Nature Photography for Teen Home-Scholars Dates and times: 3 Hours per week to be arranged with the instructor and 3 hours of on-site lab work Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Ages 13 -18 Must have access to a camera contact Wilderness Skills Institute for details Location: Santa Cruz, Los Gatos, or Marin with trips to other local wilderness areas Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $180 per 4 week block of 6 hours per week Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 Participants will learn how best to present the information from the field as a way of self-expression and scientific documentation. A tool home-scholars use to increase their chances to enter the college of their choice or to get that dream job is to have a portfolio of photos that effectively communicates the scope and details of their work, and growth. Topics include sound practices of depth of field, lighting, composure, how best to convey an understanding of relative size, speed, distance, time, and shape. Use of game cameras, bellows, macro, zoom, wide angle, and telephoto lenses.
Website Development and Design For Teen Home-Scholars Dates and times: 3 Hours per week to be arranged with the instructor Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Ages 13 -18 Must have a laptop loaded with Adobe Dreamweaver 5 and Fireworks 5 Location: Los Gatos Charter School Enrollment: Ocean Grove and FAME Approved Fees: $180 per 4 week block of 6 hours per week A professional website is a great way to present and to outreach a home-scholars portfolio. Participants will use professional web development tools to help in development of Wilderness Skills Institute’s website and develop their own websites. Participants will use Dreamweaver 5.5 to generate code as well as using any text editor to read, trouble shoot, and write HTML code. Students will also use Fireworks to prepare photos for their website as well as create dynamic graphics.
Introduction to Shooting Sports Dates and times: 2 hours per week To Be Arranged with the instructor Open Entry: Must register for a minimum of 4 weeks Prerequisites: Open to: Teens and Pre-Teens Location: Los Gatos Charter School Enrollment Not allowed Fees: $120 per 4 week block (some sports require a materials fee) Register: e-mail: Toni@WildernessSkillsInstitute.com or call 831-431-6454 It is in our DNA to want to use a sling, throw an hatchet, cast an atlatl, shoot a bow, or fire a rifle. Safety and range rules are taught and must be obsurved, the same form is taught that is used in the olympics for both archery and biathlon.
For updates about our youth wilderness and nature programs join Coyote Tracks, our informative e-newsletter. It contains wild craft projects, wilderness safety, native plants, and animal tracking sections to better connect your family to the nature of the Pacific North Coast.