Olympic Nature Experience | Way of the Woods

Our experienced mentors are passionate about facilitating group experiences that integrate nature connection, academics, and social skills. We encourage imaginative thinking, exploring, problem solving and risk taking. In this way, we hope to honor and nurture the essential nature of young people and reflect to them the unique gifts they carry into the community. Students are encouraged to take risks and learn about themselves. The Way of the Woods will provide meaningful and authentic opportunities for your pre-teen to experience compassion, curiosity, empathy, and interdependence. Guest teachers and field trips enrich the flow of the year and will create lasting memories.

Activities & Skills Include:

Natural sciences: geography, aquatic and marine biology, botany, wildlife, and ecology
Wilderness Skills: friction fire, shelter building, knife safety, tracking, and navigation
Social Emotional Skills: gratitude practices, listening, compassion and building community
Academics: journaling, storytelling, measuring habitat health, history of place and phenology, mapping
Movement: games, challenges, animal forms, sensory awareness practices
Life Skills: responsibility, optimism, perseverance, self-assuredness, self-regulation

Ages

10 – 12 years old. Children must be 10 by Sept. 1st, and are recommended to have been in Nature Skills II however it is not a requirement.

Days & Times

2026/27 School Year

Tuesday 9:30 am – 2:30 pm at Tributary Lane in Agnew

Dates

September 8, 2026 – June 4, 2027

Teachers

Amanda Erickson & Mallory Watson

Tuition

$245/ month

Registration & Enrollment Policies

Registration Fee: a $25 non-refundable supply fee is due at the time of registration.

Enrollment Deposit: To secure your child’s placement, a non-refundable deposit equal to the final 30 days of tuition is required. This deposit is due upon enrollment or prior to the program start date, whichever comes first. The deposit will be applied to May 2027 tuition, or to the final 30 days of attendance if a student withdraws before the end of the program year.

For more information view our Enrollment Policies.

Tuition Assistance

Olympic Nature Experience has limited tuition assistance available for low-income families. Tuition Assistance applications are due June 1st, 2026. You will find the tuition assistance application as a part of the registration process. The Tuition Assistance Committee will announce TA awards mid-June.

FAQS

How do you ensure children are safe in the forest?

Safety is our highest priority and we are constantly aware of the environment and all changes that are happening including the children’s abilities and energies as well as the weather and location.

Our instructors are specially trained to recognize forest and nature dangers and prevent unnecessary risks while children play in the forest. We teach children to recognize and asses their own safety levels and ensure that the boundaries around their play are clear and followed. Some inherent risk occurs while children play in the forest, however, we feel that this risk is developmentally appropriate and satisfies children’s need for challenge and growth of their physical and emotional selves.

What is invisible education?

In the modern world, we have been taught that learning is solely didactic education of a teacher “teaching.” This means that unless a students is being talked to, given an obvious lesson, they will not perceive their own activities as “learning.” In our coyote mentoring model, it’s common for a child to say or think, “I didn’t learn anything.” In reality they are deeply immersed in nature, becoming more knowledgeable about their place, skilled in being part of a community, and deeply connected to one another. Additionally, they are practicing skills that will set them up for a life time of learning: critical thinking, problem solving, perspective taking and observation.