School Age Programs
5 – 15 Year Old Forest Friends
Cumberland
COAL CREEK HISTORIC PARK
To register for our 2025/26 Forest Buds Program, please click the “REGISTER YOUR CHILD” button below.
FOREST BUDS: 5 – 9 year old forest friends
Join our Hand-in-Hand Nature Educator for nature connection, awareness and play! This program will combine the child-led exploration and unstructured play typical of Hand-In-Hand programs with guided activities geared towards nature connection and awareness. Forest Buds will have an opportunity to adventure into large spaces to play, get dirty and play hard. There will also be opportunities to recharge, relax, listen and watch the world around us. Through changing seasons and weather, we will return to the forest on a weekly basis to gather together and explore. This programs’ small group sizes allow for increased social, emotional interaction and to deepen connections to the land and each other.
Dates: Mondays, September 8 – December 15 (closed October 13 for Thanksgiving)
Time: 1pm – 4pm (please note that we welcome public/private school attending forest friends to either end their school day early and join us on time or end their school day on time and join us after we have started our adventure)
Location: Coal Creek Historic Park
Cost: $490 for 14 sessions (we accept payment through PIE, Ascend, Self Design, Heritage Christian Online School and other Distance Learning Programs)
Courtenay
COMOX VALLEY EXHIBITION GROUNDS
To register for our 2025/26 Forest Buds Program, please click the “REGISTER YOUR CHILD” button below.
FOREST BUDS: 5 – 9 year old forest friends
Join our Hand-in-Hand Nature Educators for nature connection, awareness, and lots of FUN! This program will combine the child-led explorations and unstructured play typical of Hand-In-Hand programs with activities based on nature connection. Participants can expect an imaginative learning journey informed by the natural environment, changing seasons and local flora and fauna. There will also be plenty of time to explore our “Outdoor Classrooms” and lots of opportunities to build caring relationships with the land and forest friends. Although designed to run completely outdoors, no matter the weather, we will have onsite access to an indoor space to use for part of our afternoon on the most challenging weather days, and if we need a warm, dry space to work on a project. Our intimate program size allows for our forest friends’ personalized interactions and lots of opportunities to explore their passions for the natural world.
Dates: Tuesdays, September 9 – December 16 (closed September 30 for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and November 11 for Remembrance Day)
Time: 1pm – 4pm (please note that we welcome public/private school attending forest friends to either end their school day early and join us on time or end their school day on time and join us after we have started our adventure)
Location: Tsolum River through CV Exhibition Grounds
Cost: $455 for 13 sessions (we accept payment through PIE, Ascend, Self Design, Heritage Christian Online School and other Distance Learning Programs)
Campbell River
SPORTSPLEX & WILLOW POINT PARK
To register for our 2025/26 Forest Buds Program, please click the “REGISTER YOUR CHILD” button below.
FOREST BUDS: 5 – 9 year old forest friends
Have you ever wondered where a worm goes in the rain or where a mouse hides from an eagle? Are you curious how a fish knows where to lay its eggs or how a woodpecker can stand on the side of a tree? Would you like to know how many legs a centipede has or how fast a hummingbird can flap its wings? What is the hairy stuff that grows on the side of an old oak tree or what is the slimy goo that makes fallen logs so slippery? Do you stay awake at night thinking about which mushrooms are edible and which ones are not? Why can’t we eat all the berries we find and what happens to the berries that humans can’t eat?
If you are an inquisitive person with a love for nature, please join us as we explore these questions and more. Together, with our Nature Educator we can solve some of nature’s most fascinating mysteries. The Forest Buds Program in Campbell River offers the opportunity for our forest friends to adventure, get dirty, and play hard. It also offers the opportunity to sit, listen, and watch as natural wonders unfold in front of our very eyes. As we connect physically and emotionally with nature, our forest friends build respectful, meaningful relationships with each other. They explore together, answer each other’s questions and strive to show each other how important it is to be kind, caring human beings and stewards of the land.
Dates: Mondays, September 8 – December 15 (closed October 13 for Thanksgiving)
Time: 1pm – 4pm (please note that we welcome public/private school attending forest friends to either end their school day early and join us on time or end their school day on time and join us after we have started our adventure)
Location: Sportsplex
Cost: $490 for 14 sessions (we accept payment through PIE, Ascend, Self Design, Heritage Christian Online School and other Distance Learning Programs)
Black Creek
COTTONWOOD ROSE FARM
To register for the 2025/26 school year, please click the link below.
HEARTWOOD LEARNING COMMUNITY: K – 9
The Black Creek Farm, Forest and Nature School is a collaborative effort made possible by the Cottonwood Rose Farm, Heartwood Learning Community (a program offered through Navigate NIDES) and Hand-In-Hand Nature Education. The school is offered Tuesday to Thursday (morning and afternoon), where half of the day is spent inside and taught by a BC Certified Teacher who delivers the BC Curriculum, and the other half of the day is spent outside and facilitated by Hand-In-Hand Nature Educators who will deliver Outdoor Learning.
FOR MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION: Please contact the Cottonwood Rose Learning Community by clicking HERE!
Quadra Island
HERIOT BAY
To register for the 2025/26 school year, please click the link below.
BLUE HERON FOREST PROGRAM: 5 – 8 Year old forest friends
We are delighted to announce that Quadra’s Blue Heron Forest School is about to take root. A nature-based program for children that moves in step to the forest’s rhythms, the turning moons, and life in our community. This child-led program offers a nurturing learning environment that engages the whole child, inviting them to spend their days immersed in the natural world.
Our focus is on relationship building and playful skill development. We know children learn not only with their heads, but with their hands and their hearts as well. They build a strong foundation for success by exploring the forest trails, by creating art from natural materials, by playing games and listening to stories beneath the trees.
The emphasis is not solely on what is learned, but on how the learning takes place, valuing connection, creativity, and community as essential to the process. Our guide, Chelsea Holley, will lead our Forest Friends under the ever-changing skies and encourage them to grow in their own way.
Dates: September 9 – December 3, Tuesdays & Wednesdays (closed Tuesday, September 30 for National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and Tuesday, November 11 for Remembrance Day)
Time: 9:30am – 1:30pm
Location: 1393 Schooner Road
Cost: $750 (payment plans are offered and we accept payment through PIE, Ascend, Self Design, Heritage Christian Online School and other Distance Learning Programs)
Support the Forest
The Cumberland Forest is part of an interconnected system of forests, salmon-bearing creeks, wetlands and riparian areas adjacent to the Village of Cumberland on Vancouver Island in the traditional territory of the K’omoks Nation.
