BEan In Nature

atural environment, students learn a new sense of place, and these new connections help them develop a sense of stewardship for their world. In this program, Marisa weaves the core routines of nature awareness as detailed in the book Coyote’s Guide by author Jon Young. Marisa uses the art of experiential teaching, whereby students “learn by doing” and by reflecting on their experience. Marisa teaches with this style of teaching accented with “Coyote Mentoring”. Native communities do not send their children to traditional schools to acquire nature education. Instead, they surround their young ones with a mentoring within their communities. Jon Young, author of The Coyote mentoring guide, often calls this education system an “Invisible School.” Jon says, "Invisible Schools used everyone in the village and all the elements of the landscape to draw out their student’s curiosity and inspire hands on learning." BEan In Nature mentors facilitate kids to love, care and connect to nature not by using a ‘teach at the child’ didactic model, instead we use the skillful art of questioning, creative guiding and mentoring, experiential child-led focus and facilitate learning by doing, where we share our contagious enthusiasm, our imagination, and our own love of nature. We believe that connecting to nature with the guidance of a creative nature mentor, who skillfully facilitates nature awareness, ancestral skills and crafts, while out in nature’s classroom, allows children to develop a strong sense of self and a natural love of science. In this design children are naturally accessing their whole imaginations, incorporating their whole focus, all the while growing into amazing earth stewards.