I love how whenever you arrive, no matter how your day was, you can’t help but feel happy.
– Wildflowers Participant
WILDFLOWERS FOR GRADES 2-5
For girls and gender expansive youth in Grades 2-5
In middle childhood attention moves from family to the greater world. They may begin to lose a secure sense of self and their unique and powerful voice. This is when having mentorship and earth connection is critically important for their healthy growth. Wildflowers circles support you and your child in the journey from young to middle childhood to provide a solid foundation for what’s to come.
Connecting with the Natural world
We play games that mimic natural relationships and create a fun and embodied atmosphere of connection, tracking animals, learning from the birds, feeling at home in our bodies in our local ecosystems.
Meeting Plant Allies
We forge bonds with our plant allies through creative writing, journaling, observation, and respectful harvesting for teas and herbal applications.
Creating Beauty
We teach the basics of cordage from local plant species, creating a basic weave with hand dyed wool and natural fibers, carving, making baskets, building fires, coal burning, and more.
Expressing and Using Voice
We evoke playful and spontaneous self-expression, through improv theatre exercises, making a talking stick for use in fire-side sharing circles, learning how to approach relationships and the changing nature of body and mind, and discussions based on our anonymous “question box.”
Learning about Emotional and Physical Changes
We discuss in fun, comfortable and age-appropriate ways, the emotional and physical changes youth are approaching or experiencing already.
Parental Support
Caregivers will participate on special days with the girls. There is also one session per fall and spring season that is exclusively for caregivers which offers support for you so that you can best support your child in this time.
One of the most troubling things about raising a daughter is watching her confront the climate of competition and rivalry in girl culture. Transforming this dynamic takes conscious, mindful intention, and that is what I see as the most important gift of Gaia Girls Passages. I see Gaia Girls culture helping her to negotiate difficult relationships at school; teaching her to seek out a culture of sisterly support, instead of damaging competition.
– Monica Long, mother of Naiya
Your support will plant seeds that bloom far into the future…