Family Summer Camp

Inspired by Jon Young from the Nature Awareness School in USA, carrying forward the heritage of Apacha Indianen, who have always lived in deep connection to nature, I felt calling to follow their path. I'm still on my discovery journey but eager to pass on the principles of the teachings so far, called the art of mentoring.

By playfully applying your sensory awareness like smell, touch, hearing, seeing, feeling and your intuition you can connect to the natural world and yourself much deeper than through your cognition only. And it's a very playful way to discover the world around you. Moreover, nature connection happens pretty much only in a condition of perceived sense of timelessness/flow and it requires unsupervised experimentation. If you know this book 'The Children of Bullerbyn village' of Astrid Lindgren then you can picture what I mean.

Maternia is a place to facilitate nature connection. It feels save and still pretty wild. And I'd love to host and mentor your children and you during the upcoming summer holidays to ignite your playful spirit, your curiosity and involvement in the natural world.

During the rest of the year I am a mother, a certified herbalist, a nature mentor of elementary school children in the Netherlands, a birthday party in nature facilitator, an adept of self-realisation in Heart of Awakening.

Date of camp: 3- 10 August 2024 in Dutch

Adult 400 euro per week, incl. all meals

Child (3-12 years): 275 euro per week, incl. all meals

There is place for 8 kids and 7 adults/ week

What does a day look like?

Every day in the morning we will have some structured activities adjusted to the age of children. In the afternoon the kids can explore on their own and with each other in this safe, enclosed environment of Maternia (3ha) or with their parents, for example by the lake.

We will learn about some wild edible plants, pick veggies in the garden and cook by the camp fire. We will practice some techniques to make a fire, collect tondel and practice with making fire like a real bushcrafter, play games, build shelters in the woods, track and trace wild animals and tell each other stories around the fire before going to sleep.

Everyone chooses his favourite place to spend time in and get to know it very intimate.

We will draw, sketch, sing, make nature art, forest parfum, felt the wool, carf wooden spoons and whatever else comes up.

I encourage you to take your tent and explore the adventure of sleeping with all the nature sounds around you.  I also have 3 hammocks with mosquito net if you want to watch the beautiful stairy sky.

I hope you will find your way to Maternia and we will get to know each other soon!

If you are interested to praticipate or have any questions please let me know via mail, whatsapp or Signal:

NB. I speak Polish, Dutch and English.

With love,

Iwona van der Spank- Maternicka