Established in 2012, Nature’s Calling Environmental Education is a charitable organization. We operate the first-ever forest school in southwestern Ontario, south of the 401. We are certified by Forest School Canada and operated as a Ministry of Education certified private school program.   Our mission is to connect youth and families with nature and the outdoors, to raise awareness and appreciation for our natural world, and to foster a strong environmental ethic through community-based education and engagement.

We are community-focused and dedicated to addressing and correcting nature deficit disorder, a term developed by Richard Louv, and addressed in his seminal book, Last Child in the Woods, used to describe the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation.

We strongly believe that direct connections with nature cultivates an understanding and awareness in youth that is vital for healthy children and, ultimately, a healthy world.

We operate 2 forest schools for ages 4 to 16 – one in Norfolk County and one in Brant County. The Norfolk location also hosts an unlicensed daycare/forest pre-school for 3-year-olds. Our forest school philosophy centers on child-led, enquiry- and play-based learning in nature, fostering holistic development, confidence, and a connection to the natural world through regular, long-term, hands-on experiences.

In addition to our Forest Schools, Nature’s Calling also:

• Hosts a March Break Camp and Summer Camps;
• Operates our Lessons in a Backpack curriculum based outdoor programming for local schools;
• Coordinates the annual Rooted in Nature Outdoor Family Festival
• Offers our community other events like family nature walks, presentations to local community clubs;
• Coordinates occasional wildlife habitat projects working with local scout groups and rural landowners,
• Make available, free-of-charge, our publication, “Take a Hike: A Family Activity Guide to Nature Trails and Paddling Routes in the Long Point Watershed”.

Photo by Robert Irvine

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Indigenous Land Acknowledgement

“We respectfully acknowledge that the Land on which we explore, learn, and play holds knowledge and wisdom stored by the Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee and Attawandaron peoples who have cared for it and lived in relationship with it since Turtle Island was formed..”

“We seek to honour the Land by creating meaningful relationships between our school community and the members of these Nations. As active partners in the communities of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the Six Nations of the Grand River we affirm that we are committed to learning the knowledge of this Land; to pursuing respectful relationships with the traditional caretaker-nations of this Land; and to upholding and honouring their wisdom and culture.”

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For more information on Nature's Calling please email info@naturescalling.ca or call us at 519-410-7376.

Click here to donate to Nature's Calling Environmental Education.