Wild Path Home

Jacob Rodenburg is an award-winning educator with over 35 years' experience and a master's degree in education. He is the executive director of Camp Kawartha, an innovative summer camp and leading outdoor education center, and has taught environmental education at Trent University for two decades. Jacob has helped to develop nearly 100 outdoor and environmental programs, has published dozens of articles, led scores of workshops and training programs, and has taught more than 100,000 students. He is author of The Book of Nature Connection and co-author of The Big Book of Nature Activities. Jacob's passion is finding creative ways to connect children with nature. He lives in Peterborough, Ontario.Cathy Dueck is a lifelong naturalist who has worked in community-based environmental education for over 35 years. She is founder of the Peterborough Ecology Park where she oversaw the development and delivery of children's programs. Cathy taught in the School of the Environment at Trent University for 15 years and holds a B.A. in Environmental Science and a Master's in Canadian and Indigenous Studies. She served as lead writer, researcher, and co-ordinator for the Kawartha Region's Pathway to Stewardship and Kinship project, where she shared her passion for fostering community connection and environmental stewardship with people of all ages. Cathy has received many local, provincial, and national awards. She lives in Havelock, Ontario.

• Introduction Key Stewardship PrinciplesLandmarksBirth to 3 years4-5 years6-7 years8-9 years10-11 years12-13 years14-15 years16-17 yearsIt Takes a VillageEnd NotesAcknowledgementsBibliographyResources

Without question, this is the finest book on raising children I have ever seen. —Paul Hawken, author, Carbon, Regeneration, and The Book of LifeThe Pathways to Stewardship project is the most comprehensive community-based approach towards raising children to care about and take care of the earth. It's wonderful to see that they have now translated their fine work into this beautiful book—The Wild Path Home. The Wild Path Home provides guidance that is inspired, sane, gentle, and, most important, effective. Grandparents, parents, and educators can use this book to help figure out what to do with children and students today to help preserve the earth over the long haul. —David Sobel, environmental educator, Professor Emeritus, Education Department, Antioch UniversityWe need this book more than ever. The Wild Path Home provides a joyful abundance of creative ideas for families, schools, youth programs, and whole communities to help children and youth engage with nature in ways that help them become healthy, resilient protectors of the Earth. Grounded in an evidence-based understanding of child-development stages and nature's benefits, offered through a climate impact lens, and informed by Indigenous wisdom, this is my new go-to guide. What a treasure!—Cathy Jordan, PhD, Director of Research, Children & Nature NetworkThis beautifully illustrated and well-researched book is an invaluable resource for educators, program planners, parents, grandparents, and anyone who wants to help children and youth develop a lifelong connection with the natural world. Readers will be excited about the hundreds of easy-to-implement yet impactful ideas for different settings and seasons. This essential guidebook is truly impressive!—Kristi Lekies, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Ohio State UniversityThe Wild Path Home is an invaluable resource for parents and teachers, and youth programs of all kinds. With accessible, engaging activities, it provides adults with a framework and road map to raising nature's stewards of tomorrow—something more vital now than ever before.—Drew Monkman, nature educator and mentorThis is a wonderful guide for any adults—teachers, parents, grandparents, youth leaders—looking to play their part in mentoring young people who will engage with, celebrate, care for, and help heal our planet. The Landmarks have relevance wherever this vital work is being done.—Paul Elliott, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education and Professional Learning, Trent UniversityThe Wild Path Home presents a compelling vision for how we can reshape the way children grow up, focusing on respect, interconnectedness, and sustainability. This thought-provoking guide, which draws on Indigenous knowledge, offers a roadmap to nurturing a society that prioritizes health—mental, physical, and environmental—through deeper relationships with nature and one another. It is an essential read for educators, parents, community leaders, and anyone interested in the future of our planet and its inhabitants.—Alison Elwood, vice president, Ontario Society of Environmental EducatorsMany books offer ideas for activities that foster environmental literacy and environmental stewardship. The Wild Path Home does that abundantly, thus serving as a valuable resource. For everyone who wants to work with others in their communities to ensure that all children of all ages have meaningful experiences in nature, this book takes a significant step further by presenting a model for collaboration that can inspire and guide similar initiatives in cities and towns everywhere.  —Louise Chawla, co-author, Placemaking with Children and YouthThe Wild Path Home is truly a phenomenal resource for parents and educators alike. The profound power nature has on child development is well documented. This book provides a wealth of activities for connecting children with nature from birth and beyond.—Kathy Warner RECE, Program Manager, Peterborough Child & Family CentresWe urgently need to connect more kids with nature and to foster an appreciation for the foundational role that nature has in all our lives. This book is so timely as we experience the joint crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. By providing children with age-appropriate stewardship and nature experiences, we are more likely to raise children who care for the Earth. Encouraging children of all ages to have a deep bond with nature helps to shape the kind of informed, compassionate leaders that the future so desperately needs.—John Hassell, Director of Communications and Engagement, Ontario Nature The Wild Path Home offers a beautiful resource to help embed outdoor and environmental knowledge and care for the world around us, all connected to the natural development of young people as they go through education of all types. The age Landmarks help tie education opportunities to youth developmental characteristics from birth to age 17 in clear and helpful ways. Clearly written with Why and How sections, and highlighted with stunning photographs of the learning in action, this book is a delight to use and easy to implement for educators of children of all ages.—Jade Berrill, Director of Learning, The Outdoor Learning School & StoreIn an age of excessive screen time, growing social disconnection, and community division, The Wild Path Home offers a much-needed recipe for raising nature-loving, healthy children—kids who will grow into compassionate stewards of our natural environment, and sow seeds of love and kindness within their communities.—Dr Thomas Piggott MD PhD, Medical Officer of Health; CEO, Peterborough Public Health; nature lover and DadThe Wild Path Home is just what we've been looking for. It is an inspiring and timely resource that reimagines the purpose of education in an era of ecological and social uncertainty. Rooted in principles of relationality, justice, and care, this book offers a powerful framework for parents, community leaders, and educators seeking to engage children in meaningful, transformative learning. —Anne Corkery, Assistant Professor, School of Education, Trent UniversityThe Wild Path Home is both the invitation AND the map along the path to an enduring connection—a wild way through the compounding and deeply interwoven crises we collectively face, both social and environmental. This guide affords inspiration, agency, and a critical next step. Through fun and authentic connection, this wild path invites us into the outdoors everyday, in all seasons. We can embark on this wild path home at every age and stage, letting our children lead the way. —Karen O'Krafka, Environmental Educator and Past-president, Council of Outdoor Educators of OntarioAny educator will find this book a valuable resource. The Wild Path Home is an inspiring guide to how children can become land-stewards through age appropriate activities. —Mikaela Cannon, outdoor educator and author of Foraging as a Way of Life