The Village Hearth Community School

We love trees and trees love us! VHCS spent one week of March break together skating, sledding, fire making and outdoor adventuring! These kids are a hearty bunch!

Hello good people! We are postponing our Open House due to inclement weather. Please join us for our Open House on Wednesday March 1st from 5 - 7 pm at our beautiful classroom in the Shelldale Centre!

If you haven't yet RSVP'd, please do so here:

The Guelph Outdoor School - VHCS Open House

Come visit our school!

Registration for the 2023-2024 school year is now open!

VHCS'ers took a field trip to The SEED Community Food Project to learn a little about what it takes to get a meal from farm to table.

Thanks The SEED Community Food Project!

for Maya Bishop! 👣😅👨‍🐢🌺🍄🔥🌲🪕☃️

🐢 Maya started at The Guelph Outdoor School a few summers back. She now splits her time between GOS weekly programs (Woodchucks and Foxes & Wolves) and , where she is an instructor in our Outdoor French classes.

🌲 Maya believes that connecting with nature helps foster growth, resilience, patience, mindfulness and joy in children and adults alike. Connections with nature have always been meaningful parts of her wellness and sense of self.

🌺 Maya attended Lakehead University and has an Honours Bachelor degree in Outdoor Recreation with a concentration in Nature-based Therapy. She’s an avid naturalist and a back country tripper – even in the winter! She loves to play music, sing, and play in the woods. She is also a laughter yoga instructor.

🏕 Maya loves winter camping. Some highlights from a trip she took this February on the Moira River were "getting to know the stove, the different types of firewood, and melting snow for water." Pretty good skills for a resume in our books!

🍄 Thanks Maya for all the care you bring to !

👣😅👨‍🐢🌺🍄🔥🌲🪕☃️

for beloved VHCS Director Ciana Hamilton! 🦉🌿🌱☘️📚

🌱 Ciana came to this work through The Guelph Outdoor School, as a parent at The Oaks & Acorns drop-in program. She officially started working at GOS in a part-time consulting capacity in the spring of 2020. Soon after that, she joined GOS weekly programs as an Instructor and fell in love with GOS even more! Fast forward to March 2021, when Ciana came on full-time as a program co-director, shifting most recently become the Director of .

🦉 Ciana loves the relationship building that comes with this work. She says “Everyday I get to connect and relate to kids in a way that not a lot of people do. I am fortunate that this work allows me to continuously cultivate relationships with the land, birds, plants and waters around me. I also love that my work involves playing games!”

📚 Ciana is an avid collector of books and holds her Peterson's Guide to Eastern Wildflowers close to her heart, you'll likely never get to borrow this! Ha!

💐 For Ciana, the essence of this work is to constantly look at ways to re-connect racialized communities to nature in ways that honour culture, lineage, tradition and knowledge. Ciana is motivated and inspired by her work in underserved communities and is looking forward to the second year of nature connection summer camp in the Onward Willow Neighbourhood in Guelph!

Thanks, Ciana, for all you do and bring to GOS and VHCS! 👏🙌👍

👑🌈🐅 Costume party at VHCS! Working on an upcoming theatre production. And doing it IN STYLE! 👑🌈🐅

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Shots from a more recent (last month) VHCS field trip to . This lovely riverside acreage is home to some weekly and summer programs by The Guelph Outdoor School (our older sibling). This little satellite site is nestled right along the Eramosa River, between Rockwood and Eden Mills.

The VHCS'ers out on a romp last fall. More field trips coming up before the end of the year!