Tamarack West Outdoor School

🌿 Featured by Alterna Savings!

We’re thrilled to share that Tamarack West Outdoor School has been featured by Alterna Savings in their celebration of 25 years of the Microfinance Program, supporting small and developing businesses that help their communities grow. 💚

Access to Alterna’s microloan program gave us the early support we needed to expand outdoor learning opportunities for kids and families across Toronto. Their belief in community-driven education continues to make a real difference for organizations like ours.

🎥 Watch the short feature here: https://youtu.be/N5uE4JZNYKM?si=5sBto-Dt7a6PiF7s

Today our students were introduced to Pythagoras, not so much his theorem but the curiosity behind it. With ropes and rubber bands, they built a variety of right-angled triangles. I wonder if in that playful act they felt the beauty of a shape that underlies the architecture of everything.

Hard day at the office.

(Translation: invented a new language, crossed a creek, found a few frogs, and then… the ground just looked too comfy.)

Sometimes flourishing looks like stillness.

Today our primaries came up with a game they called running tree. We ran aimlessly from one tree to another counting them loudly as we went. Very quickly we got to a Gagillion! Who knew we could run that fast🤣.

This year we’ve introduced a new period called Torpor Time. It is a chance for the kids to slow down, unwind, and reset. Couldn’t have asked for better inspiration than this little napper.🦝💤

The nerves of the first week of school.

It always brings big feelings: the sadness of summer ending, the excitement of a new year, and the worry of the unknown. Kids, parents, and teachers all feel it in their own way.

This week is a good reminder of how helpful it is to be open to the many ways each of us moves through transition.

Wishing everyone a great first week of school!

At Tamarack, the way we see the world matters.

When we started the school, the very first thing we put in our main room was a giant 6x4 print of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map.

Unlike the Mercator map most of us grew up with, the Dymaxion Map shows the continents in proportions much closer to their true scale and lays them out as one connected landmass, separated only by small gaps of water.

For our students, it is a powerful reminder: our planet is connected rather than divided.

That shift in perspective shapes how we learn together. We encourage children to approach challenges with fresh eyes, discover hidden connections, and imagine new possibilities.

Sometimes, all it takes is a different lens to spark new ways of thinking and growing.

At Tamarack, we begin by giving kids our trust. That trust gives them the confidence to leap, knowing there’s a net to catch them if ever they need it.

What if the best thing we could do for a child’s learning… was to slow down time?
At Tamarack West, we’ve seen how children thrive when they have the space to think, explore, and wonder, without the rush from one task to the next.�Curiosity thrives when it’s not rushed.