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Sunset Park Saplings
Sunset Park Saplings invites young children to feel at home in nature through playful, magical weekly adventures in Sunset Park and its surrounding trails. Each session encourages curiosity, creativity, and connection as children explore the living world around them.
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Program Activities
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Nature Walks: we wander the park’s trails and open spaces, looking for birds, bugs, plants, and the tiny wonders that often go unnoticed.
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Hands‑On Play: Children craft with sticks, leaves, stones, and other natural materials, learning simple outdoor skills through creative play.
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Seasonal Discovery: We notice how the park changes—new blossoms, shifting weather, migrating birds—and reflect on how we grow and change too.
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Community Moments: Stories, gratitude circles, and cooperative games help children learn to listen, share, and support one another.
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Wonder & Imagination: We follow curiosity wherever it leads, whether tracking a squirrel, building a tiny shelter, or inventing a new nature game.
Our Approach
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The Sunset Park Saplings program is inspired by the mentoring style in Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature. This approach encourages exploration, storytelling, and hands‑on discovery while helping children build a caring relationship with the land. We support social‑emotional growth through shared experiences and centre respect, reciprocity, and connection—to nature, to each other, and to ourselves.
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What We Celebrate
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This program highlights nature as teacher, creative discovery, seasonal awareness, belonging, and community. We nurture wonder by slowing down, looking closely, and celebrating the small miracles of the natural world.
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Running from September 2026 to June in 2027, Sunset Park Saplings offers a fall‑through‑early‑summer journey of connection and discovery.​
The program will be led by core steward Lisa with further staffing support if numbers allow. Our Saplings staff ratios are maintained at 1 staff for every 6 students so we can fully support young kids in developing confidence, creativity, and deeper meaningful relationships with the land.
"As a homeschooling family, we are always looking for programs that align with our educational values. This forest school program has been an important part of our homeschooling journey for the last four years. We appreciate the child-led approach to learning and the focus on relationships with peers and mentors. My children have made lasting friendships and learned valuable lessons about the local flora and fauna. Rain or shine my kids come home beaming and full of stories after each day."
- Petra, parent
Program Stewards
Lisa
Core Steward