Utah County Homeschool

Start: 08/25/2023 - End: 05/17/2024
9a-12p, alternating Fridays,.
Highland Glen Park, Knight Avenue, Highland, UT, USA

Learn survival skills and connect with friends!

Buy @ $432
You're not allowed for booking this course anymore.

Course Objectives

We expect students to demonstrate basic outdoor competence by participating in weekly games, activities, workshops and sit spots.

Students will construct their own bowdrill kits by studying their local plants and trees, practicing carving techniques, and experimenting with technique.

Participants will illustrate their competence in shelter building by building and testing debris huts, tarp shelters, and by wearing proper clothing.

Students will identify water that is potable and not potable; as well as identify plants that are medicinal and poisonous.

Participants will study taxonomy and ecology by actively participating in their environment; distinguishing field marks for birds, plants, animals, tracks, weather and much more.

Skills Taught

Sit spot

  • meditation
  • journaling
  • ecology
  • taxonomy
  • ethnobotany
  • morphology
  • biology

Survival skills

  • shelter
  • water
  • fire food
  • wood working
  • leather working
  • medicinal/edible plants
  • and much more

Wandering

  • nature-based games
  • navigation/getting lost and found
  • tracking and awareness
  • bird language
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About the Course

Our homeschool courses encourage creativity and confidence in kids by facilitating the time and space for them to be just that, kids. They will learn to track animals, build fire with sticks, make arrowheads and much more. We encourage growth and through introspection and introspection through sensory awareness. Learning to connect with your landscape and not only feel a part of it but one with it is a skill that students learn to master in our courses. Be prepared to get dirty and uncomfortable but only if you want to have a lot of fun. We will find sit spots, practice survival skills, wander and play games.

Meet Your Instructor

Dakota Shaffer

Dakota has been teaching professionally since 2011 and has an insatiable love for nature. His passion for teaching brought him from Missouri to Utah to delve deeper into his career. He is a proud father and enjoys spending his time trekking in the old ways and practicing the skills of the Mountain Men. He believes these skills connect us to our ancestors and their hardships in a way that brings new meaning to our own lives.

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Additional Information

Volunteering

This course will be for ages 5-18. Students aged 5-7 must be accompanied by a parent for every class.

Upon registration you will be asked which days you are availble to volunteer for (don't worry you can switch later with other parents). This is to encourage parents to stay involved in their childs experience with us. If you wish to participate more days than you sign up for check with our instructor they usually welcome it.

What to Bring

It is highly recommended that students bring the following to each class:

  • weather appropriate clothing and footwear
  • water (more than you normally drink at home)
  • food (high in protein and fat)

A backpack containing the following:

  • cheap tin cup
  • bandana or blindfold
  • knife (see here for requirements)
  • notebook
  • pen and pencil
  • personalized first aid kit
  • an unfinished skill (to be made during class)
  • bowdrill kit (to be made during class)

Helpful Link

Class Dates

August: 25th

September: 8th, 22nd

October: 6th, 20th

November: 3rd, 17th

December: 1st, 15th

January: 5th, 19th

February 2nd, 16th

March: 1st, 15th, 29th

April: 12th, 26th

May: 10th, 24th

Vacation Days

Fall Break: October 10th-14th

Thanksgiving Break: November 23rd-25th

Winter Break: December 18th-31st

Spring Break: April 3rd-7th

Course Location

Word on the street says

we’re pretty darn good at what we do.