Hidden Creek Guild — Camp Curriculum Framework
Plug-and-play day archetypes · Ages 5–12 · 3 instructors · 15 kids · Based on Coyote's Guide & Tom Brown Jr.
Daily anchors — every day, every week
Non-negotiable daily rituals (held regardless of day type)
9:00 — Sit Spot
5–10 min silent solo observation.
Same spot, every session.
Same spot, every session.
Seedlings choose a spot; Elders maintain one.
9:15 — Council Circle
Day theme revealed.
"Question of the day" posed as a mystery.
No answers given — only tracking.
12:00 — Story Lunch
Instructor tells a story (animal, ancestral, ecological).
No lesson attached. Just story.
4:30 — Closing Circle
"What did you notice? What surprised you?"
Elder-in-Trainings answer first. Seedlings echo.
Week planner — drag and assign day archetypes
Assign a day archetype to each camp day. Each archetype works as a standalone — kids get a full experience even in one visit.
Tip: No archetype should repeat within the same week unless intentional. Each week = a full rotation.
Day archetypes
Progression tiers — applied across all day types
Ages 5–7 · First-time campers
Sensory-first. Wonder before knowledge. Follows, touches, asks "what's that?" No pressure to name things. Supervised closely, paired with an Elder-in-Training when possible. Goal: fall in love with the land.
Ages 8–10 · Returning campers
Begins naming things. Takes on small responsibilities (tends fire, leads a trail section, IDs a plant). Earns their sit spot. Starts a nature journal. Can work semi-independently during skill blocks.
Ages 10–12 · Multi-season returners
Leads by doing. Mentors a Seedling pair. Attempts skills solo first. Runs a Council Circle segment. Designs one activity per session week. Earns named skills (fire-maker, tracker, water-reader).
Tiers are not strictly age-gated — a returning 7-year-old moves up. A first-time 11-year-old starts as Seedling.
Curriculum informed by Jon Young's Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (sit spots, bird language, mentoring through questions) and Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School framework (primitive skills, awareness, stalking, shelter/fire/water/food as survival quartets).
Staff assignment: Lead instructor guides full group on anchor rituals. Two secondary instructors run parallel skill stations during morning blocks. Afternoons run as one group on terrain.
Staff assignment: Lead instructor guides full group on anchor rituals. Two secondary instructors run parallel skill stations during morning blocks. Afternoons run as one group on terrain.
Hidden Creek Guild · Working model · Not for distribution