Wild Communities Foundation After School Program is happy to announce its official partnership with Le Jardin Academy! We are excited to continue working with LJA to provide this much needed opportunity for the students of O’ahu to play and explore in the wild. We still gladly welcome students from all schools to join Wild Kids, as Le Jardin shares our mission of collective impact on common ground. We are especially thankful to Susan and Paul King for their unwavering belief in our community. They have generously opened their land for all students to learn and grow; their commitment to the children of Hawai’i is profound.
About Our After School Sessions
Wild Kids was started by a class of 6th graders at Le Jardin Academy in 2008. They convinced their teacher at the time, Christina Hoe, to take them to explore the forest adjacent to campus and, together, they designed a learning culture built on imagination, adventure, compassion, freedom and love of the land. Since then, each age group has been added as a direct result of bold young people demanding that they be included!
Our program is designed to offer students the freedom to make mistakes, create their own way (both literally and metaphorically), and hone their awareness of their surroundings, others and themselves. We specifically do not create structured lessons. Wild Kids is built around exploration, discovery and imagination. It is not a science class or an outdoor survival course.
In Wild Kids, we encourage students to expand their comfort zones by trying new things and making mistakes. We firmly believe that the most solid self-confidence is built on the moments when we must rely on our own ingenuity and communication skills. For our program, this takes the form of teaching through questions and experience. We do not provide students with all of the answers, but guide them through their own problem-solving processes. This may include the following experiences: what to do with an invasive species, how to find the trail, how to build a shelter without man-made objects, how to identify a bird or plant, how to create a game that is safe but still fun, how to climb up a hill without creating erosion, how to keep everyone in the group safe, what to do if you get hurt, what to do about mosquitos, how to run in the forest without tripping, what to do when you make an unsafe choice, and a host of other conundrums that we may come across on our adventures. Allowing students to develop their own solutions and manage their own reactions is perhaps the most important lesson we provide.
What We Do During Each Session
After school for two hours we explore the land adjacent to Le Jardin Academy’s campus and enjoy mud slides, scavenger hunts, hiking, tree climbing, making up games, building shelters, creating nature-based art, camouflage activities, scouting for trails, tracking birds, and searching for the magical forest elves known as "Little Greenies." In addition to our after school adventures, we invite families and friends to join us on two different weekend excursions, including various hikes on the island, snorkeling with marine biologists, and community service projects that are centered around environmental stewardship. To culminate each session, we host a family camp-out at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe (grades 3rd-8th).
If you have a wild imagination, a wild spirit, and care about wild places, then Wild Kids is for you!
Wild Art
Wild Art is a space designed to cultivate awareness, exercise appreciation and express imagination through the use of Nature as the main teacher and medium. Students will utilize their intuition and explore the different perspectives the Earth has to offer and express them through art and story telling. Most of our creations will be left as offerings to the forest, while some will find their way home with the students. Either way, students will have the opportunity to reflect upon and further explore their experiences and creations in their journals. We will always weave the Wild Kids core traits into our space, giving students the opportunity to safely expand their comfort zones, make mistakes, and practice creative problem-solving and open, honest communication.