The fisher and cardinal flocks got a very special surprise on this gloomy, rainy, day!

The conditions have been perfect for maple tapping!

Week eight was about crafting and Growing Wild started the week by painting faces and playing on the climbing hill.

Yellow Warblers, Purple Finches and Forest Village visited Fall Creek on Thursday. Campers were asked to notice when they heard a bird and what the cool water felt like on their skin…

Week 5 was an exciting week because all of the camps were at different locations.

In week four campers learned to build shelters and practiced camp kindness.Text by Ai-Zhen Tung...

Our third week of camp flew by pretty quickly. The theme for this week was birds, so I listened to many bird stories and watched some bird games this week. The campers learned about different species of birds, how they came to be, how to build nests, and more. 

Our second week in the woods was full of adventure and fun with some new camps, new campers and exciting new challenges

Summer camps kicked off at 4-H Acres this past week and we had a blast!

It’s the final day of staff training week 2022. The Mentors In Training (MITs) joined us for the first time today so we played some fun icebreakers to get to know each other.

The weather is cooling but that hasn’t stopped the homeschool flocks from enjoying every minute outside.

I was fortunate to get to spend my morning with the Redwing Blackbirds today, and wow did they have a lot of energy!

From fairy houses to banana boats, so much fun was had this warm and wonderful week!

When I started this semester of college, I can’t say that I was expecting to spend a Saturday afternoon crouched in the snow, smelling the urine left behind by a fisher.

Winter in the forest is full of magic. Where a few months ago leaves rustled and squirrels scampered, there now lies a white blanket, a naked tree, a sparkle in the air. If you stand in the woods in winter and just listen, what do you hear? 

Kelsey Chatterton, April 23, 2017 Spring Writing Intern, Ithaca College Primitive Pursuits hosted...

We can’t really say enough about the organizations that put time and resources into supporting our cause. As we say on our donor page, these folks are special people!

Imagine having the ability to catch fish with your hands, sneak up to an unsuspecting whitetail or have a chickadee land on your head, all unaware of your presence. The skill of “invisibility” is a skill of utmost importance to any survivalist.

This article first appeared in the Primitive Pursuits introductory guide “Not Your Typical Classroom.” Booklet was prepared by Melissa Mueller in November 2009. Contributors included Heidi Bardy, Beth Bannister, Tim Drake, Dave Hall, and Jed Jordan.

This article first appeared in the Primitive Pursuits introductory guide “Not Your Typical Classroom.” Booklet was prepared by Melissa Mueller in November 2009. Contributors included Heidi Bardy, Beth Bannister, Tim Drake, Dave Hall, and Jed Jordan. 

In 2007-08, Primitive Pursuits got outside every week with the Urban Forest Adventures (UFA) Program. This after school program, generously funded by the More Kids in the Woods grant from the USDA Forest Service, provided five sessions of free Primitive Pursuits programs to underserved youth in the greater Ithaca Area.

Black bears are one of only 2 modern bear species that are not considered to be under threat or extinction by the IUCN.

Some people say outdoor preschool is a no-brainer. “Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls,” says Erin Kenny, founder of Cedarsong Forest Kindergarten on Vashon Island, Washington. Ithaca Forest Preschool, begun in 2013, took away the walls and added a very special culture.

At the fire, campers shared their favorite memory of the week. No one was shy, and everyone easily was able to share an original thing that was special to them, from fire making to bow making and some funny inside jokes that got everyone laughing.

Sean traces his love of the outdoors to a series of moments in his childhood starting with a day when he and his friends spotted a pair of hawks circling above a hill in the southern end of Syracuse.

Primitive Pursuits instructors Melissa Blake and Britton Dougherty recently traveled to New Hampshire to present at the “In Bloom in Keene: Promising Practices in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education” at Antioch University.

An update from the woods with the homeschoolers

It’s hard for me to walk through a nice rocky creek bed and not be in awe of the beautiful stones at my feet. Whether it’s the striations in shale, carved by moving water, or the sparkly igneous rocks that made the long journey here on the backs of giant sheets of ice.

A few weeks back, I sent Primitive Pursuits Co-Founder Jed Jordan an email asking for a few spare minutes to interview him about his work up at the Arnot Forest.

Primitive Pursuits brings magic into people’s lives by meeting them where they’re at and connecting them to the natural world in ways that push them to be their most imaginative, present, and uninhibited selves.

News from the winter woods with Ithaca Forest Preschool and Homeschool

I found the freedom of nature embraces asking questions. With so much unknown, it’s only natural to inquire and learn. Jason and Jed tell us to ask questions and continue to question ourselves as we try to identify tracks.

In April, 2016 Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County finalized a lease with Cornell University for the Arnot Teaching and Research Forest, and we at Primitive Pursuits will serve as the lead coordinators for the usage of the land.

This week the Friday Catbird Flock began the day with sharing stories of relatives and ancestors, listened to a story about a feisty old lady, her prim and proper son and 2 goblins and then headed out to build a fire and make some warming stone soup!

Week seven was fun of magic and fun that stretched into the evening hours…

This week, the reopening of schools was a big topic among campers who come together from a variety of schools and districts in the area.

A rainy day doesn’t stop our campers from creating long-lasting traditions, structures, and memories!

Listen to our director of Marketing chat with Tish Perlman about some of the things that make Primitive Pursuits so special.

This past Fall a group of home school learners joined a session called “Season of the Gatherers.” Our goal was to gather as much wild food as possible for the coming cold season, to eat and to practice food preservation.

Last Saturday, eleven trackers followed the creek along a 1-mile stretch of train tracks for the first outing of the Primitive Pursuits Winter Tracking Series.

Sometimes the day’s plan is not always what happens, and that’s ok!             

Primitive Pursuits branched out to natural areas all around Ithaca this week, expanding far beyond 4-H Acres.

Our third week of camp was another full of fun and excitement, including the return of the water to 4-H Acres!

Week two in the woods was a hot one! Campers headed down to the creek often and spent hours wading and searching for crayfish.

We love kids and we love their creativity. It is particularly gratifying that we spark kids’ creativity with our programming. We hope you enjoy this poem from Alexandra Elia! Thanks, Alexandra and keep it coming kids!

This fall, on the first program day, some kids already knew the lay of the land, having returned from a previous season. Others were just getting acclimated to the space, taking advice from the returners on how to create paint from sedimentary rocks and charcoal. When the time came to head down the trail, some chose a stony path along a creek, while others climbed over a log that spanned the leafy forest floor. A few asked mentors Melissa and Sean for help, or just saved the challenge for another day.

Sean Cornell has been fascinated with foraging for wild plants since he was a kid, spending his school breaks to solely eat in the forest. In the spring of 2015 he took up that challenge by himself again, except this time was longer (ten days), he had a full-time job, and a family to take care of.

The 2016 winter homeschool session is in full swing. Our tracks have scattered like the fall leaves and settled into new trails which spiral from 4-H acres in the east over to west hill and everywhere in between.

It’s just after 9 AM on a Monday morning, school is off for the day, it’s fourteen degrees outside and a group of six to twelve-year-olds cannot decide what the giant pile of snow they just collaboratively made is.

On one of the most gorgeous days of autumn, kids in the Ithaca area were fortunate to have the day off of school! Many were out and about in town, or playing in their yards, and maybe a few were inside watching cartoons. Dozens were exploring the grounds of 4-H Acres as part of our first Hunter Gatherer school break day.

My partner and I were hiking at this reservoir and preserve near where we live in Ithaca. It was right around sunset when we decided to sit on a log to enjoy a nice view of the forest and gorge surrounding us. Shortly after we sat down we noticed some birds in the sky – a red-tailed hawk was being harassed by a group of crows.

What do you do if you are a motivated 15-year-old girl who has “practiced” survival skills and learned about wild edibles week after week since 6th grade?

Sponsorships are a great way for Primitive Pursuits to make the most of their resources while strengthening ties to the Ithaca community. As part of my internship, I was asked to profile our newest program sponsor, Taitem Engineering.

On one of the most gorgeous days of autumn, kids in the Ithaca area were fortunate to have the day off of school! Many were out and about in town, or playing in their yards, and maybe a few were inside watching cartoons. Dozens were exploring the grounds of 4-H Acres as part of our first Hunter-Gatherer school break day of the season.