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.