Endeavors in the Afternoon

A NEW AFTERNOON PROGRAM…Adventure starts here! Each week’s theme invites children ages 6–10 to explore the world around them through animals, imaginative stories, music, movement, forest structures, filmmaking, artifacts and more. In a world where many kids are experiencing “nature-deficit disorder”, Endeavors help them rediscover wonder—one afternoon at a time.

Limited space is available for each program.

Dates & Rates
June 29-August 21
Available daily, Monday through Thursday

12:30pm-3:00pm
Rate TBD

Week 1
June 29-July 3
Overstory: Documenting the Old Growth Forest {a necessary reverence}

For children who have a passion for the moving story and the natural world. A uniquely vital program giving voice to the majesty of the old growth forest through the eyes of children. This introductory filmmaking program introduces children to the world of filmmaking while providing an adventurous and supportive environment with which to facilitate an opportunity to explore the world of visual storytelling. Children will spend their days in the old growth forest on the grounds of Sylvester Manor documenting the flora and fauna of the forest in both nonfiction and whimsical stories. Participants will encompass the creation of a moving story through storyboards and adventure, encouraging them to visualize their wonder and narrative in a collaborative setting.

Week 2
July 6-July 10
Archaeopteryx: Ancient Wing

Learn about the origin of avian flight. Through exploring the theory of flight from dinosaurs to present birds, children will ascertain the theories of winged flight through wonder and drawing, film and stories and re-creating realistic fossils. 

Week 3
July 13-17
Sacred: Stories and Creatures of the Medieval Bestiary 

In the middle ages, animal stories were immensely popular throughout the world. People of the times had a great dependence on wild and domestic animals for their survival, giving rise to the deep interest and curiosity of the animals that lived among them. The beasts of the middle ages provided a distinctly spiritual and even mystical aspect to the animal lore of the times. Children will dance through the times of these fantastical beasts, wondering about kings and queens, making crowns and wands and artistically re-creating the beasts that gave rise to so many ancient stories and lores that remain today.

Week 4
July 20-24
A Wordless Orchestra: Embracing the Brilliance of Classical Composers in the Natural World

Inspired by the diaphanous beauty of the natural world, composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonio Vivaldi, and Claude Debussy have bestowed the world with works that clearly embrace a heartened understanding of the flora and fauna that surrounded them. Children will listen to such inspired works and to the mellifluous sounds of the natural world and will compose and record their own pieces from the deep embrace of the forest. 

Week 5
July 27-30
Wool: On and Off the Sheep

Skirting, scouring, felting. knitting. sewing, herding, feeding and handling sheep. Children will create works with wool in all of its forms, deepening their understanding of the importance and significance of sheep in so many cultures around the world.

Week 6
August 3-6
Cabinets of Curiosities: Findings of the Forest

The forest and grounds of Sylvester Manor are rich with history and artifacts from both man-made and authentically from the natural world. Children will spend their week encountering their own artifacts through daily expeditions through the forest, noticing and gathering objects from the forest in jars, studying the origins of their findings and using field journals to record new understandings.

Week 7
August 10-13
Architects of the Trees: How to Build a Home in the Forest…Really

Forest structure building fosters imagination and wonder, creativity, independence, problem solving as well as a myriad of various social skills such as cooperative work and negotiation. Tree houses, forts and fairy houses are quintessential to childhood and essential to the building of wonder and imagination. Children will become architects of the forest, exploring the essential aspects of designing and drawing their own authentic ideas on vellum paper and then constructing structures from their own wonder. Children will take home drawings and a miniature model of their work. 

Week 8
August 17-20 
Understory: A Filmmaking Program Chronicling Life Below the Forest Canopy

This introductory filmmaking program introduces children to the world of filmmaking while providing an adventurous and supportive environment with which to facilitate an opportunity to explore visual storytelling through the natural world. Children will spend their days in the forest on the grounds of Sylvester Manor documenting the flora and fauna of the forest in both nonfiction and whimsical stories. Participants will encompass the creation of a moving story through storyboards and adventure, encouraging them to visualize their wonder and narrative in a collaborative setting.