Bushcraft course for the Home-Ed community

This year we are continuing our, exclusive to home-ed, bushcraft course – the Bushcraft Odyssey: an exciting, rolling 6 week journey into bushcraft. It will cover a variety of wilderness living and natural crafts, perfect for young adventurers.

If your child is new to TRIBE or not, each Bushcraft Odyssey course is a standalone course, meaning that your child does not need to have attended a previous Bushcraft Odyssey course to join us.

Please note: when you book onto the course it is for the full 6-week course.

Key Information

This course is: Course N
The course runs on: Thursdays
Registration for this course closes on: 17/10/24
The first session is on: 24/10/24
The minimum number of participants required for the course to run is: 4

Overview of the Bushcraft Odyssey

Each 4-hour session will immerse learners in a different theme. Different aspects of the same themes will be covered in every Bushcraft Odyssey course. This will give the children a great understanding of nature and how we can live sustainably.

The children who come on these courses tend to be those that:

• love nature

• don’t like classrooms

• enjoy learning

• are creative

• like making things

• are ambitious

• are happy mixing with different ages

• are practically minded

Course Dates

DAY 1 – 24/10/24
NO SESSION – 31/10/24
DAY 2 – 07/11/24
DAY 3 – 14/11/24
DAY 4 – 21/11/24
DAY 5 – 28/11/24
DAY 6 – 05/12/24

Important Weather Information:

There may be 1 or more occasions where we cannot run a session due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. extreme weather). Should this happen we will postpone that day until the following week so that the children do not miss out. For an example: If ‘DAY 3’ is cancelled, then the following week would be Day 3.

The backup day for this course is

12/12/24

The Course

DAY 1 : FIRE

– Bow-drill fire –

It’s important to be able to build and maintain a fire in various situations and for different purposes. We will look at different types of fire, materials, lighting methods, and how things might be different whether you are cooking on them, boiling water, firing pottery, or simply keeping warm & dry.

DAY 2 : PLACE

– Ladders –

Creating a sense of place for your woodland camp is about more than just building shelters. Although we explore different shelter types from simple tarp shelters to watertight natural bivouacs and tipis, it is also important to know how to keep off the ground or set up for a longer stays. In other words, how do you make a place comfortable & safe? What about water, fire and sanitation? – here we will look at the practicalities of creating a home away from home in the woods.

DAY 3 : TOOLS

– Bird feeders –

Using tools, making tools, and creating with tools. Tools are incredibly important in bushcraft and used in many activities at TRIBE. In this session, the children will hone their tool use and expand upon their skills whilst focusing on specific projects. What about if you need a tool you don’t have? – we’ll explore making a tool that fits a need using minimal kit.

DAY 4 : HUNTER-GATHERER

– Cage trap –

Nature can sustain us if we look after it. This session covers foraging for everything from food to textile fibres and building materials. Dependent on the season we will be exploring natural cordage, weaving, woodworking, wild foods, and making hunting tools & traps.

DAY 5 : WELLBEING

– Whipcording –

Bushcraft is about enjoying being out in nature and thriving, not just surviving. As such, this session invites bushcrafters to slow down, connect with nature & each other, and find what makes them content & positive in the wild. Maybe it’s fireside crafts, cooking, music, meditation, this session is a special time for unleashing your creativity and nourishing your soul.

DAY 6 : CAMP CHALLENGE

– Camp Build pt10 –

Apply the skills and knowledge you have learnt and practiced throughout the course to set up your own perfect camp, working together to solve a series of carefully selected challenges.

What to bring

TRIBE provides all the equipment required to take part in the Bushcraft Odyssey, however equipment can also be bought from TRIBE should you wish to do so, please contact one of the event organisers (see below) to find out more.

The following kit list is required for each session

Essential

• Outdoor footwear – we recommend walking boots (no open shoes such as sandals or crocs)

• Waterproof jacket

• Outdoor trousers (no jeans)

• A packed lunch

• Water or other cold drink

Optional

• Gardening gloves

• A hot drink

• Insect repellent (usually summer and autumn periods only)

• Mobile phone

**Please note: If you wish for your child to bring a mobile phone, this will need to be kept in their rucksack whilst the sessions are ongoing due to safety reasons and the overall woodland experience. Please contact the event organiser (see below) for more information.

The TRIBE HONOURS programme

The popular TRIBE HONOURS bushcraft awards programme is included in this event. To sign your child up to the programme, a single sign-up fee is required on booking. For more information about this exciting programme please click here for more information.

Additional Information

Spending time in the woods is made even more enjoyable at TRIBE by our bright & airy on-site compost toilets, foot-operated hand washing facilities, and covered fire circle with plenty of seating.

The TRIBE Bushcraft Odyssey course is child-only, giving you a few hours of golden time to catch up with life or just relax. Therefore, if you feel that your child would not be able to attend unaccompanied, it may be worth considering attending one of our weekly ‘Adults & Families’ bushcraft events, running each Saturday (click here), otherwise please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.

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