Our Philosophy

At Twisted Tuckamore Forest School, we are inspired by the growth and connectivity that emerges between children and the creative freedom of a forest classroom. This forest is our teacher, encouraging children and educators alike to centre place, play, and inquiry. This forest is also an invitation to children of all developmental stages and backgrounds to find themselves in nature, breathe fresh air, experiment, get creative, and pursue their respective and collective journeys of discovery.

We believe that children know best how they learn. Our goal is to facilitate and nurture these early stages of a prosperous relationship with the Land that connects children to their food, imagination, and our shared home.

Our program is unique in that we draw from the strengths and resources of forest school pedagogy while providing specific outlets to engage with food and art. These three avenues for learning are highly connected and make for a well-rounded experience. The active imagination of your remarkable children, coupled with our dedication, will bring novelty and valuable lessons to each day we spend together in the forest.

Our Program

Our program offers children from all backgrounds the opportunity to build relationships with the Land through regular and repeated access to the same forest site, developing lasting relations and habits. We offer four days of programming in the forest each week over the summer for children ages 5-12.

Dandelions (Ages 5-8):

Week 1: June 24 - June 27
Week 4: July 15 - July 18
Week 7: August 5 - August 8

Wild Strawberries (Ages 7-10):

Week 2: July 2 - July 5 (Tues-Fri)

Week 5: July 22- July 25

Week 8: August 12 - August 15

Spruce Roots (Ages 9-12):

Week 3: July 8 - July 11

Week 6: July 29 - August 1

We have the gear to be outside all day - rain or shine. Our programming is, first and foremost, flexible, as we follow group interests and the weather. Within this, our days are designed to provide balance to accommodate our diversity of learners. We pair high-energy exploration and play with rest, reset, and individual exploration. We run around, play games, draw, sow seeds, rest in our sit spots, build forts, pick berries, tell stories, sculpt mud, identify plants and animals, climb trees, harvest garden veggies, build fires, play in the stream, and tinker with recycled and natural materials.

The Benefits

Our program draws on three interconnected sources of learning and inspiration; Art, Food and the Land. These three pillars have well-documented life-long benefits, and in concert, can provide children with the freedom to pursue their own interests while being exposed to a variety of life-affirming activities. Learn more about our holistic practice in the three pillars below.

LAND

ART

FOOD

Health and Safety

Here at Twisted Tuckamore Forest School, we work hard to ensure the safety of all participants. Learn more about our safety qualifications, risk mitigation efforts, and Emergency Response Plan in our Health and Safety Policy Manual.

This program owes its creation to Jacqueline Bennett; her work with Sapling Forest School, her support, and her mentorship. Jacqueline's generosity and expertise continues to reverberate through this program.

Our Team

Meet Tara and Sam, the Co-Owners and Co-Operators of Twisted Tuckamore Arts and Land-Based Education.

Tara has experience facilitating Forest School programming and fostering intimate connections to our food. Sam brings a whimsical and humourous imagination through his Art-based approach to early childhood education. Drawing on their unique strengths, they deliver holistic programming that meets a diversity of learners where they are. The selection of activities available in a forest, garden, and art-creating space ensures that teachings come in all forms and our forest campers go home happy, tired, and a little bit muddy.

Tara and Sam work to foster a compassionate community that is dynamic, inclusive, curious, and supportive. Relationships mean the world to them. Through relationships, the wellness of people, their place, and their communities co-emerge to create a ‘multi-organed body’ of stability and resilience.

TARA CASHEN She/Her

Settler of Irish, Scottish, British & Welsh Ancestry

Owner Operator

Tara’s passion for spending time on the Land first sparked her love for food and education. She worked one season as a Forest School Facilitator and has eight years of on-and-off experience leading children and youth in outdoor settings. Tara is happiest working with food and children, a responsibility grounded through Land-based teachings and earth-honouring traditions.

Tara’s vocational offering is in relationally reorienting herself and her community to the Land. This slow yet bustling way of life cultivates a deeper humility and interdependent bliss for Tara. At Forest School, this means valuing lessons from the Land and being just as quick to share her knowledge with others.

Despite her existential mysticism, or as it was put for her growing up, having an ‘active imagination’, Tara enjoys the simple things too. She likes moving through landscapes (walking, running, biking, canoeing), staying in one place like rolling around in the moss or dirt, and eating ranks highly as well.

Tara is grateful for her most impactful teachings and relations, and their origins in Mi’kma’ki.

SAMPSON VASSALLO He/Him

Settler of Italian, Scottish, Polish & French Ancestry

Owner Operator

At his core, Sampson is a highly imaginative storyteller, silly jokester, and caring person who takes the time to ensure that everyone around him is safe, comfortable and having fun.

Sampson loves the outdoors and is passionate about art, creating, and working with his hands. Though he often works in freelance design and illustration, Sampson’s most rewarding work is with children, facilitating drawing activities and art games and designing fun and creative colouring sheets and imagination exercises.

As an instructor, Sampson offers kindness, acceptance, understanding, patience, and various creation-based skill sets. Sampson was raised in a home filled with creatives. At a young age, he began working in his father’s specialty metal, wood, and acrylic workshop, spending seven years learning these trades. Sampson is now finishing a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts, where he has honed his skills in drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpting.

Sampson is grateful for his most impactful teachings and relations, and their origins in Mi’kma’ki.