The Children’s Program at GMC is thoughtfully curated to engage children ages *5-12 in activities that weave art and adventure while building a vibrant community founded on friendship, intention, and shared experiences. From daily circles and rituals to exciting adventures, campers make new friends and rekindle older connections while listening, sharing, creating, observing, learning, and playing.
Each year we co-create a piece that is performed and given to the wider GMC community as a reflection and offering from the perspective of the youth at the end of the conference.
We’re eager to explore the possibilities of this year’s theme: Wayfinding, Unlikely Teachers, and Steering into Mystery. What a rich theme for young people to dive into as they navigate their way through childhood and community while getting to know GMC’s new home: Camp Wavus.
Camp runs from 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm each day (your child will be in your care during lunchtime).
9am – Circle and morning rituals
9:30am – GMC story
10:15am – Art project
11:15 – Nature walk and group games
12pm LUNCH
1pm – Active play
1:30pm – Scavenger hunt with maps and cyphers
3pm – Journalling
3:45pm – Closing circle and afternoon ritual
* Four-year-olds are also welcome to participate in our activities and find that they also may need to spend some time with their parents during the stretch of the day. We’ll make every effort to scaffold activities to include the youngest and eldest of our community.
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Emilia Dahlin is an award-winning singer/songwriter and teaching artist who believes that stories and songs are some of the most powerful tools to connect us and foster positive change.
Emilia has traversed the U.S. while touring for a decade, was part of the founding team of Rippleffect (an outdoor experiential non-profit, that still serves thousands of children each year off their island base in Casco Bay), and spent a year-long pilgrimage visiting intentional communities across the globe.
Emilia’s deeply committed to exploring and supporting ways that community heals and nurtures us. Her work as a community artist and organizer connects people to place and each other.
She’s now the founder and facilitator of Sing Me A Story, a professional development workshop for early childhood educators and librarians who wish to enliven, strengthen, and widen their learning spaces through song. Emilia’s also a mother, gardener, activist, and outdoor enthusiast who loves to dance!
Courtney Cronin is the mother of two wild and kind kids, enthusiastic naturalist, and experiential educator. She is the founder of two non-profits, Rising Minds, an organization that works to address environmental, economic, and educational needs in Guatemala, & the Forest Playgroup, a parent-powered initiative that organizes weekly outdoor adventures for young families throughout Maine. She has spent the better part of the last two decades traveling around the US and Central America- first as a part of her traveling high school, where she lived out of a converted school bus and slept in tents every night for 4 years, and, more recently, traveling with her family- from following animal migration routes to Mexico to fishing in Southeast Alaska. Rooted in Maine, she is passionate about immersive education and connecting communities through shared experiences.