wild Earth resilience
youth day camps
2026
Our summer schedule is a bit lighter again this year — we welcomed a new baby last summer, and this year we need to balance camps with some extra time during the warm season to work on building some sorely needed infrastructure for our programs. Thank you for understanding and we hope to have a couple more weeks available starting again next summer!
Also, this year we are offering a sliding scale for a couple of our camps. We are giving this a try to see how it works out. We are a very small business trying to make ends meet for our family, and, we also want to do what we can to help people access our programs in the face of costs that may be prohibitive. For sessions with a sliding scale, you can pay what works for your family within that range — anyone who chooses to pay at the high end of the range will be directly helping folks who can’t pay as much to access our programs.
week 1 Earthlings
June 29-July 3 ages 6-11
sliding scale: $325-$400 (true cost $360)
To start the summer, we like to focus on orienting ourselves to the landscape and re-discovering the wilderness surrounding Wright Park. We will come into the rhythm of camp life together and connect with the land through careful observation of our surroundings, playing games, building, crafting, learning and adventuring in classic Terrahana fashion. We’ll make sure to send the campers home each afternoon nice and dirty after a long day of playing in our forest home and experiencing the joys of living outside together!
Monday through Friday, 9:00am-3:00pm
Location: Wright Park in Middlebury
week 2 Ironwood Battle Camp
July 13-17 ages 8-13 $400
Terrahana and Mo Bissonnette join forces for a week of woodland battle games! Grab your foam swords, bows, shields and spears for a week of adventure and capture the flag. These games call upon creativity, imagination and strategy while being action packed and sometimes quite intense. The thrill of the battle often brings about a heightened sensory awareness experience, calling on our innate joy in stalking, sneaking and hiding through play in the environment. Expect to find swordplay and spying, healing and raiding, castle forts, building bases, archery practice, gauntlets, and a few quiet games of stealth in our week of adventure.
Monday through Friday, 9:00am-3:00pm
Location: Terrahana Forest in Ripton
week 3 Laughing Otters
July 27-31 ages 6-11
sliding scale: $325-$400 (true cost $360)
What makes this week stand out is the emphasis on play as a tool to deepen our connections. Tag games, chasing games, sitting games, creeping games, yelling and silent games, serious games or silly games, short games and games that might take days to finish. Expect more structured play than is typical for a week of Terrahana while still keeping to our daily rhythm. Embodying the spirit of the river and its playful inhabitant. If coming to this week - come ready to play!
Monday through Friday, 9:00am-3:00pm
Location: Wright Park in Middlebury
week 4 Elderberries
August 10-14 ages 10-13 $460
*this camp ends on Friday morning
Elderberries is a session for the older kids, Terrahana’s budding elders, to either return or come for the first time. Enjoy the land in true Terrahana fashion whether playful, free or focused. This week is great for those independent minds who would like to delve deeper in an aspect of camp life whether its creating something, working on a skill, or just doing that thing they love which brings them happiness within the natural world and our village. Campers may be challenged to focus and reflect as they work independently or in a group. We will end the week with an overnight camp-out — be ready for silliness, games and good times as the sun goes down and on into the night!
Monday through Wednesday, 9:00am-3:00pm,
Thursday 10:00am to Friday at 9:00am (last day overnight camp out)
*in the event of truly unfavorable weather, the last day & overnight will take place on Friday, and camp will end Saturday morning.
Location: Wright Park in Middlebury
Enrollment period for Summer 2026:
Saturday 2/7 at 10am to
Wednesday, 2/11 at 10am
see below for further details!
registration information
Thank you for your interest in registering for Terrahana Summer Camp! Please read the following carefully prior to registering, so that you know what to expect from our process.
Terrahana offers an open registration period of four days, during which we collect all forms. Once the window closes, we sort through the applications and select the roster for each week based on a few criteria. Preference is given to returning campers and siblings, and next to campers who have tried to sign up in the past but have not yet gotten a space. We do our best to make sure that as many campers as possible get to attend at least one of their requested sessions, though we cannot make any guarantees of this, especially in years such as this one when we are offering fewer camps than usual. Additionally, we do take into account the order in which applications were received, so signing up as soon as possible once the registration period opens is recommended. You may also submit a form after the open registration period ends, in which case sign-ups will switch to a first-come basis for any remaining spaces and the waitlist.
When you are registering, you may select one or more weeks on the same form. We kindly ask parents to be thorough in answering the questions on the form, even if we already know your child. This helps us understand our campers and group dynamics a bit before summer starts. This information is obviously important for our newcomers, and for those returning campers, it informs us of new interests and favorite activities that they enjoyed with us previously. We really appreciate a little time looking over the questions with your child as it helps us be better prepared to offer activities that try and reach everyone.
The open registration period for all weeks of camp lasts from Saturday, February 7 at 10am to Wednesday, February 11 at 10am. You may submit your form at your convenience during this timeframe. Once the window closes, we will take some time to put together the roster for all weeks of camp. You will hear back from us regarding enrollment via email in about a week. For enrolled sessions, a non-refundable deposit of $100 per session is required to confirm your space. Please only send payment once you receive email notification of enrollment. Deposits must be received no later than March 4. The remainder of the tuition for all sessions of camp is due by May 18. If either payment is late, your space may be given to the next camper on the waitlist. If you are not enrolled in a requested session, you will be automatically waitlisted for that session, and only need to submit payment if and when a space becomes available.
If you need to cancel enrollment for any reason, you will receive a full refund (minus the deposit) if you inform us at least 6 weeks prior to the beginning of the session you are cancelling. Cancellations made with fewer than 6 weeks until the start of the session cannot be refunded. For additional refund policies, please follow the link at the bottom of the page.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our process.
If you have any further questions, please email campterrahana@gmail.com.
You may find our general program policies and information here.
These reflect our current operations and apply to all upcoming programs.