As a program that offers adventure-based learning for 5-11 year olds, School of Wonder restructured our offerings last summer by separating the Wonder Kids into two groups: Wonderers (grades K-2) & Adventurers (grades 3-5).

Now arriving at the end of our first full-calendar year of split age group offerings (and our first graduation!), here are some reflections on how we made the decision and what we’ve learned along the way.

The first session of our Social Democracy camp over this past Spring Break led the Wonder Kids to (re)discovering the tenets of the U.S. Preamble, guided by the central question: what does it take to live in peace and freedom? In the second session, they were prompted to apply what they learned by creating their own Wonder Town. Want to take a tour around what they built?

In reflecting on this social and political moment, we realized there is perhaps some similarity between the moment the “Founding Fathers” found themselves in then and the moment we find ourselves in today: a world that has lost its way into chaos, a world looking for a compass towards peace and freedom. Maybe this could be the place to begin, as most School of Wonder adventures do — with a compass. 

You are a Wonder Kid. Your mom drops you off at 9am, and you find a cozy spot on the “living room” (a picnic blanket) to keep your snacks and backpack. Chill music is playing in the background, and you decide to start the day with watercolors. You paint what you see — some kids are climbing trees, others playing Elemental Tag, others building a fort out of sticks.

Madi Zins has been an immersive leader in our Wonder Adventures in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and at Dance Beyond and other festivals Upstate. Immersive storytelling is a key element of our wonder approach.

The theme of this recent Spring Break Camp, Guardians of the Community, brought the Wonder Kids on an adventure to explore the people and places in our neighborhood who care, protect and give personality to Brooklyn’s local culture. In the five mini fields trips throughout the week, here is what they discovered.

A few Wonder Kids scurry across the park — printed-off ballot forms in hand — asking voters to come by the poll to vote for their most aligned manifesto. There is an hour before the poll closes and already voters are coming through to have their voice heard. Real electoral democracy happening before everyone’s eyes!