In the design of this five-day camp, we invite the Wonder Kids to imagine a future that is also hopeful rather than is just a story of despair, especially with relationship to climate change. We prompt them with questions like, “Are there different possibilities, and what could those be?” and encourage them to tap into their creative and imaginary selves as important skills for nourishing and building hope. Like most School of Wonder-based methods, we find ways to link real knowledge with wonder — this time prompted by a magical newspaper from the future.

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.

The other day in La Sarra (Sallent de Gállego) my nephews and I became the Mudlodyte Tribe, inspired by the butterflies, the river, and the mud that we found to paint our faces. I love when Nature infects us with its wildest, playful and magical side.