Forest School For Grown-Ups

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Forest School for Grown-Ups) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated.  

I don’t know where you live, but around here within the homeschool community there is a love and desire for Forest School.  Groups of homeschool children gather and go for walks in the forest where they learn a love for nature.  In the process they are, depending on the group, taught skills to help them with practical skills.  But for children to learn these skills, they need adults who also know the skills.  Hence the need for a book such as Forest School for Grown-ups.

ALSO with the upsurge in camping novices learning to enjoy forests, trail walking, and living outside a book like Forest School will be hugely helpful.  If you didn’t know to build a campfire, use a compass, or make an emergency tent peg… you might be stuck, this book will help!

Not only that though, you can learn how to make an axe, read the rings on a tree, identify flowers, blaze a trail, engage in forest bathing, and even learn about forest gods.  If it has anything to do with a forest, learn about it here.

The Basic Details of Forest School for Grown-Ups

160 pages, 8 chapters, resource page, illustrations, photos, maps, along with articles and step-by-step guides.  Authored by Richard Irvine and illustrated by Paul Oakley, and published by Chronicle books.  

At almost 2 lbs, it’s a heavier book.  It feels nice and solid in the hand, and is well-suited to being a hardcover. 

I am reviewing on behalf of Raincoast Books. 

Looking deeper

As you can see, there are 8 chapters, running approximately 30 pages long. 

• The forest year comprises of the four seasons and how forests change with them.  You’ll learn such things as how to make ink, identify insects and flowers and even make mushroom prints.  Delving into some of the historic mysticism of forests and the joy of wolves returning to Yellowstone Park. 
• Survival Skills covers the practical arts of living in a forest: fire building, shelter, filtering water, reading the weather etc.  You’ll discuss mystical beasts such as sasquatch. 
• Food and the forest covers food, foraging, cooking, making jams, fishing, etc.
• Navigation: map-making, using a compass, reading clues from the trees, constellations etc.
• Woodland skills has you learning about wood, cutting down trees, doing charcoal burning, etc.
• Forest projects teaches you knot making, building a shelter, utensils and fireplace, and more.
• Forest in Mind discusses the connection we have with forest and the community we build through exploring it. 
• The last chapter, forest fun and creativity, has the reader making a gym, searching for fossils, skipping stones and generally finding ways to engage with nature. 

Each section contains some type of forest mysticism.  People throughout the ages have made up creatures that live in the forest, forest gods that control them, hauntings and more.  These sections are readily identifed with a green hued image.

Some little details

You’ll find exquisite lino cut art and illustrations running throughout.  The detailed drawings do an excellent job of showcasing the text. 

Occasionally instead of illustrations you’ll discover full colour photos. They are usually grouped together to demonstrate the variety of life to be discovered. 

Add it to your shelves?

There is a whole lot that I like in Forest School for Grown-ups. I like the variety in subjects and how they cover not only the practical but also the mystical.  There is more to study in forest school than one might initially think.  BUT one of the things I didn’t see was how to prepare for backcountry camping! 

This guidebook has a lot of text, and it’s purpose to educate adults into understanding not only the forest of day, but also the forest of the past.   Understanding the history and the mysticism of the wood.  But knowing how to navigate and survive in the forest… hugely important!  🙂   I love the focus on learning skills, and the images to help us learn them!

Occasionally the reading is a bit of a slog, but mostly it isn’t.  Mostly it’s very informative and seeking to open the eyes of adults to the wonder of nature.  The way it is laid out makes it easy as an adult to teach those skills to youth.