Tracking Natural Cycles teaches learners to live in rhythm with the Earth. In Coyote’s Guide, this routine includes observing the movement of the sun and stars, the shift in bird migrations, flowering times, animal behaviors, weather changes, and moon cycles. Over time, learners recognize the deeper intelligence of seasonal flow. They see patterns, anticipate changes, and understand their place in a larger whole. This practice fosters patience and reverence. It builds long-term memory and a felt sense of relationship with time, place, and story. For mentors, it’s a reminder: nature is always teaching, and the curriculum is already alive. Keywords: seasons, moon phases, migrations, ecological literacy, long-term awareness, rhythms of place, cycles of change
Storytelling, in the Coyote tradition, is how learning lives on. Stories transmit wisdom, spark laughter, and encode values without instructing directly. They are often playful, mysterious, or unfinished—inviting listeners to engage, question, and reflect. In Coyote’s Guide, storytelling happens around fires, during transitions, or after adventures. It gives shape to experiences: “What happened out there?” becomes a story that others can learn from. The best stories spark more questions than answers. Mentors model storytelling with humility, humor, and a sense of timing, creating a culture where every learner becomes a storyteller—holding memory, meaning, and relationship in their words. Keywords: narrative, meaning-making, culture building, invisible teaching, humor, personal story, oral tradition
In Coyote’s Guide, Thanksgiving is foundational. It’s not reserved for special occasions—it’s a daily practice. Giving thanks aligns the heart, opens awareness, and sets a tone of appreciation. It may begin each gathering or close a circle, offering a moment to remember the gifts of the Earth, the people present, or a moment of beauty. This ritual builds a culture of reciprocity, grounding learning in relationship rather than transaction. It encourages mentors and learners alike to see with the eyes of gratitude, which—as the guide notes—is “good medicine” for resilience, openness, and joy in both personal and ecological life. Keywords: gratitude, awareness of gifts, emotional grounding, cultural repair, resilience, heart-centered, daily practice
Mind’s Eye Imagining is the inner tracking of nature connection. In Coyote’s Guide, learners are invited to close their eyes and visualize—an animal’s trail, the journey of water, a remembered experience. This activates memory, empathy, and intuition. It strengthens pattern recognition and helps integrate outer awareness with inner story. The practice helps learners step into other perspectives—fox, hawk, wind, or tree—and cultivates a sense of belonging in the natural world. Mentors guide these visualizations gently, offering rich sensory detail and space for imagination. Over time, this practice deepens not only observation, but reverence. The unseen becomes just as alive. Keywords: inner vision, storytelling, visualization, empathy, memory building, perspective taking, imagination
“Survival Living” in Coyote’s Guide is about remembering how to live with nature, not just in it. These skills—making fire, building shelter, foraging wild foods—are not gimmicks, but acts of connection and gratitude. They foster humility and confidence, reminding us that the Earth provides. Children feel empowered when they learn how to make cordage or identify edible plants. They also begin to understand responsibility. These are not survival tricks—they are ancestral practices that reconnect us to the natural rhythms and cycles of life. Mentors model respect, resourcefulness, and reverence, guiding learners into deeper relationship through hands-on living. Keywords: ancestral skills, resilience, shelter, fire, wild foods, earth living, gratitude, hands-on connection
Journaling, as described in Coyote’s Guide, is more than a schoolish assignment—it’s a sacred practice of remembering and integrating. It helps learners recall what they’ve seen, heard, and felt. Through drawing, mapping, writing, or collecting, children create a personalized record of their encounters. Over time, journals become storybooks of place and growth. They reflect the learner’s developing awareness, questions, and sense of wonder. The guide encourages mentors to help children value their journals as living documents—where imagination, observation, and insight meet. This is not about perfection but about presence. The journal becomes a mirror of a deepening relationship with nature. Keywords: personal story, reflection, drawing and writing, memory anchor, integration, sketching, mapping experience
In Coyote’s Guide, wandering is described not as getting lost, but as a core learning process. It allows space for unplanned encounters, discoveries, and questions. Children—and mentors—who wander notice more. They stumble into mysteries: a bird call, a strange track, a change in the wind. This routine strengthens orientation, awareness, and responsiveness. It also builds comfort with uncertainty. The mentor's role is to trust the process and resist the urge to lead. Wandering is the practice of letting go—an invitation for the land to become the teacher, and for the learner to follow the thread of wonder. Keywords: exploration, spontaneous learning, emergent discovery, playful movement, non-linear, open-ended, coyote mentoring
Tracking is the ancient art of following stories written in the land. In Coyote’s Guide, it begins with curiosity: What happened here? Who passed through? Tracks, scat, feathers, scrapes—all are signs animals leave behind. As mentors, we teach not just identification, but interpretation. Tracking builds patience, sharpens the eye, and trains the brain to follow invisible threads. It’s as much about empathy as observation, asking learners to step into the mind and movement of another being. The deeper one tracks, the more relational and respectful the learning becomes—listening with the eyes and feeling with the feet. Keywords: trail stories, empathy, awareness, direction of travel, animal behavior, sensory clues, slow observation
Birds are the sentinels of the forest. In Coyote’s Guide, listening for bird language becomes a profound practice of awareness. Each chirp, alarm, and silence holds meaning—about hawks overhead, foxes moving nearby, or changes in weather. This routine trains mentors and learners to recognize baseline, disturbance, and zones of alarm. It teaches patience and deep listening, drawing us into what Jon Young calls “the concentric rings of awareness.” Over time, this practice changes how one walks the land—not as an intruder, but as part of a living web, able to hear its warnings, rhythms, and conversations. Keywords: baseline, alarms, concentric rings, five voices of birds, deep awareness, predator-prey dynamics, quiet presence
“Questioning and Tracking” is a dance between curiosity and observation. The mentor’s role here is not to give answers, but to model and invite powerful questions. What happened here? Who passed through? Why did this trail shift? Tracking begins with marks in the dirt but extends to the invisible—behavioral clues, broken twigs, changing sounds. As Coyote’s Guide emphasizes, asking the right question often leads further than having the right answer. This routine teaches awareness, humility, and deduction, guiding learners into deeper relationships with wildlife and the unseen stories unfolding all around them. Keywords: curiosity, mystery, sign interpretation, inquiry, story of the land, fox walk, open-ended questions
Mapping is more than making drawings—it’s an act of remembering place. In Coyote’s Guide, this routine invites learners to create hand-drawn maps based on their own experiences of the land. It may begin simply—“where did you go today?”—and evolve into layered maps of trails, habitats, bird calls, and stories. The practice develops memory, spatial awareness, and pattern recognition. As children revisit and redraw places over time, their maps become personal reflections of relationship. Mentors use mapping as a bridge between observation and storytelling, helping learners see not just where they are, but how they are connected to it all. Keywords: memory of place, orientation, trails and landmarks, storytelling, spatial awareness, personal landscape, nature journals
“Expanding Our Senses” is about coming alive through sensory awareness. Many of us walk through the world with dulled perception, but this routine reawakens the body’s innate abilities. The guide introduces games that stretch vision (like Owl Eyes), deepen listening (like Deer Ears), and sharpen touch and smell. It’s not just about perception—it’s about connection. When the senses are active, we become attuned to life around us. As Jon Young writes, “senses are the pathways of awareness.” This practice helps mentors and learners alike to slow down, feel alive, and engage with the natural world in a fuller, more relational way. Keywords: sensory awakening, owl eyes, deer ears, awareness training, body intelligence, games, perception
The Sit Spot is the heartbeat of nature connection. It’s a place you return to often—ideally every day—to sit in stillness, observe, and become part of the landscape. Over time, you witness the routines of birds, animals, light, and weather. Your awareness sharpens. You begin to hear the language of the land. This quiet routine builds core attributes of mentoring—patience, attentiveness, and sensitivity. As the guide emphasizes, “your Sit Spot becomes a doorway to your senses, intuition, and deep knowledge.” It’s where you develop relationship. It’s where the stories begin. Keywords: stillness, observation, quiet mind, place-based awareness, routine, bird language, deep listening
One person acts as the “photographer” and gently guides their blindfolded partner (the “camera”) to a special scene in nature. When ready, the photographer squeezes the partner’s shoulder—“click!”—and the blindfolded person opens their eyes for 3–5 seconds, then closes them again. After a few shots, roles are reversed. At the end, participants describe their “photos” to each other in vivid sensory language.
Participants are blindfolded and gently led on a slow walk through nature by a partner who guides them with touch and voice. The walker listens, feels, and smells the world without sight—moving slowly and often pausing. The experience can be deeply calming and transformative. It builds trust between partners, opens up non-visual sensing, and cultivates quiet presence with the landscape.
Participants interact with their shadows—chasing them, hiding them, making animals from them. They might try to “step on” someone else’s shadow or use movement to stretch and twist it. Over time, this game builds awareness of light direction, time of day, and body presence. Shadow play opens sensory curiosity in a magical way and is often spontaneous when the conditions are right.
This practice guides participants to “see” with their inner eye. The mentor invites the group to close their eyes and imagine a place in nature—a favorite Sit Spot, a memory, or a new place. Then, through guided prompts, they explore that place using imagined senses: smell the air, feel the bark, notice the birds. This practice strengthens memory, deepens connection, and can even support skill-building through visualization (e.g., tracking, bird language).
Participants move like animals they’ve seen or imagined—walking like a fox, slithering like a snake, flapping like a heron. The mentor might model a few, or the group invents their own. Over time, learners begin to mimic behaviors: alertness, curiosity, hunting, hiding. This playful, expressive practice grounds participants in physical awareness and helps build empathy and understanding of wild kin.
One person (the Spotter) stands in the center of a circle and slowly turns, using Owl Eyes to scan the area. The rest of the group hides just outside the circle’s edge, trying to blend in completely. No moving. No sounds. If the Spotter sees someone, they point and describe where they are. Players who are found step out. Last one hidden wins—or better, is simply “the most invisible.” This game cultivates stillness, visual pattern awareness, and quiet inner excitement.
Each participant chooses a Sit Spot and listens closely to bird calls, spacing, and behavior. After 10–20 minutes, they return to the group and share observations. Did the birds go quiet suddenly? Was there an alarm call? Were they feeding calmly? Through repeated practice, learners begin to discern “baseline” bird behavior from alerts caused by predators, humans, or other disturbances. Over time, this becomes a deep tracking skill rooted in sensory ecology.
A hybrid of Sit Spot and Sound Map. Participants choose a Sit Spot and begin with Owl Eyes and Deer Ears. After a few minutes of listening, they draw a circular “sound field” map showing what they hear and where it comes from. This repeated practice sharpens listening over time and can reveal patterns in place—shifting birdsong, recurring footsteps, wind corridors.
Participants wander or explore an area while engaging all five senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, and (when appropriate) taste. They can either collect items, write down what they discover, or report back in circle. The game builds multi-sensory connection to place and slows the pace of observation, helping even busy groups root into the landscape.
Participants sit in silence for several minutes and mark the location of sounds they hear on a simple map. Each sound (bird call, rustle, water drip) is marked with a symbol or word in relation to their own position on the paper. The result is a personal, sensory-based landscape that reveals the richness of the soundscape. Sound Mapping deepens observation and brings spatial awareness to listening.
This isn’t a game in the usual sense—it’s a lively and participatory conversation or teaching circle where a mentor (or youth group) walks through potential hazards in the natural environment: poison ivy, widow-makers, weather changes, sharp rocks, etc. Delivered with humor, story, and engagement, it becomes a cultural lesson in awareness, not a lecture. The goal is to prepare, not scare; to empower, not control.
A fast-paced, playful game of tag. One person is “It.” Everyone else can only be safe while touching a tree. Players must leave the trees and run to another one—but only when It is distracted or chasing someone else. If tagged while in the open, they become the next It. This game naturally teaches pattern watching, anticipation, and bursts of movement. It keeps everyone laughing and alert.
Participants are challenged to lay a trail through the woods using natural materials in subtle ways—bent grasses, scuffed soil, misaligned sticks, a leaf turned over. Another group (or partner) follows this “invisible” trail using clues and inference, not obvious markings. The goal is to hide signs in plain sight, creating a trail that mimics real animal sign. It’s a favorite for developing stealth, creativity, and sensitivity to landscape.
A playful sneaking-and-tagging game. One player stands in the middle with eyes closed and counts aloud. The others try to sneak up and tag them gently before they finish counting. If the person in the center hears someone, they point and open their eyes. If they catch someone moving, that person is out or returns to the starting line. The game builds agility, stealth, and awareness of pressure, timing, and terrain.
A blindfolded person stands 20–30 feet away and slowly walks forward toward a silent partner standing still. The goal is to sense—without seeing or hearing—when they are close to the person and stop before touching them. This activity invites a deeper awareness of subtle perception: body radar, spatial sensitivity, and the energetic presence of others. It can feel mystical or grounding, depending on the person, and opens the door to conversations about intuition, trust, and boundary perception.
One partner is blindfolded and gently led by another to a nearby tree. The blindfolded person explores the tree using all senses except sight: touch, smell, spatial awareness. After several minutes, they’re led back to the start, spun around a few times, and asked to find “their” tree again using memory and intuition. The activity is slow, quiet, and often surprising—participants are amazed by what they remember through touch and feel alone.
A line is stretched between two points and represents the “trail.” A group of stalkers must move silently and slowly along the line without being detected by a seated observer (the guard or animal). The observer watches or listens from a set point. If they spot movement, they call it out and the stalker returns to start. This slow, meditative game refines sneaking, stillness, and terrain reading. Participants often say they’ve never moved so carefully in their lives.
One person is the Rabbit, sitting with their back to the field. Behind them lies a small object that players try to steal. One stalker at a time tries to sneak up, retrieve the object, and return to the start without being heard or seen. If the Rabbit hears or senses movement, they may turn around—if they catch the stalker moving, that stalker returns to the start. This game builds deep patience, body control, and understanding of how animals sense their surroundings.
A blindfolded participant must move toward a rhythmic drumbeat (or sound source) across a field or wooded area. The drumming mentor occasionally changes position or rhythm. The participant must listen closely, orient in space, and move silently and safely. The goal isn’t speed—it’s awareness, quiet feet, and subtle perception. This practice teaches how animals use sound to navigate in the dark and builds internal confidence in movement without sight.
One blindfolded participant plays the Bat. Others are Moths within a marked area. The Bat calls out “Bat!” and all Moths must reply “Moth!” Using only sound to locate them, the Bat tries to tag a Moth. The game simulates echolocation and sharpens auditory attention while adding a dose of playful tension and surprise. It’s a full-body listening game that encourages empathy with how animals navigate without vision.
Participants are blindfolded and given natural objects to explore with only their hands—no peeking. Like raccoons feeling their way through the dark with sensitive paws, players must identify or describe textures, shapes, temperature, and patterns. Some objects may be familiar; others strange or surprising. Raccoon Touch awakens touch, builds comfort with ambiguity, and supports embodied curiosity. It's also a grounding practice for groups that are too "in their heads."
Deer Ears teaches participants to deepen their auditory awareness by cupping their hands behind their ears to amplify and direct sound—just like a deer constantly scanning for predators or movement. This simple physical gesture changes how we hear and shifts the focus away from sight, helping participants notice rustles, birdsong, wind in the trees, and even far-off voices. Often practiced at Sit Spot or before a sensory game, Deer Ears cultivates a quiet mind, deep attention, and a growing sense of connection to the soundscape.
Owl Eyes is a practice of expanding one’s visual awareness by softening the gaze and activating peripheral vision. Instead of focusing on one object, participants learn to take in the entire landscape—to “see like an owl,” holding the whole forest in view. This wide-angle mode of vision supports alertness without tension and invites a calm, spacious form of attention. Often paired with Deer Ears and Fox Walk, it opens the senses and slows the internal rhythm, preparing the mind for tracking, observation, or deep play.
Fox Walk is the foundational movement skill of Coyote Mentoring. Participants learn to move silently through the forest like a fox—placing the outside edge of the foot down first, slowly rolling through the ball, and finally the heel. Each step is tested before committing weight. The knees remain slightly bent, and the body stays low and balanced. Practiced slowly and mindfully, Fox Walk sharpens awareness of sound, terrain, and movement. It fosters a deep intimacy with the land and prepares the body for tracking, close encounters, and invisibility.
Each player secretly chooses one of three local animal species. One person is “The Fire” and stands in the center of a rectangular field. The Fire calls out the name of one animal group, and only those players run from one end to the other. The Fire tries to tag them. Tagged players become “trees on fire” and root where they were tagged—able to pivot but not move their feet. Periodically, the Fire calls out “Fire in the Forest!”—prompting all animals to run at once. The game becomes progressively harder as more trees appear. Play continues until all players are tagged or everyone has run multiple times.
Observational drawings of apples after reading 
BOOK Seed by Seed
