Coyote Mentoring Core Routines: Exploring Field Guides
What It Is—and Why It Matters
Exploring Field Guides is the practice of using books and tools of identification in the right way and at the right time. In Coyote Mentoring, field guides are not used to deliver answers or steal the mystery. Instead, they are invitations to go deeper—to follow curiosity, confirm a hunch, or crack open a new round of questions.
Used well, this routine becomes a training ground for “inner tracking.” Learners begin to use books with discernment—observing closely in the field first, then testing their observations in the guide. It cultivates independence, pattern recognition, and the humility to say I don’t know yet, but I know how to find out. As mentors, we model restraint: we don’t offer a guide too soon, nor do we treat it as the final word. Instead, we let the guide support—not replace—the child’s primary relationship with the living world.
What It Might Look Like
The guide stays in your pack until the right moment.
A child notices a feather—sleek, brown, and patterned with white. Instead of giving the answer, you ask: What do you notice? Where did you find it? What do you think it might be? They wonder aloud. Only when their interest reaches a peak do you offer the book.
The learner leads the inquiry.
Together, you flip through the field guide. The child compares patterns, checks range maps, and reads aloud descriptions. They say, “I think it’s a red-tailed hawk!” You smile, but don’t confirm. “Could be. What else could it be? What would help you know for sure?”
Field guides become companions, not authorities.
Learners begin to bring their own guides, their own bookmarks and penciled notes. They connect observations in the field with follow-up at home. The book becomes a treasure map of experience—not a replacement for it.
Mentors model uncertainty and curiosity.
You admit, “I’m not sure either. Let’s see what we can find.” In doing so, you model a healthy relationship to knowledge: grounded, curious, and always growing. Over time, field guides become tools of empowerment—inviting learners not just to name, but to know.