For Families
Tiffin Education for Families
We are all connected and rely on our environment. Children who come to Tiffin’s outdoor education programs get to move away from excess screen time, and build meaningful connections with the natural world.
Let Tiffin’s educators help your children develop a sense of wonder, appreciation and respect for the natural world. Let’s discover, share and explore!
Tiffin Conservation Area is the centre of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority’s environmental education programs. Located 15 minutes outside of Angus, Barrie and Innisfil, there are programs for children in preschool all the way to high school. Programs are offered all year round and there is something for everyone!
Geared towards children aged 2.5 – 10 years old, this program focuses on child-led, open-ended and play based learning. Children learn about risky play, and develop a better understanding of their relationship with the land.
Adopted from our traditional summer camp program, this special edition of Camp Tiffin encourages outdoor exploration, guided excursions in the forest fueled by student interest.
Children spend their day exploring our forests, ponds, meadows at the 300-acre Tiffin Centre for Conservation. Every day will be guided by curiosity, seasonal changes, and weather and program availability.
Camp Tiffin’s Junior Leadership Program is a two-week camp for 13-15-year-olds, which builds valuable leadership skills and provides hands-on practical experiences. Together, the 2 weeks earns them a Junior Leadership certificate.
Join us this March Break to explore nature on snowshoes, discover the signs of wildlife in the winter, making walking, play a game of Amazing Race, make walking sticks and so much more!
Parents and guardians are invited to bring their children to the Tiffin Centre for Conservation where we take care of the programming so that families can spend time learning outside together.
Download this free flower map for the Tiffin Conservation Area and discover some of our favourite flowers. They include Round-lobed Hepatica, Jack-in-the-pulpit and Solomon’s Seal.
Meet Our Educators
Naomi Saunders
Naomi finds herself feeling at home whenever she can be outside hearing birds and breathing fresh air. She started forming connections with nature when she was quite young, and by the time she was nine years old she knew she wanted to share this passion with others. Starting her own nature walking club, she led many excursions in the ravine behind her home to explore the meandering creek. Memories of feeling the cold clay on her hands and feet, discovering creatures under logs and playing hide and seek with friends are the experiences that helped form who she is, and her goals in life. Inspired to share the wonder, calm and creativity that she feels when out in nature with others of all ages, she has been doing outdoor environmental education professionally since 2004. Naomi feels that there is so much we can learn from the land, and when children can guide their own inquiries, holistic and authentic personal growth is realized.
To help her accomplish her goals she relies on her knowledge and skills gained through the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT), her additional qualification from Special Education part 1, and her Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies: Culture and Education. More recently, Naomi took the Forest School course through Child & Nature Alliance of Canada so that she could become a co-learner with our youngest people and help them make similar connections.
Bob Cole
In 2004 Bob began a career as a music educator, teaching private guitar, bass and piano lessons to hundreds of students over the years. Bob would go on to develop a music program with the Elite Montessori in Mississauga, as well as teach at some of the largest private music instruction facilities in Canada.
In 2007 Bob was able to combine his love of teaching music with his enthusiasm for outdoor activity when he discovered a volunteer opportunity establishing a music education program at the “Pragya School for Underprivileged Children” in Kathmandu, Nepal. While in Nepal, Bob hiked the Annapurna circuit across Thorung La, the highest mountain pass in the world. He also helped to lead a youth white-water rafting trip with Just-One, an NGO providing assistance to homeless children aging from 5 to 16. Bob’s time with Just One showed him the incredible resilience and strength of children living lives unimaginable to us here in Canada, but also the preciousness and fragility of childhood.
Upon returning to Canada, Bob settled in Vancouver, B.C., where he returned to private music instruction, and began to build his own private business while working on his M.A. with Athabasca University. British Columbia also provided an opportunity to enjoy the outdoor life; numerous kayaking, camping, and hiking expeditions later, Bob returned to his hometown of Barrie, Ontario to raise a family and start a music school of his own: The Modern Music Studio.
In 2017 Bob was privileged to find a position where he could combine both his love of the outdoors and his love of working with young children. As an Outdoor Educator with the Tiffin Centre, Bob especially enjoys leading groups of young children around the diverse 300-acre property. Bob’s approach is inquiry based, allowing the students to direct topics of discussion as they enjoy the programming of the day.
Bob is also a disc golf enthusiast. In his capacity with NVCA, Bob designed and helped establish the “Goldilocks Disc Golf Course”, a nine-hole disc golf park designed specifically for children. Bob has taught hundreds of kids of all ages the joys of this low impact and highly accessible outdoor activity. Bob has also helped to develop some SHSM programming including GPS and wilderness survival.
Bob is also currently developing the “Music, Movement and Mother Earth” program, part of the Tiffin Centre’s preschool nature camp activities. In this program children discover the interconnectedness of the rhythms and melodies of nature, whether by imitating a songbird’s call, listening to the rustle of the leaves in the trees, or stomping on the ground or in puddles along with a beat. The hope is that children will begin to understand that music is all around them, whether at home or in the forest, and that this will lead to a love of rhythm and melody (as well as the outdoors) that can last a lifetime.
Bob holds a B.A. from Queen’s University, and an M.A. from Athabasca University. He has also taken a number of courses with Georgian College specializing in Astronomy, Navigation & Orienteering and the use of GPS and compass, as well as basic survival skills.
Susan Hall
Susan has been an Environmental Educator with the NVCA since 2017. She grew up in King Township on a dairy farm, spending her time exploring the fields, ponds and forests in her backyard and learning how to be a better caretaker for the land. She has kept that love of nature throughout her life by receiving an education from Fleming college where she graduated with two diplomas’ in Ecosystem Management, one with an Emphasis in Indigenous Perspective.
The thing that keeps her and her family rooted and focused in life is by keeping that connection to nature alive. She loves inspiring kids to find their own passion for the natural world so that they too can have a life long love of nature.
Amanda
McKibbon
Amanda is passionate about child and youth psychology, animal well-being, and environmental conservation. While completing her BA in Psychology (focus on abnormal and child mental health) at Wilfrid Laurier University, Amanda spent her summers working for the Ministry of Natural Resources in forest fire management where she had the opportunity to explore, protect, and camp in remote forests across Ontario.
After graduating from university, Amanda spent 8+ years working in child and youth mental health, first, in residential treatment homes supporting children, youth, and families working through behavioural, emotional, and relational challenges; and then at the Hospital for Sick Children with young parents and their children, in both the Psychiatry Research and Adolescent Medicine departments.
Following her passion for animal welfare Amanda then completed an MSc in Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science at the University of Guelph. Afterwards she worked at the Ontario SPCA for 7+ years where she had the honour of leading the Indigenous Partnership Program, the Affiliate program, the Annual Educational Conference, and the Human-Animal Bond program. In addition, Amanda was the lead for the organization’s Humane Education program, which, under her leadership, grew to integrate Indigenous perspectives and voices, and a systems type approach that sought to develop respect and compassion for the interconnected nature of the natural world (ie., people, animals and the environment), as well as developing the critical thinking skills, capacity, and inspiration to take meaningful action.
These days Amanda spends her time in non-profit work both as co-founder of OneKind, and as a Board member for Youth Haven, as well as an Environmental Educator at the Tiffin Conservation Centre where she works with children and youth, nurturing respect and compassion for each other, the animals and the environment we all share.
Nicole Vankooten
Nicole started working with the NVCA over the summer as a camp counsellor and found outdoor education an unexplored passion of hers. Nicole completed her Bachelor’s of Arts and Science from the University of Guelph in 2023, combining her interests across disciplines. She is currently continuing her studies at the graduate level in a Master’s thesis researching the loss of medieval English forestry practices through colonialism and its legacies on modern Canadian forest management. As a Northern Ontario tree planter herself, Nicole hopes to use this research to introduce historical perspectives to conversations around sustainable forestry and ecologically responsible logging.
Nicole finds her research most enjoyable when she can share her knowledge with others of all ages, from pre-school children to senior adults. Nicole’s diverse teaching experiences have allowed her to not only gain valuable skills, but continue to learn from the people she meets along her career path. She spent July and August of 2023 in Wawa, Ontario working with Indigenous Youth to introduce them to essential workplace training in the natural resource industry. Between her studies, Nicole is also an Uncertified Occasional Teacher in SCDSB elementary and high schools.
In her free time, Nicole loves to camp, hike and travel. She finds nature, and the forest specifically, as a crucial tool for resiliency in her own mental health journey. She loves sharing her passion for the outdoors and nature-related coping mechanisms with the next generation of explorers! Nicole also enjoys reading and recently published a poetry book called Nymphalidae.
Katherine Herington
Katherine has always had an affinity for the natural world ever since she was a kid whistling back and forth to birds in the woods. As an adult, she began her journey teaching outdoor education at YMCA Geneva Park working at the Nature Centre, and creating and delivering nature programming to guests of all ages. During the pandemic, she taught a homeschool ecology program to several children and decided to go to school for Ecosystem Management. During her studies, she realized her passion for conservation and ecological restoration and specifically her desire to share her newfound knowledge with anyone who would listen. Katherine began working at the NVCA where she gets to share her passion for working with children and the public, and her knowledge about Ontario ecology.
In her spare time, Katherine still goes to the woods to whistle with the birds and to look for critters hidden under logs. She loves discovering and identifying new plants and learning about their roles in the ecosystem. She is excited to learn more every day about local ecology and the creatures and plants that inhabit our neighbourhoods. She also loves cool bugs, so please let her know if you see any when you are out and about at Tiffin!
Katie Johnson
Katie has always found herself most comfortable and serene amongst nature and finds herself hiking all year long – following animal tracks in the snow, watching the leaves change and trying to find the bird that’s chirping.
She is grateful for her childhood home growing up in the country around Bradford, she always joked about having National Geographic out the backyard window, overlooking the pond and farm fields. With lots of mammals, birds and insects around her, as well as school field trips to Scanlon Creek and summers at Camp Big Canoe, Katie’s passion for identifying and gaining deeper knowledge of these living things began to grow.
After Katie graduated from the Environmental Technician program at Georgian College in 2015, she dove into her new found interest in trees and forestry, thus starting her schooling at Fleming College in 2015 in the Urban Forestry program. She also completed her schooling with a GIS Cartographic Specialist program in 2018, which helped to expand her understanding of environmental issues and provided the skills needed to present data on maps or infographics about the knowledge she had gained.
While Katie enjoyed her time exploring careers in the Urban Forestry sector, she had the amazing opportunity to join the Canadian Conservation Corps (CCC). Here, she had a once-in-a-lifetime experience doing when they flew her out to Newfoundland for the month of May for wilderness first aid training and a 12-day sea kayaking expedition to learn how to lead and plan guiding expeditions in Newfoundland! With the CCC, Katie spent the following summer volunteering at a bird rehabilitation center in Hudson, Quebec where she learned how to care for wild birds until they are healthy enough to release back into the wild.
For the final stage of the CCC program, Katie went home to Ontario to educate youth about birds. Through visiting schools, Scouts and Girl Guide groups, as well as March Break day camps, Katie talked with over 1,000+ children from Barrie to Aurora and reached over 18000+ people on social media posts!
She thoroughly enjoys teaching children of all ages about the wonders of natural science around our gorgeous province and inspiring the next generation of knowledge seekers to foster their passion for the outdoors and the wilderness around us. Find her at the Tiffin Centre for Conservation if you have any cool bird or tree stories, or if you want to know about local waterfalls or camping sites!
Katie still loves going on camping trips multiple times a year with just her and her copilot Cc, her Chihuahua, who absolutely adores going on road trips with her throughout Ontario. She has a goal to road trip through every state, province and territory in North America!
Education Team
Environmental Education