Screens pull kids in. Meaning calls them outdoors.
Every outdoor program now promises “less screen time, more connection.” True enough, camps can deliver this, but it misses the real problem. When school friends gather in digital spaces, parents face an impossible choice: connection or isolation. While Trackers has weighed in on screen time, we want to offer something more positive for the New Year.
What kids miss isn’t only outdoor activity. It’s social connection: the belonging, shared purpose, and service that make the outdoors a place you return to.
We know parents and teachers can’t endlessly pull kids from screens. Instead, we need networks that draw them toward something better. When outdoor time carries belonging and purpose, something fundamental shifts. That change rarely happens in a single camp. It comes from ongoing outdoor adventures that matter, experiences shared with peers and community.
Skill of Independence
Adventures that matter begin with independence. For many parents, freedom in the forest feels risky. I feel it myself. Even watching my own kids play in the forest with their small sibling pack, I’ve had to force myself to let go.
What I’ve learned from my own children and thousands of Trackers kids is this: independence stops feeling risky when competence is real. I let my kids explore the wild because they know how to move through woods safely, find their way home, build shelter, cook outdoors, track animals, forage wild plants, and watch each other’s backs. With the skills of a Tracker, freedom feels natural, not reckless.
Outdoor education must go beyond a single week of skills training. Skills aren’t borrowed during a program, they need to be carried forward. Mastery builds confidence. Confidence builds agency. Agency outlasts any program.
Forming Trackers Teams
Competent independence also requires community. Lasting motivation comes from having peers learning the same skills, sharing responsibility, and holding each other accountable through real adventures. That’s why we hope kids form Trackers Teams outside camp.
Trackers Teams are small groups of 4-8 kids who meet outside camp to practice skills through service: removing invasive plants to weave into baskets, cooking meals outdoors for family, mapping wildlife corridors, and even reclaiming local parks through play. Kids choose the adventure while service creates the meaning.
This is the model outdoor education needs, not initiatives that end when camp stops, but ecosystems that sustain themselves through the seasons.
Going Beyond Camp
Our future can’t just be a week away from screens. It has to be families connecting with other families by building the social networks that keep kids outdoors. Programs like Trackers plant the seeds: character, skills, identity. But one camp is never enough.
Our collective responsibility, both Trackers and the entire outdoor education field, is to change our current model. We must find ways to support Trackers Teams where kids connect with friends, host skill-share nights, and facilitate family meetups so parents can cultivate independence together.
This requires families who seek the same future for their kids. Parents who guide rather than manage, who replace supervision with service. When families support each other, kids can lead.
Our eternal goal is more than a week beyond screens. It’s helping kids belong outdoors, and helping families sustain it. That is how we go beyond camp.
See you in the forest,
Tony Deis
Trackers Earth
Founder & Dad
Let’s Go Beyond Camp
Screens pull kids in because that’s where their friends are. The answer isn’t just “less screen time”—it’s building real-world networks where kids develop competence, find purpose, and earn independence with peers. Three ideas we’re considering:
Create an After-School Archery League: Intensive training where kids build competitive archery skills, track progress, and connect with a team beyond camp.
Form Weekly Trackers Teams Co-ops: Guides partner with parents to facilitate independent Trackers Teams for skills after school (a cooperative, not a program).
Converting Trackers SE into a Family Lodge: A gathering place for families to connect with food carts, archery, bouldering, axe throwing, fire pits, and play spaces.
P.S. We’re seeking architects and place designers to help envision this third space. We are even considering mini-golf. Reach out to help shape what’s next: hello@trackersearth.com.