Checkout the events section below to learn more about our programs
Cortez/dolores, Colorado
The nature center at butler corner (k-5th)
Location: The Nature Center at Butler Corner
20503 Road 31 Dolores, CO 81323
Classes Offered:
Students will meet on the following day from 9am-3pm:
Tuesday: K-5th Graders
About Aiprepacademy
Kathleen butler - owner and director
Kathleen Butler is the Owner and Director of The Nature Center at Butler Corner where she has lived her entire life. After teaching in the public schools for 31 years and being the children’s librarian at the Dolores Public Library for 12 years, she decided to put the family ranch into the Montezuma Land Conservancy and began The Nature Center. Her joy in life has always been to work with and teach children. She has had a weekly Story Time for preschoolers and hosted many field trips for neighboring school districts. Last year AIPA reached out to partner with the Nature Center and thirteen home schooled children have come out to learn about nature, to respect and care for it and to become a part of a wonderful team. We look forward to growing and hope to have many more years with AIPA
Connie Peters, a long-time friend and fellow writer with Kathie Butler, was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania where she learned a love for nature. She carries that love as she hikes through the forest at the Nature Center at Butler Corner with homeschool children and children from public schools on fieldtrips. She homeschooled her son and daughter, who now live in Mesa, Arizona, most of their school years. Connie loves to travel and has been to all fifty states, several countries and four continents. When she is not at the Nature Center or travelling, she spends time with her husband of 44 years who is a two-time stroke survivor, care-giving for a young man with autism, and being involved in church. Connie is a published author of fiction, creative nonfiction, devotions and poetry. She often journals with the children about their day, in verse.
connie peters
The Nature Center at Butler Corner is unique in several ways. It is privately owned and has been in Kathleen Butler's family for 99 years. It has been put into the Montezuma Land Conservancy. Children love interacting with alpacas, goats, geese and Chisholm the dog on the working alpaca ranch. They can learn to spin, weave and felt at the beautiful weaving studio. The National Forest borders the Nature Center’s seventy-five acres of Ponderosa pines. After the forest was thinned for fire safety, a miller brought his portable sawmill to mill the lumber for an old-fashioned school house and a gazebo. We often use the beautiful gazebo for story time. The old-fashioned school house possibly will be completed for the 24/25 school year for another teaching venue. A playground and a new Ninja line provides fun times during recess. Each child has their own “fort” in the oak brush on the property. There’s also a large oak brush castle with many rooms containing handmade furniture. They enjoy sled riding during the snowy winters. The program includes a lot of hiking on miles of hiking trails and a special story trail where stories can be read two pages at a time at each box. The Nature Center building houses a well-stocked library and a large open room to do crafts and other activities.