Meet our passionate team of outdoor educators! Each of our teachers brings unique experience and a deep love of nature-based learning to Muddy Boot Prints. Our educators are ECE certified and committed to providing exceptional outdoor early learning experiences for your children.
Belva Stone — Founder/Owner
– Miss Belva
Miss Belva has been working with children for 20 years. She spent 12 years as a private nanny specializing in children aged 0-5yrs. During the latter portion of that time, she studied at VCC to get her Early Childhood Education certificate. In 2010 Miss Belva accepted her first preschool teaching job at a traditional Montessori school. She worked there for 4 years before shifting directions into outdoor education.
Along with being the Director of Muddy Boot Prints, Miss Belva is the chair of the SAP Non-Profit Board (that oversees the Saplings Independent Nature School) and the OELA Non-Profit Board. The OELA is a non-profit dedicated to supporting outdoor educators in British Columbia as well as supporting getting outdoor education licensed in BC. Belva routinely offers presentations and workshops about outdoor education to local colleges and universities throughout the year. Belva has been an active community member working towards getting outdoor education licensed in British Columbia since 2016. The progress is slow and steady!
When Belva isn't teaching, presenting or doing admin work, she can be found with her fingers in the dirt of one of her many garden beds, or wrestling with her hand spun and hand dyed wool that she loves to create.
Marina Stamboulieh, Director of Vancouver Chapter, Flicker Lead Teacher
– Miss Marina
Marina's love of nature and the outdoors began in childhood. Her mom, a naturalist and teacher, took her all over the mountains and grasslands, teaching her how to identify wildflowers, birds and mushrooms. She grew up in the country, enjoying an adventurous childhood full of risky play, fresh air, gardening and lots of encounters with farm animals and wildlife.
Marina is a certified Early Childhood Educator and a recent graduate of the Master of Professional Education program at Western University. She has worked in licensed preschool and childcare settings and as a Lead Facilitator at Fresh Air Learning's summer forest-school camps. Outside of Muddy Boot Prints, Marina is a therapeutic tutor at a private school, supporting school aged children and youth with language-based learning differences.
When Marina isn't teaching, she loves birding, creating art in various mediums and spending time with her family, which includes her daughter, husband, cat and dog.
She trained as an elementary teacher in the UK and has continued her journey as she became an ESL teacher in Vancouver in 2015. Over the years Debbie has worked as a private tutor and in Vancouver community centres as an instructor with preschool aged children. Debbie is a recent graduate from Langara College and is now a certified Early Childhood Educator!
She was inspired by the play based approach she discovered in her children's parent participation preschool and her recent volunteer work in outdoor preschools opened her eyes to the opportunities afforded when learning is taken outside.
Debbie is a certified Early Childhood Educator and so excited to be a part of MBP and exploring outdoors this year.
In her spare time in the Summer you can find Debbie in her garden or at the beach paddling in her canoe and in the Winter she will be up in the mountains.
