Syrian refugee families visited a Halton Hills sugar bush this week and got a new sense of Canada as their “home sweet home.”

The curious group — 35 children, their parents and one busy Arab-English interpreter — explored the forest outside Caledon, peering into sap buckets, feeding chickadees and sampling the golden nectar of Canada’s first peoples — as offered as the prize at the end of the tour, on a Popsicle stick.

The field trip was organized by the Peel District School Board to give refugee families a March Break family outing that doubled as a crash course in Canadian history.

“We came because we want to educate our children and get to know Canada; it’s beautiful,” said mother of three Ghosoun Al Zaby, through an interpreter. “All the different experiences — thank you Canada. Thank you Trudeau.”

The students visiting the Jack Smythe Field Centre were from two schools in the Square One area of Mississauga, which is popular among Arab-speaking newcomers. Thornwood Public School is home to 25 Syrian refugee students from kindergarten to Grade 5, and The Valleys Sr. Public School has welcomed 21 refugee students in Grades 6, 7 and 8.

Yet even here in the Ontario woodland, some refugees were haunted by their demons. A handful hesitated before stepping into a large canvas teepee where staff were demonstrating the early indigenous technique of boiling sap in logs.

“Some of them said this tent brings back bad memories about the tents in the refugee camps, but we told them it was safe,” said settlement worker Angie Olanrewaju, who speaks Arabic.

The idea of sweetener coming from a tree is unfamiliar in the Arab world, said Olanrewaju.

“When they think sugar, they think sugar cane. When we explained what a big deal it is in Canada, they were so excited to come,” she said.

Normally the sugar bush is a popular field trip for Grade 3 classes as they study early settlers.

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But the idea of a field trip for new immigrant families was sparked by a poignant family visit last March Break, recalled Rob Ridley, co-ordinator of Peel’s outdoor education programs.

“A family had arrived from the Middle East — the kids went to Fairview Public School in Mississauga — and they wanted to come to visit a sugar bush during March Break,” he recalled.

“So they took Mississauga public transit to Brampton, then Brampton public transit to the edge of town and then took a taxi out to (the village of Terra Cotta’s) Jack Smythe Field Centre, where they spent five hours and just loved it,” said Ridley.

When the centre was closing for the day, the family asked if they could use a pay phone to call for a cab back down to Brampton.

“That got us thinking, why not make it easier for new families to come out and experience this Canadian March Break tradition?” said Peel board spokesperson Ryan Strang.

For the cost of two school buses, that’s what the board did.

As the Syrians sat on bales of hay around the wood fire inside the teepee, staff passed around fur pelts, which were a source of great fun.

“Meow?” asked a Syrian dad about the raccoon pelt. No, responded the staff member, who tried to reproduce the chatter of a raccoon. Everyone laughed, but few seemed to know the animal.

They will soon enough.

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