Spring Homeschool Day registration now open at Old Independence Regional Museum (Posted by Ginger Smith)

Spring Homeschool Day registration now open at Old Independence Regional Museum

“So you want to be an Explorer” Theme for Home School Day at Museum

Old Independence Regional Museum will host its spring Home School Day on Monday, March 20, 2017 from 9 a.m. to Noon, with sign-in beginning at 8:45 a.m. Registration and a program fee of $5 are due by March 8, 2017. Registration is limited to 50 students.

Students will take part in five hands-on early explorer sessions that include learning how to find their way to a destination with only simple directions, the position of the sun, and a compass; creating a 3-dimensional contour map of a local mountain; designing a poster inviting people to visit early Arkansas; brainstorming ways to survive in the wild using only simple items; and learning about the importance of early explorers being able to identify and describe events and things that were unfamiliar to them. “Homeschool day is a fun, educational experience for students,” said Humanities Educator Vicki Garland, “the variety of hands-on activities help students retain information much better.”

The students will be divided into five groups based on age and will rotate through each of the five sessions. Emphasis will be placed on early explorers who visited Arkansas such as Hernando Desoto, Friedrich Gerstacker, and Henry Schoolcraft.

Old Independence serves a 12-county area: Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff. Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820s Arkansas territory.

This humanities program is made possible by local support from Independence County and the City of Batesville, as well as by Challenge Grant Endowment funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.