Finding Fish at Fairbanks Museum

Details: Created on Monday, 18 April 2016 15:08; Written by Alexandra Conroy

ST. JOHNSBURY - Tales of the Loch Ness Monster and mermaids left children in awe as they and their parents gathered around in classrooms at the Fairbanks Museum Friday morning to learn about this years theme, ocean life and storytelling.

The Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury holds classes for homeschooled children throughout the year. Leila Nordmann, the Director of Programs at the Fairbanks Museum says this has been a great and fun opportunity for the business, and the kids and parents love it too.

"We're gonna start doing homeschool once a month year round. We used to only do it during the school year 9 times and now we're doing it up to twelve times, mostly with having summer outdoor programming. We're really excited for that. To be able to offer it throughout the year and just get people and families in here and enjoying and learning and that's exactly what the museum is here for. It's that sort of teachable moment that is either on the main floor or in one of these classrooms."

There are over two-thousand children homeschooled in Vermont each year. This experience in the museum takes the learning outside of the home, but this not quite in a classroom.

"They take some classes that are a little different like out architecture class that's all about the museum itself and why it was built the way it's built. It's a nice way of using a couple of our resources and getting out there and parents are always interesting in what we have to offer," says Nordmann.

This class itself was focused on sea life, including fish, whales, and serpents.

"Generally every year we have a new theme and so this year its ocean life and story telling. We're trying to combine these two and the classes are based on that, so we roll those out for all of the home school kids."

Nordmann states the courses don't just stay in the museum. "We do field trips. We've done a river trip, We do a forest trip. We've taken them to multiple different sights we have we have access to on different properties, and that's really nice outdoor programming."

Amongst the children were the parents. According to Nordmann, "We have some families who come every time. What's nice is we've been expanding our offerings and getting people from further away."

One of the mothers of the children said, "This is our first time coming to one. It's really nice to have something like this. We just started homeschooling and I heard about these programs. It's been really fun. Hopefully we can start king to more of them, it looks like there are a few more before summer. It's nice to know these programs are here."

Homeschooling in Vermont had grown over the years and the museum is not the only place where children can come together and socialize. Brynne Reed who is a Home Study Consultant states, "With Act 119, they can enroll in classes at schools so they can have a relationship with other students with sports, art activities and trips." Act 119 was created in 1998 and passed in 1999 to allow homeschool students to have access to public school activities.

Leila Nordmann and the Fairbanks Museum are excited to have the opportunity to start holding events once every month for homeschool students.