About the Homeschool Enrichment Series
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(For info on SLNC’s Day-off from School Camps, please click here)
SLNC’s Homeschool Enrichment Series is an option for families who take a different approach to educating their children (ages 5-14). Our 4-week program provides an opportunity for children to get hands-on experience within the STEM disciplines, without the formal constraints. Each of the lessons are developed with the PA Standard Aligned System (SAS) in mind and ensure that children will excel in all settings.
There are five sessions per year: Fall, Fall II, Winter, Winter II, and Spring. The topics covered are relevant to each season. We enjoy all types of weather at SLNC and will encourage your children to feel the same way. It is important to make sure that your child dresses for the weather and is always prepared to get dirty! We love seeing students in closed toe shoes and long pants as we do explore in our forest, meadow, and marsh.
The program is a drop-off program run by our environmental educators. We encourage parents to minimize interactions with the class in order to reduce distractions. Parents are not encouraged to stay on site, but are welcome to hike the trails on their own during this time.
**UPDATE: Effective Monday, 2/28/2022, masking in County buildings is optional for all employees and visitors regardless of vaccination status.**
Online Registration Now Open!
Spring I 2023
Homeschool Enrichment AM Session (10:30am-12:00pm)
During our AM session for Spring I we will be focusing on Biodiversity within Silver Lake Nature Center. Each week students will identify plants & animals and create a list of all of the living things that they can find at Silver Lake. We will focus on groups of organisms during each class but, if we see something new and exciting all organisms are worth identifying and discussing during this series. The first day we will focus on plants, we will focus on identification of the shrubbery and plants within the park. The second week we will focus on winter identification of trees. We will use the bark, stems, and buds to identify a variety of trees on property. The third week we will be focusing on birds! We will spend time observing our bird feeders and we will take a hike through the woods to identify birds by their calls. Finally, we will take a survey of insects and arachnids on the property!
March 22nd – Plants
March 29th – Trees
April 5th – Birds
April 12th – Insects
Homeschool Enrichment PM Session (1:30pm-3pm)
During our PM session for Spring I we will be focusing on Engineering in Nature within Silver Lake Nature Center. Each week, students will build a new object that can be found in nature built by animals. The first day we will discuss bird nests and build our own out of natural items. Students will vote on their favorite nest and at the end of class will be allowed to bring their bird nest home with them. The second day we will discuss beaver dams and build our own miniature dams. This project helps students understand the impressive skills of beavers and the power of water. The third week we will be building paper wasp nests out of paper mache and discussing the amount of work it takes to build a structure like this. Can you build a paper wasp nest as well as the wasps? Find out during this homeschool series! The last day we will discuss insulation and we will attempt to protect an egg that we will drop from a high height. We will only be using natural materials to protect the egg from the fall.
March 22nd – Bird Nests
March 29th – Beaver Dams
April 5th – Paper Mache Nest
April 12th – Natural Egg Drop
Pricing for Fall 2022:
Entire 4-week Session- $60/member; $80/non-members
Refund Policy:
If you have any questions, please contact Summer Camp Director/ Environmental Educator, Patricia Nichols at v-pmnichols@buckscounty.org