A group of home-schooled children had the opportunity last month to learn about the community’s history and how the past affects current society during a day-camp at the Doak House Museum.
Youngsters from the ages of six to 12 spent four days in late March discovering what it was like to live in the 1800s through a variety of hands-on activities including making a scarecrow for the Doak House garden. The campers also learned about one of the ways information about the past is uncovered through an archeological dig, in which they uncovered shards of pottery and other remains of daily life of past generations of the Doaks.
The museum on the campus of Tusculum College will offer in the near future additional enrichment opportunities for youth in the region to discover the wonders of history through upcoming camps. An art camp for home-schoolers is scheduled in May, and the annual summer camp, open to all children ages 6-12, will be offered two separate times in June. Sessions are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in each of the camps.
“Light, Color, Motion,” an art day camp, will be offered Monday through Thursday, May 24-27, for home-school students ages 12-16. Participants will learn about the art and artists of the 19th century with a focus on the Impressionism movement, its artists and their influences.
The camp will be led by Dr. Fran Church, art program coordinator in the Fine Arts Department at Alabama A & M University. Dr. Church holds a bachelor’s degree in art and art history from Middle Tennessee State University and two graduate degrees from the University of Oregon, where she completed a doctorate in art education in 1993. She has taught art lessons to students on every grade level and has almost 20 years experience in college instruction. Dr. Church has exhibited her papier-mâché and mixed media sculpture in juried shows in Alabama, Tennessee and Oregon.
Participants in the camp will learn how art fit into a classical 19th century education, discover the inspiration and techniques of the Impressionists, make art “en plein aire” (in the open air), learn how to properly mount and display works, make beautiful art to take home and create a show of student work for friends and family.
Coming in June will be two sessions of the “Ready, Set, Explore!” summer camp for children ages 6-12. The first camp will be offered Monday through Thursday, June 7-10. A second camp session will follow Monday through Thursday, June 21-24.
The summer camps, which are open to children ages 6-12, will allow students to learn how history shapes the society of today through a variety of hands-on activities.
During the summer camp, students will discover how history is used in daily life, learn how archeologists find clues from the past, become a history detective by learning how to “read” a building, make arts and craft projects and participate in fun and games that students from the 19th century would have enjoyed.
Cost for each of the camps is $85 per participant. If more than one child is attending from a family, the charge for the second and each additional child is $75. Campers are to provide their own sack lunch. Snacks are included in the tuition cost.
For more information about the camps, please contact the Doak House Museum at 423-636-8554 or e-mail dboyd@tusculum.edu.
Pictured below, the group of day campers poses with “Professor” the scarecrow with camp leaders Dollie Boyd and Leah Walker; one group begins their archeological dig (center), and one camper finds that artifacts are not all that one can find in an archeological dig (bottom).
