Living History Program
Ages: First graders through adults
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, during school year
Overview: The Living History Program includes a slideshow or video about Texas settler and American Indian history, viewing exhibits in the nature center, and takes an approximate one-mile (round-trip) guided tour of the 1830s Redbud Hill Homestead and Akokisa Indian Village, beginning and ending at the nature center.
Nature Program
Ages: First graders through adults
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, during school year
Overview: The Nature Program includes a slideshow or video on a nature-related topic, viewing exhibits in the nature center, and a one-half- to one-mile guided nature walk along the nature trails, with emphasis on plant and animal habitats. Tours may be tailored for students and adults in middle school or older.
Pioneer TOTS
Ages: Pre-K and kindergarten (4 to 6 years old)
When: Last Monday morning of each month, during school year
Overview: With the help of a printed homestead guide, teachers walk their students through the homestead and stop at up to four stations (which may include a settler life introduction, blacksmithing, children’s games, hunting skills, settler gardening, woodworking, women’s handiwork, etc.) where staff members dressed in authentic clothing interpret settler life. Children can pump a primitive iron well pump, play settler kids’ games, feel a pelt of a forest dwelling animal, or watch a woodworker or blacksmith fashion everyday items out of raw materials.
Pioneer TOTS tours take approximately 45 minutes, start at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. Tours start and end in the homestead with an additional one-third-mile walk to and from the parking area.
Maximum: Four classes plus chaperones per session
Pioneer TYKES
(click here for additional information)
Ages: First through seventh graders
When: Friday mornings during the school year
Overview: Staff members and Quest High School volunteers, dressed in authentic clothing, guide individual classes through set-up stations and interpret the homestead structures. Stations may include a settler life introduction, blacksmithing, settler kids’ games, dulcimer music, muzzle loader hunting skills, samples of frontier foods, settler gardening, women’s handiwork, wash laundry with metal washboards and homemade lye soap, woodworking, plus more.
Pioneer TYKES tours take approximately 45 minutes and start at 10 a.m. Tours start and end in the homestead with an additional one-third-mile walk to and from the parking area.
Maximum: Four classes plus chaperones per session