Home School Classes

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Homeschool Classes Winter 2024

Tuesday and Wednesday Nature Nuts Series (Ages 5-14)

Tuesday: February 6th - March 19th $155 (7 weeks)

Wednesday: February 14th - March 20th $130 (6 weeks)

10am-11am

Welcome back ECO Explorers! Pack your suitcases as In this first session, we will travel all over the world to learn about each unique biome, learn the history and culture of those parts of the world and meet the animals who call them home. Voyagers will make their own Eco-passports as they travel from continent to continent each week!

We customize to your needs. If you have a group of 6-14 students, we can form your own one-time class or session. Please inquire at ecoadventuresmd@gmail.com

Registration NOW OPEN CLICK HERE

Session 3 Themes (6 - 7 weeks)

A picture of the earth and moon taken from space.

Week 1: Earth Rocks!

Two owls sitting on a branch in an enclosure.

Week 2: Spectacular Senses

A fox is walking through the woods at night.

Week 3: Animal Survival Skills

WASHINGTON - AUGUST 29: Two North American beavers check out a man-made beaver dam in the new beaver enclosure during a sneak peak of the new American Trail at the Smithsonian National Zoo August 29, 2012 in Washington, D.C. There are three beavers in the enclosure, Chipper, Buzz and Willow, all born in June of 2000. The trail, featuring animals and horticulture native to the Americas, opens to the public on September 1. (Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

Week 4: Animal Engineers

A herd of zebra standing next to each other.

Week 5: Terrific Animal Teamwork

A turtle is eating a strawberry on the ground.

Week 6: Feeding Frenzy

Week 7: Marvelous Migration

Week 8: Talking With Animals

Wizarding World School of Arts and Science

A woman sitting on top of a tree with a man.

Ages 6+

Email to Schedule

Wizarding School of ARTS AND SCIENCES

Calling all first-years wizards, and muggles!! Eco’s School of Wizarding is SUPER excited to announce a 8-week class full of science: physics, chemistry, biology history, and arts. Wizards in training will be sorted with our talking sorting hat into working groups or houses. Classes consist of Introduction/make your own wand, care of magical creatures, herbology, potions, creations, dueling and more! Where else can you combine the magic of Harry Potter books and real-life science experiments, art projects, history lessons, and animal interactions with your favorite creatures? We encourage creativity, fun, and imagination while providing real science and arts topics. Each class, you will meet some favorite creatures like "Scabbers the rat to Nagini the snake, train a dragon, meet alligators, tarantulas, and more. And of course, along with all that learning we celebrate in the last class in the Great Hall with some magical snacks, like butterbeer, Bertie Botts every flavor beans including ear wax and snot!

Students are welcomed to wear their cloaks and bring their wands.

Week 1: Care of Magical Creatures

Welcome to the wonderful world of magic! For our first class meet all the magical creatures who call eco home, and help us care for them! Students will also make their own wands and help train a dragon.

Week 2: Stupefy: Freezing with Friction

Have you ever wanted to stop a rolling boulder in its tracks? How about how to climb walls? For this class try a spell that can do all that and more. Learn about and test different types of friction to stop almost anything and meet incredible animals who use this same force in new and unorthodox ways.

Week 3: Protego: Bouncing Back with Energy

I’m rubber and you’re glue. The most famous protection spell to bounce back at your opponent, but how does it work? In this week’s Wizarding class, it's time to explore energy. Discover how to store and transform this elusive magic that cannot be destroyed. Test different ways to send it springing back and meet some of the best experts at storing and using energy …our reptiles.

Week 4: Aguamenti: Making water stick

Water flows downhill, but what else can it do? In this week's charms class use “Aguamenti” to move and hold water in some brand new ways. Can you stick it to a coin? Flip it upside down? How big a hemisphere can you make? While we’re at it, why not meet some animals who rely on these weird and wonderful properties our water possesses!

Week 5: Invisibility Cloaks and Camouflage

There is only one true invisibility cloak, but that doesn't stop wizards or animals from doing their best to disappear. Meet experts at blending into the background and put your own eyes to the test as you try to spot them. Then design and test your own invisibility designs. Color? Pattern? Texture? Learn how all these factors combine to make you truly disappear in an engaging art creation.

Week 6: Divination and Animal Senses

We wizards must use divination if we wish to peer into the future, but even without magic many animals can predict disasters before they happen. Dive into the expansive world of animal senses. What can they see, hear, smell, and feel that we can’t? How do birds know when hurricanes are coming? Or animals with earthquakes? How do dog sense when their owner will have epileptic seizure? Or even detect cancer? How do they do it? Discover all this and more, with sense experiments, while building your own device to sense vibrations, and maybe make some predictions of your own.

Week 7: Magical Serpents

Basilisks, wyms, sea serpents, and hydras. Throughout time, few animals have inspired as many stories of myths and magic as our friends the snakes. Its care and keeping of animal creatures this week and we’re going to discover the truth behind the myths. Discover what abilities they truly have and make your own magical floating snake.

Week 8: Herbology

Potions would be near impossible without the plants we use to brew them. For this week's class, it’s all about Herbology. How do these incredibly important plants grow, and where do they get their energy? What are some poisonous plants, how do they defend themselves against herbivores? Discover what magic lives in the dirt beneath your feet and meet some of the little critters and herbivores who help make all life possible.

In-Depth Keeper Apprentice Program

A child is playing with a sword in the room.

Email to Schedule M-F

10am-12:30pm
Ages 7+
$70 per class

*Max number 5 students

Jr. ZooKeeper Class

A child looking at a lizard in an enclosure.

Ages 7+

Tuesday: February 6th - March 19th $160

(7 weeks)

Wednesday: February 14th - March 20th $135

(6 weeks)

11am-Noon

Registration NOW open click here

Mini Explorer's Classes

A woman and child looking at something on the ground.

Tuesday & Thursday 9:30am-noon

Ages 3-6

8 week session

Tuesday 9/19-11/14 or Thursday 9/21-11/16

$40 per day or $30 per day Full Session

DROP OFF ONLY

* Need min of 4 kids to run

**If interested please email ecoadventuresmd@gmail.com**

(Must be potty trained)

*Class can be outdoor/indoor in small groups.

Discover! Create! Explore! Use all your senses in this class to learn about the wonderful world of nature, art, and science! Classes may consist of a storybook, meet and interact with animals, and a hands-on activity such as a game/craft/music/experiment/fossil dig/nature scavenger hunt. Each week is a different theme. * Must have a min number for the class to run.

Themes (not necessarily in this order)

All Aboard the Animal Train…..Get your tickets NOW, and head to the Eco Adventures station. The conductor is waiting for you to climb aboard our animal train. We’re traveling the globe and meeting some amazing animals along the way. Visit Australia, matey. Go on an African safari. Asia awaits. Make a craft to take home and play around the world games….All aboard. You don’t want to miss this train!!

Shiver Me’ Timbers… Ahoy mateys! I hear there is hidden treasure at Eco Adventures. All we need is a crew, a map and animals to help us solve the clues. Pirate Blackbeard has plundered our loot and we need to get it back. Maybe we can ask the talking parrotHarley if she saw him do it. One way or another, our crew will set sail on adventure and find the hidden “x” marks the spot. Shiver Me’ Timbers it’s going to be a GOOD TIME on the high seas!

Myths, Fables and Fairy Tails… Let’s step into stories of long ago and learn about the animals that are so popular in legends, myths and fairy “tails”. Why are animals so popular in stories throughout time? Learn about the legends and myths of mermaids, unicorns, Fairies, Trolls, and more. Go on a scavenger hunt to find our fairies in Pixie Hollow and find their home! “Once Upon Time” is about to come to life at Eco Adventures.

Hide and Go Seek…Sounds like a simple game of hide and go seek, but trust us, finding a hiding animal is not so easy. This is because many animals have to ability to CAMOUFLAGE. Finding them is very hard to do. But that won’t stop us. We will search high and low and see what we can find. Come join us as we play hide and go seek with the animals. READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME!

Backyard Boogie - What's that lurking in your backyard? Does it JUMP, LEAP, SLITHER or CREEP? Learn about our local wildlife and why they find your backyard a prime spot to settle down. Under that rock, in a pond, hidden in the leaves, these animals are masters at hiding but now that we know where they are, we WILL find them!

Dino Dig Calling all paleontologists.. it's time to DIG deep and unearth ancient fossils! We've heard that giant dinosaurs once roamed the woods right outside Eco Adventures. There's only one way to be sure!! We'll get to the bottom of this, with a real life fossil dig. Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, T-Rex.. OH MY...let's get dirty and give it a TRY!

Gold Rush

We’re heading to the wild, wild West.. to strike it rich! Grab your grub and pack up the mules.. we’ll be panning for gold, gems, and fossils. Get wet at the sluice. Find out what kinds of animals the miners encountered. Trade your gold for merchandise at the good ol’ EcoAdventure Trading Post. It’s going to be a hoot, hollerin’ good time folks!

Colorful Creatures

Leaves are changing colors and so are some animals!....Learn and SEE how colors are important to our world! From Camouflage to warning predators “I am dangerous”, create colorful art masterpieces, meet colorful animals, and play the color flashing game.

Story book comes to life!

Read a story about a hedgehog and watch it come to life! Play and feed with some cute and cuddlies...Then make some cute prickly crafts!

Nature's Rhythm

Listen to the sounds of the rainforests then make music of your own! Meet animals that croak, growl, hiss, and screech! Use some of our native instruments and create a rainstick to take home.

Eco-Explorers Field Class

A woman holding a snake next to two girls.

Wednesdays: Sept 13th-Oct 18th (ages 7+)

10am-noon (Meet at location)

$185 for a 6 week session (includes reg fee)

*Bring water bottle, snack, apply sunscreen and bug repellent.

*Rain or Shine

*Need a min 5 participants to run

Investi-Gators Class

A close up of an alligator on the ground

Thursday: Sept 21th-Nov 16th (ages 12+)

10am-11am

$195 for a 9 week session (includes reg fee)

*Bring water bottle

*Need a min 5 participants to run

A young girl wearing a face mask holding an alligator.

A woman is looking at two lizards on the ground.

A woman wearing a mask is handing something to a child.

Eco Adventures and the Home School Community:

"My 10 year old son and I attended the open house before the grand opening of Eco Adventures in Millersville a year ago. I knew right away that this was a place I wanted my son to attend and I knew it would be wonderful for our family and for the home school community. The staff was willing to work with me and set up a home school class and from the very first adventure we were hooked!

Each class includes hands on animal experiences and this is the only place I have ever been that always seems to say yes in some fashion to the children — Yes, you can touch this way. Yes, we can do that. Yes, we can bring an animal out to look at and learn about. The atmosphere is relaxed and the children are always engaged and excited to learn. They cover so many topics and always in a way that is fascinating. My son enjoyed the program so much that he started working towards the Junior Assistant program and just this July, after 9 months of preparing, he passed the interview and reached his goal. This will be an excellent addition to his home school transcript and we hope to have a working/school relationship with Eco Adventures for many years to come."

*Please help us spread the word and share with your home school groups. You can get $10 off for a NEW participant registration (max of $30 discount) if they mention your name (You must be an existing customer to receive the discount)

Home School Policies

Special Needs – We welcome special needs students to learn and thrive in our hands on learning style at Eco Adventures. In order to maintain the quality of our programs and for your children's and animals' safety, we require that special needs students have adult supervision to assist. Failure to do so, may result in cancellation of registration .
COVID UPDATE: Masks optional.
Please do not bring any toys/ or use of electronics is prohibited
Absences: Please notify us when you child will be absent
Whenever possible, students will be given different activities/challenges according to their age.
Vacation & Sick Policy: You may make up to 1 days of missed home school class anytime during the same session. You must give advance notice to make up class & it will be dependent on availability. If that does not work out you may get one pass to a Jungle Express. No refunds or credits.
Snow/Inclement Weather Policy: We will try our best to reschedule for "snow days", or you can make them up on the other day. but if not possible we will give a Jungle Express pass.
Discounts: 10% sibling discount or 5% military discount with ID (can only use one discount per child)
Must have a minimum number of students to run the class.
Please note that some of our animals may eat peanuts and other varieties of nuts.
Request a certificate at the end of the class if needed. Daily Class outlines will be emailed after each class (except prek)