Alabama homeschoolers get hands-on experience in archaeology through military program
What do broken milk bottles and animal teeth have in common?
They both get a second life as archeological tools for homeschool students in Alabama, explains Erica Lewis, school liaison officer…

What do broken milk bottles and animal teeth have in common?
They both get a second life as archeological tools for homeschool students in Alabama, explains Erica Lewis, school liaison officer (SLO) for the Redstone Arsenal base near Huntsville.
“This is a new offering,” she said. “I wanted to expand the homeschool program. So, I’ve reached out to stakeholders to see if they would volunteer their services for our program, just so the kids can have some different experiences.”
Recently students in the base’s Child and Youth Services homeschool program went on a field trip to the open-air museum Burritt on the Mountain.
Museum educator Daniel Rhodes led the children in discoveries about area artifacts and described the process to find, classify and contextualize historical items found in North Alabama.
Families can ‘pick and choose’ different options
The homeschool program is available for students in grades K-12 every Tuesday and supports families in STEM, physical education and art.
“We facilitate activities, we don’t teach activities,” Lewis explained. “So, (students) can come in and do different activities such as arts and crafts, STEM, they have the robotics lab. There are all different kinds of offerings within the program, so the kids can kind of pick and choose what they do.”
The children have a separate outing planned in March to the post’s golf course.
Over the years, SLOs such as Lewis have facilitated educational opportunities for the estimated 12% of military parents who homeschool.
In another example, Fort Cavazos in Texas hosted a homeschool resource fair last fall to explain options for interested families.
“Our goal in the School Liaison Office is to make it easier for the families and have one spot for them to be able to have resources and support if needed,” said Kristine Caparco, SLO for Child and Youth Services. “We do have a homeschool resource packet that has information about the laws, the TEA (Texas Education Agency) regulations for homeschooling in the state of Texas, … a plethora of resources for curriculum, extracurricular activities and ways for them to come together.”