Childish cries of, “There’s nothing to do, I’m bored,” may be reaching a crescendo right about now. But this summer parents can offer a more educational and entertaining alternative than “Clean your room.”
A Passport to Adventure is leading children ages 4-12 and their families to more than 100 museums and nature centers in the metropolitan area. The program, which runs through Aug. 16, encourages children to participate in various activities. As an incentive, they’ll earn certificates and prizes.
There are three passports, defined by regions: Will and South Cook Counties, Kane and DuPage Counties and Lake and North Cook Counties. Each page of the passport lists a site with basic information about a facility, including location, hours and a brief description. (A listing of sites for the other two regions is in the back of each passport, and those sites also can be validated and counted toward prizes.)
Elaine Egdorf, president of the South Suburban Heritage Association, said she received an invitation to join the Passport program from the Kane-DuPage Regional Museum Association. Sponsorship is through umbrella organizations whose members comprise various historical sites and societies. The program is in its seventh year, its first in the south suburbs.
“I thought it was a great way to promote our area and draw visitors to our sites,” she said. “Each participating site paid $40 for a page in the book. I’m hoping that next year there will be many more south suburban sites participating.”
The Will and South Cook County passport lists 33 sites, including the Homewood Historical Society Museum, Matteson Historical Museum, Midlothian Historical Society, Irons Oaks Environmental Learning Center in Olympia Fields, the Hidden Lakes Nature Center in Bolingbrook, Pilcher Park Nature Center in Joliet, LaGrange Area Historical Society Museum, Brookfield Zoo and many other sites.
Participants obtain passports from their local library or from one of the featured sites. After a child visits a site and takes part in a small activity, his or her passport is validated. A visit to five sites will earn a certificate, but a visit to seven or more can be redeemed for a certificate and an incentive prize, which varies from sponsor to sponsor.
(To get the prize, children must return their passport books to the point of distribution. For instance, if the passport book came from the Homewood Library, it must be returned there, where the Homewood Historical Society has supplied pencils as a prize. After collecting seven stamps in the passport, young historians can redeem them for T-shirts at Zany Brainy stores in Naperville, Wheaton, Northbrook, Oak Brook, Schaumburg and Orland Park.)
One of the south suburban sites, the Christian Dorband-Charles Albee Howe House and Museum, operated by the Homewood Historical Society, provides children with a sheet of questions that prompts them to recall what a guide has told them about the 100-year-old house.
Egdorf, who is also president of the Homewood Historical Society, explained that the house is built of locally made brick and stamped HOMEWOOD. She encourages little visitors to do a souvenir rubbing of the brick. She said she tries to tap their imagination into thinking what it was like to live in the house 100 years ago.
When a class from James Hart Middle School in Homewood visited recently, Egdorf asked the class to describe what they thought some of the kitchen tools accomplished. One guessed, “I haven’t a clue. Maybe it’s a hat,” while carefully inspecting an antique toaster. “It’s a thingamajigger,” said another as he tried to figure out a pea sheller. They laughed and marveled at a cabbage cutter, cherry stoner, egg scale and ice tongs.
Students laughed at a photo of a woman wearing an old coverall bathing suit, complete with hat and shoes.
“My mom wouldn’t be caught dead in that thing,” said one girl. “Did they really wear that on the beach?”
The Hart students were recruited for the program during their visit and Karen Schillings, a 2nd grade teacher at Willow School in Homewood, said she is thrilled with the Passport program. Schillings was already taking annual trips with her class to the Dorband-Howe house in Homewood.
“It’s a marvelous way for children to learn about history at their level — hands-on — where they can get a better idea of how life was and how it has changed,” Schillings said. “They can physically examine things and get a real feel for the past. It’s about people, not about dates. This program makes learning fun.”
Fifty-six other communities are listed, ranging as far north as Antioch and Zion and offering hundreds of sites to visit.
The Matteson Historical Museum has designed seven learning stations that correlate to buildings listed on its walking tour map. Entitled “Along 216th Street in Old Matteson,” the tour teaches visitors about the buildings and their function as well as the people who worked in there. Said museum director Cynthia Ogorek: “After the presentation, we give them our walking tour map and directions to Butterfield Creek and encourage them to visit the sites they just heard about. We try to get them to imagine what it was like when the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi and other Indian tribes.”
The passports are free for children with a parent’s signature. The only cost to parents may be a nominal entrance fee charged by some sites.
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For additional information about obtaining a passport, call the South Suburban Heritage Association, 708-798-8021.
