Eremos Education
The best classrooms have dirt floors and no walls.
K-12 field classes, homeschool and microschool science, workshops, expeditions and booked group programs, out in the Ozarks with a credentialed field scientist.
How it works
Hands in it from the first minute
Every session works with living things: keying out a plant in February mud, sampling bugs from a creek riffle, cleaning a basket of chanterelles, reading a soil core. Students ask the questions and go collect the data to answer them. What they learn goes back into the ground as restoration work, species records and food for the neighbors.
One instructor to ten students, at most, and every instructor is credentialed. Paul Reilly built the program. He holds an MSc in ethnobiology, is an NAI-certified Interpretive Guide Trainer, holds teaching certifications in two states, and spent twenty years teaching for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Oregon State Parks, universities and schools.
Homeschool & microschool
Real science, documented for your records
Rigorous, standards-aligned science taught in the places where it happens. Flexible scheduling, one-on-one attention, and full standards documentation for your records. We respect every family's faith and convictions and can shape the materials around them.
Schools, co-ops & groups
Bring your group out
K-12 field classes. Full and half-day field instruction for school groups, co-ops and learning communities, at a 1:10 ratio. Pre- and post-trip materials included.
Booked programs. Custom programming for your group, school or organization. A half-day for a scout troop, a semester unit for a microschool, a weekend series for your community. We build it to fit.
More ways in
Workshops, expeditions and resources
- Workshops. Hands-on skill building in wild food ID, processing, preservation, fermentation, soil science and ecological literacy. All skill levels welcome.
- Expeditions. Immersive field days. Learn to read a landscape, identify species in context and practice ethical harvest with your hands in the soil.
- Online resources. Field guides, species profiles and processing tutorials, free to anyone, anywhere. See Field Notes.
What we cover
Subjects
- Biology and ecology. Organisms, populations and how energy moves through a food web.
- Botany and ethnobotany. Plant ID, phenology, and how people have used plants for thousands of years.
- Mycology and ethnomycology. Fungal ID, habitat, and the place of fungi in human culture.
- Aquatic ecology. Creeks, springs, macroinvertebrate sampling, water quality and the watershed as a whole.
- Soil and earth science. Karst, mineral cycles and what lives under your feet.
- Food science and nutrition. Wild food processing, preservation and nutrition.
- Stewardship. Restoration work and ethical harvest.
Standards
Built on the Arkansas K-12 science standards
All programming aligns with the Arkansas K-12 Science Standards: Life Science (LS1, LS2, LS4), Earth and Space Science (ESS2, ESS3), and the Environmental Science and Biology frameworks. Lessons use three-dimensional learning, so students work through science and engineering practices, core ideas and crosscutting concepts together.
For homeschool and microschool families, that means documented, standards-aligned science instruction that meets your curriculum requirements.
Arkansas EFA
Pay with your Education Freedom Account
Eremos Collective is an approved service provider under the Arkansas Education Freedom Account program. For the 2026-27 school year, eligible K-12 students receive $7,208 in EFA funds ($8,011 for Succeed students), and those funds can go directly toward our instructional services, excursions, workshops and educational products.
How it works: pay Eremos Collective directly through ClassWallet, or pay and submit receipts for reimbursement. Starting this school year the state wants reimbursed purchases pre-approved, so get that first.
Questions about eligibility? Write to us and we'll walk you through it.
Rates
Cost should never be the barrier
Rates depend on session length, location and topic. Sliding-scale arrangements and sponsored seats are available. If your students want to learn and money is in the way, reach out. We'll get them in the field with dirty hands and big smiles.
Every dollar from instruction goes back into the work.
Tell us about your students, your goals and your timeline.