Our oldest has been wanting to visit Arkansas for a long time because we seem to have all the other Southern states but that one! This year, it finally worked in the schedule, and we had a fantastic time. While it isn’t a national park, we highly recommend the city of Bentonville. It was beautiful, has wonderful trails, and the Crystal Bridges Museum was quite an experience. My middle, who has interest in architecture, really enjoyed the opportunity to visit a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

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Trail of Tears

This is a simple mail-in or email-in booklet. It’s one page–front and back–and printable. I let my kids do it once I knew we’d been on a highway or at a location that had something to do with the Trail of Tears. There are many sites; it is not exclusive to Arkansas.

The badges came very quickly and included a list of similar badges that were front-and-back and mail in. We completed Mormon Trail, California Goldrush, Pony Express, and El Camino Real once we traveled the same road as that corresponding history.

Bill Clinton Boyhood Home

If you are delving into Former President Clinton, this park can be combined with a visit to the Presidential library in Little Rock and by viewing a photo of him at the arch in the memorial garden at Little Rock Central High School National Park.

This is a simple choose-2-pages booklet, but the ranger was more interested in a) the 30 minute required tour of the house and b) the questions the kids were required to ask him. He was very kind and helpful.

Pea Ridge Military Park

The park was actually out of badges when we visited. We still haven’t received ours.

You have to really want this badge. This is the most extensive booklet I have seen. There is one book for ages 4-9, one for ages 10-18. The 4-9 is only a few pages and requires a walk through the museum to answer a page of questions.

If you are 10-18 years old, to complete, you need to tour the museum and answer questions. Then you must take the driving tour and answer questions from the plaques. We were unable to complete the driving tour that day and found it very difficult to find the answers online. My husband’s computer talents made it some easier, but I’d say it still took a couple hours to complete. It is a lot of writing for dyslexic or dysgraphic children.

Little Rock Central High School

This is a super simple booklet that requires just three completed pages. If you have any interest in government or have studied Supreme Court Cases, it’s a great opportunity to discuss how that works.

A surprise on this site was that since it was an operating high school, the media was not allowed on campus. A fantastic Mobile gas station has been preserved across the street because it was where the media hung out.

Touring the high school is not required to get the badge and is only available by appointment. If you’re lucky, you will meet a ranger who is a descendant of one of the Little Rock Nine.

Unfortunately, we were late that day and arrived at the site after it closed. We drove around the school, which felt enormous and beautiful. (They say it was the most expensive high school in the world when it was built.) We could read the signs outside and walk in the lovely garden. There is a picture of Bill Clinton on the Arch, which is useful to reference if you are taking in the Presidential Library or his childhood home.

Hot Springs

I don’t know where my idea of what Hot Springs is came from, but it was far from what I expected. My oldest and I could have easily spent more than a day there. They offer a Junior Ranger class (about 30 minutes long and currently about turtles) and a few adult tours. You either need to talk to a ranger or attend one of the tours and get the book signed by the ranger. If you choose a hiking option, the Promenade is a simple strolling walk overlooking the main street. The Terrain Cure was our choice because of its amusing name, but would have been more appropriate in hiking boots.

The book has some great activities like a few math problems to calculate how much exercise was required during a patient’s stay. The page about civil rights can be appropriate if you are including a visit to Little Rock. A favorite page for my design-interested kids was examining the architecture of the bathhouses.

The age-based assignments for some parts of the book were complicated to understand. I’m not sure I would agree with some of them. Before I looked at the booklet, the ranger volunteer warned that some pages were hard and recommended completing any 7 activities. We tried to stick as close as we could to the activities my kids were capable of and had interest in regardless of the picture that suggested the age for the activity.

This booklet is not available online, but we could have requested a mailed copy. It only took the evening to complete.

Fort Smith

Fort Smith is an interesting place. It was a stop on the Trail of Tears (See badge information above.) It was also once a prison, which means there are some rather fascinating features still in place (think gallows, prison cells, and dungeon-style). Some activities were easier than others, and it depends on your child’s interest level. There was an unusual version of “I Spy” that’s great for non-writers. The bingo was a little difficult because the pictures are so small. There is a courtroom still intact and corresponding page of questions if law is an interest in your household. The rangers were great and easy to work with.

Buffalo River Recreation

This was such a great booklet. Although we could print it online, it was difficult to read some of it in black and white and in the smaller size available at the hotel. I pulled the booklet up online so the kids could see it in color in order to complete it. There were some really cute, non-traditional activities while still providing a maze, which is always a favorite. The children had to share one thing they learned from the booklet with the ranger before they could get the badge. There are three sites this booklet can be turned in to. You can easily complete the entire thing at home before your trip.

Arkansas Post

This booklet was printable, and we were able to find some of the necessary answers using photos of the park from Google Maps. My children really enjoyed the opportunity to draw a favorite animal. We completed the book at home before our trip.

One of the assignments is to walk the former town. It was a nice idea. . .in the cooler months. We did it in the middle of the summer.

The Visitor’s Center was under construction, but it was still open and a ranger was present. They offered mail-in as an option if construction has closed the building. 

I believe watching the video is required to get the badge, and it was a fairly well done video of a grandpa figure taking his grandson fishing on the lake and talking about the area. I estimate it was about 18 minutes in length.

While there, we learned about the Junior [Nature] Scientist booklet, which I hadn’t seen elsewhere. It’s for the Midwest states and can be returned to any park on the list. It was a pretty, educational, and well-done book. My children easily completed it in an evening.



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