Educational programs at the I. Simonaitytė Memorial Museum

Ieva Simonaitytė (Ewa Simoneit 23 January 1897. 27 August 1978 in Vanagi. She is buried in Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius) occupies a special place in the field of Lithuanian culture and literature. In the second half of the 20th century, the image of her as a great writer from Lithuania Minor became firmly established. Today, when Simonaitytė's work is increasingly absent from compulsory school curricula, and when more and more of her books are unread, getting to know this writer by walking the paths of her homeland, and by consuming the pages of her memoirs and her novels, can be a pleasant surprise. The writer's distinctive, strong character, her love of the Lithuanian language and the culture of her land, and her verbal storytelling - this is the code for the longevity of the enchanting literary legacy of Ieva Simonaitytė.

The Gargždai Regional Museum has prepared a sightseeing route "Along the trails of Eva" for teachers, schoolchildren, tourists, people interested in culture and literary history to get to know the biography of Ieva Simonaitytė and to encourage them to remember or rediscover the work of the renowned writer. The itinerary is designed so that you can travel on your own or with a guided tour led by museum staff. The Simonaitytė Memorial Museum distributes a publication on the route with a list of sites to visit.

Educational activity - excursion in the museum, which focuses on the history of the summer house in Priekulė of the literary classic I. Simonaitytė and the history of the summer house in Priekulė in the 7th-8th decades of the 20th century. Authentic interior. The narrative is created by presenting the furniture, accessories and household utensils in the exposition, in order to feel the breath of fame experienced by the writer.

The educational programme for pupils in grades 1-4 consists of two parts. The cognitive part: an introduction to the writer's childhood, hobbies and relations with her relatives. A tour of the summer house, its rooms, exhibits, furniture and library. Children will have to turn their heads in a game with the exhibits. Practical part: as a memory of the writer and the museum, participants will make a dog or a rose out of clay. The writer, like many of us, had a pet friend, Bulka the dog. He was her companion on her travels around Lithuania and of course spent summers with her in Priekulė, where her summer house was covered in rose blossoms. The writer was most fond of her roses. Clay moulding develops fine motor skills, spatial thinking, creativity and calms. The puppy and the rose are moulded using special moulds, then dried and coloured with special paints. A stick is attached to the rose and a ribbon is put on the puppy to hang it as a toy. They will take them home with them as a memory.

The education is aimed at older pupils in grammar school. Getting to know I. Simonaityte and the museum in the writer's former summer house in Priekulė will help to consolidate the learning programme. The rooms preserve the authentic environment of the summer house: furniture, paintings, souvenirs, first editions of all the books, personal belongings and gifts. The personal library of the writer's home is kept in the workroom. The education is based on teachers' opinions on what is most lacking in the study of Simonaitytė's work.  The novel "The Fate of Aukštųjų Šimonių" is a compulsory work in the Lithuanian Language and Literature Framework Programme. The aim of the education is to help pupils understand the everyday life, customs and traditions of Lithuania Minor through the generational changes of one family. This education also helps the teacher to reveal the uniqueness of the work. During the education, a genealogical tree of the main characters of the work will be drawn up (participants are divided into groups and given an envelope with all the names and clues of the characters). The participating students will read extracts from the work in roles, discussing the thoughts that arose during the reading, the main characters, the traditions and fate of Lithuania Minor. The education can also be booked through Culture Passport.

The education is open to pupils of all grades. Introduction to Lithuania Minor, one of the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and the most famous writer of this region I. Simonaityte. Pupils will have a unique opportunity to hear audio recordings in the Shishionis (Lithuanian) dialect from I. Simonaityte's "The Fate of Aukštieji Šimoniai", as well as recordings about this unique region and its traditions. We will discuss what makes this land special and what is its fate.

Discussing the natural uniqueness of Lithuania Minor, its cultural heritage, and distinctive traditions, we will make T-shirts each for ourselves. The T-shirts will be pre-printed with an outline of Lithuania with the borders of the ethnographic regions. The T-shirts will be decorated with the inscription "Don't forget who you are". We will use special tools and textile dyes to mark the centres of the ethnic regions, draw the flags of the regions on a map and discuss how the regions differ. We will highlight which region we come from, assign colours or special patterns to the regions. The complexity of the education will be adapted each time to the age of the pupils.