Making Homeschooling Fun
If workbooks are getting boring, and cabin fever is setting in, it might just be the right time for you to add some fun to your homeschool. Games, contests, and more can break up any monotony you are facing. You'll find ideas for field trips and extracurricular activities. And you may find that your kids think "doing school" is funner than anything else they can imagine!
Educational Games
Kids who thrive with hands-on learning love educational games. These are a great way to learn while having fun. Browse through our picks for the best educational games out there.
Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activities are a great addition to the educational experience you provide your children by homeschooling. Here you'll find resources for everything from Scouts to 4H to sports and more.
Holidays
Holidays offer a nice opportunity to enhance your child's learning experience. This listing of holidays offers ideas for celebrating in your home, along with interesting facts about these special days. You'll also find suggestions for incorporating holidays into your home education plan.
Field Trips
Who says homeschooling has to happen at home? Most homeschoolers will tell you that they spend almost as much time out of the house as in it. Field trips are learning opportunties that offer fun ways to make every life experience a learning experience. You'll also find tips and strategies for planning, managing, and attending field trips with your homeschool support group.
Camps
Is your child ready to go out, experience new opportunities, and make new friends? Are you looking for specialized instruction in a particular subject? A camp may be just the ticket. Here you'll find a listing of camps that are great for homeschoolers in Florida and beyond.
Contests
Entering contests is a fun activity for kids. They can practice their writing skills, learn about new subjects, and may even end up winning a great prize. We've collected some of the most interesting, challenging, and fun contests available for kids to enter.
Car Games
Busy homeschooling families tend to spend a lot of time in the car. Learning doesn't have to stop just because you are on the go. These ideas and games will make the most of your vehicle time, giving your kids fun things to do while on the road.
Penpals
Is your homeschooled child looking for new friends? Are you learning about a different part of the country or world? A penpal may be just what you are looking for. These resources will help your child connect with other homeschoolers in far flung places.
What's Popular
Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville Stadium Tours
Take a behind the scenes look at the Baseball Grounds, including a visit to the clubhouse, tour of a luxury skybox and skydeck, the dugout, pressbox and media area. Enjoy lunch after the tour.
The Ritz Theatre and Museum
Our permanent museum collection presents the history of Northeast Florida's African American community, featuring a walk through old LaVilla and a dynamic multi-media display highlighting brothers James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson, Jacksonville native sons and composers of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." The Museum Gallery showcases a variety of changing art exhibits throughout the year. Guided tours are led by trained docents who will provide information about the exhibits featured in...
Electrified Learning Tour
The best way to learn about electricity is to come see for yourself by touring a power plant. You'll learn how power plants change energy into electricity. Come see each process at work: a hydroelectric dam, a fossil fuel generator, or a nuclear reactor. The tour is free.
Jacksonville Zoological Gardens
The Jacksonville Zoo is the only walking safari in Northeast Florida. See over 1,000 animals on 73-picturesque acres as they tour around the world from Africa, Central America, and Asia. Also features Wild Florida, a native Florida attraction featuring native animals and plants, and Land of the Jaguar, a neo-tropical attraction featuring jaguars and other Central and South American animals. Other animals include koalas, kangaroos, wallaby, lorikeet, and a cassowary.
Whetstone Chocolate
Located in St. Augustine, Floriday, Whetston offers a free, self-guided tour. Enjoy a free sample of their famous milk chocolate shell. Start your tour with a close-up look at the technology of modern candy making in the video theatre. Then take a walk through the inside of the factory where you'll get to see the Molding Plant, which makes up to 500 pieces a minute; the Packing Room, where each chocolate is carefully hand packed; and the Specialty Room, where their confectionary creations take f...
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a family adventure park offering an array of attractions based on exotic encounters with the African continent. Busch Gardens provides a blend of rides, a zoo featuring more than 2,700 animals, live shows, restaurants, shops and games.
Yes You Canvas
Art classes for everyone. They offer classes and camps at their locations in Jacksonville, Orlando, and Oviedo. You don't need any prior art training. Their artists take you step-by-step through every stroke, and you end up with a painting you can take home.
Lion Country Safari
Lion Country Safari is home to over 1000 animals in the drive-through preserve and in the Safari World exhibit area. Among the more notable species on display at the park are lions, white rhino, African elephants, chimpanzees, zebra, and giraffe. Also features a petting zoo, merry-go-round, boat rides, aviaries, bird, reptile, alligator, and squirrel monkey exhibits
Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park
Palm Beach Zoo display over 600 animals on 27 tropical acres. Explore Australasia with Tiger, Kangaroo, Wallaby and Emus. Trek across Florida to witness Florida panther, river otter, alligator and bald eagle. Cool off in our interactive fountain and then take a ride on our carousel. From giant lizards to miniature monkeys, the Palm Beach Zoo is a fun-filled day for the entire family.
Big Lagoon State Park
This coastal park sits on the northern shoreline of its namesake, Big Lagoon, which separates the mainland from Perdido Key and the Gulf of Mexico. Natural communities, ranging from saltwater marshes to pine flatwoods, attract a wide variety of birds, especially during the spring and fall migrations. Beaches, shallow bays, nature trails, and open woodlands offer splendid opportunities for nature study. The park also beckons visitors with opportunities for camping, swimming, fishing, boating, can...
Tree Hill Nature Center
Located in the center of Jacksonville, Florida, Tree Hill is the perfect place to connect with nature for individuals and families, school field trips, home schoolers, scout troops, business groups and so much more. Stop by with your friends and family to explore our 50-acres and three ecosystems. Plan a family reunion or evening reception in the beautiful Joseph A. Strasser Amphitheater. Enjoy fresh air, plentiful trails and an on-site butterfly house.Tree Hill is open to the public Monday - Sa...
SeaWorld Orlando
Located on 200 acres, SeaWorld Orlando offers marine animal attractions, educational performances, specialty tours, rides, and more.
Caribbean Gardens, The Zoo in Naples
Caribbean Gardens features a natural path almost a mile in length winding past rare and beautiful animals residing within a 52-acre jungle of exotic plants first planted in 1919. In this tropical setting, you'll see lions, kangaroos, and monkeys, plus endangered African wild dogs and Asian deer. The Primate Expedition Cruise takes you through islands inhabited by monkeys, lemurs, and apes.
Miami Metrozoo
Metrozoo houses more than 700 wild animals in a cageless environment. Large, open-air exhibits provide the ideal setting in which visitors can experience some of the world's most beautiful and endangered wildlife. With nearly 300 developed acres on a 740-acre parcel of land, Metrozoo is the only zoo in the continental United States located in a subtropical climate.
Disney Youth Student Seminars
Enhance your at-home curriculum with in-park learning. Provide your students with a new out‐of‐the‐box challenge and propel their education to the next level with Disney Student Seminars at Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida. Gather with other homeschool families and explore science, storytelling and technology at a Walt Disney World® Resort theme park. Learn from leaders who offer insight on how knowledge brings our magical attractions to life. Complete your educational itinerary by enrolling...
Resources
LeapPad Game - Mind Wars Jr. Interactive Game
Bring a friend and try this brand new way to play with your LeapPad! Race around the board in this fast-paced, wonderfully wacky game. Be the first to close all five windows and you will become the Mind Wars master and learn important 1st and 2nd grade skills in math, language arts, life science, physical science, and social studies!
Great States Board Game
What is the capital of NJ? Where is the Football Hall of Fame? These are just a few of the hundreds of questions players are asked as they adventure around the USA discovering state attractions and landmarks, capitals, state abbreviations, state locations and more. In order to answer the questions on the cards, players must look closely at the colorful USA map game board, becoming familiar with the geography of the country. Players must hurry to find the answers as the mechanical timer ticks. Contents: Game board, 100 Figure cards, 100 Fact cards, 100 Find cards, 1 spinner, 1 mechanical timer, and game rules. Duration of Play: 20 minutes. 2-6 players.
Visual Brainstorms
Children who love word games, logic puzzles, secret codes, mazes, and math mysteries will stretch their mental muscles with Visual Brain Storms. This set of 100 cards, each of which includes a humorous, full-color drawing, promises "the world's best brainteaser questions." The characters in the questions often have funny names (Professor Pith Bugby pops up often) or faces or dilemmas to solve. The answers and explanations are on the back of each card, along with a related bonus question. Many of the puzzles involve math concepts, spatial reasoning, logic, or sequential thinking, but some can be solved with plain common sense. Here's a sample: "Frank and Helen's annual singles elimination tennis tournament has drawn 18 players this year. How many matches must be played before there is a winner for the year?" Answer: "Every match will produce one loser, and every person other than the winner will lose once and only once. Eighteen players makes 17 losers; therefore it will take 17 matches to have a tournament winner." Visual Brain Storms is a humorous, painless way to improve those higher-order thinking skills. Visual Brain Storms: The Smart Thinking Game is for one or more players. --Marcie Bovetz
Happy Phonics
Happy Phonics uses games to teach early reading skills. Simple yet entertaining and educational, these phonics games are printed on colorful, sturdy cardstock ready to cut out. Included is a mother-friendly guidebook which contains details on how to teach phonics and reading, how to pronounce and teach the phonics sounds, how to make your own simple beginning readers, and step-by-step teaching information for each phonics sound. Happy Phonics covers beginning to advanced phonics.
LeapPad Game - Mind Wars Interactive Game
Bring a friend and try this brand new way to play with your LeapPad! Travel around the board in this fast-paced, head-to-head game as you hit your buzzer before your friend can steal your question! Be the first to close all five windows and you will become the Mind Wars master and learn important 3rd-5th grade skills in math, language and fine arts, science, history, and geography!
The Letter Factory Game
Teaches Phonics! The race is on! With two games in one, children play together and learn letter names and sounds with actions and music. Wacky Professor Quigley guides players every step of the way so no reading is required! Games automatically adjust to skill level, to keep children learning at just the right pace! 2 Games in 1: Counting Colors & Letters: Learn letter names and sounds by matching color cards to move around the board. Leaping Letters: Listen to the name or sound and then find the card that matches it! Includes: interactive card reader, game board, 26 letter cards and 4 playing pieces.
Smart Mouth
Ages: 8 years and up; For 2 or more players

Smart Mouth is a quick-thinking shout-it-out hilarious word game that helps build vocabulary skills. It includes variations of the rules for category play and for younger players. Players slide the Letter Getter forward and back to get two letters. The first player to shout out a word of five or more letters using those letters wins the round. The game includes tips for teachers. This is a fun game to play with children and adults together.

Field Trips: Bug Hunting, Animal Tracking, Bird-watching, Shore Walking

With Jim Arnosky as your guide, an ordinary hike becomes an eye-opening experience. He'll help you spot a hawk soaring far overhead and note the details of a dragonfly up close. Study the black-and-white drawings -- based on his own field research -- and you'll discover if those tracks in the brush were made by a deer or a fox.

In his celebrated style, this author, artist, and naturalist enthusiastically shares a wealth of tips. Jim Arnosky wants you to enjoy watching wildlife. He carefully explains how field marks, shapes, and location give clues for identifying certain plants and animals wherever you are. He gives hints for sharpening observational skills. And he encourages you to draw and record birds, insects, shells, animal tracks, and other finds from a busy day's watch.

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