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
The Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary
The Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary offers visitors an opportunity to learn about tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, bobcats, coatimundis, and foxes. You can enjoy a daytime or nighttime tour.
TNT Gymnastics and Fitness
Bring your group in for a fun fitness alternative. They offer exciting fitness field trips in a 14,500 square foot facility.
SeaWorld Orlando
Located on 200 acres, SeaWorld Orlando offers marine animal attractions, educational performances, specialty tours, rides, and more.
Central Florida Zoological Park
Visit a variety of animals and take in the many educational programs at the Central Florida Zooological Park, located in Lake Monroe, Florida.
St. Augustine Alligator Farm
Explore a wading bird rookery, see albino alligators, exotic birds and mammals, crocodiles from the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and visist Maximo, the largest animal in the park. Also offering daily educational programs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
The ZOO
A wildlife experience awaits you at The ZOO, with over 700 animals surrounded by botanical gardens. Spend the day - get a close look at bears, tigers, rhinos, zebras, birds, primates, and otters. Take a ride on a camel or on the Safari Line Limited, a train ride through over 30 acres of free-roaming wildlife. The ZOO is located in Gulf Breeze.
Florida Aquarium
With over 10,000 aquatic plants and animals from Florida and beyond, The Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa features 152,000 square-feet of air-conditioned fun. From playful river otters to intimidating sharks, there are more than 20,000 aquatic animals and plants to see during a visit to the Aquarium. Touch a bamboo shark in Stingray Beach or a sea star in the No Bone Zone on the 2nd floor.
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.
World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX Theater
Get ready for an exciting semester of stunning new IMAX films! The World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX® Theater is the only place that brings these experiences to you and your students with larger-than-life, IMAX 3D Digital technology. Rich in educational content, the films meet curriculum standards and are accompanied by educator guides for pre- and post-field trip activities. From outer space to the depths of the sea, there is a program to meet every learning level.
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Located just north of Gainesville, Florida, on a 110- acre ranch, the center is a multi purpose facility housing mainly old-world fruit bats, and designed for use by visiting scientists, veterinarians, educators and students. Conservation science research programs include studies in reproductive physiology, endocrinology, genetics, nutrition, behavior and enrichment to ensure the future of endangered fruit and nectar bat species in the wild and in captivity.
Resources
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.

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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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!
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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