Amazing places to take your home school children on a field trip so fun goes right in hand with learning.
Are you home schooling or virtually schooling your children but want to get the kids out of the house so they can learn in a different environment?
Southwest Florida is home to so many interesting and kid friendly places where children can have fun while gaining knowledge.
We have compiled a list of 10 places in Southwest Florida to take your home school children on a field trip.
Top 10 places in SWFL to take your home school children
The Shell Factory is a great place to visit and is definitely kid friendly. You can spend all day at the location as there is so much to do and see.
Starting with the fun park right in the beginning where you can rent bumper boats and play golf then moving to Southern grill, a southern style restaurant with live music every day.
Straight down in the back is the Shell exhibition and gift shop which covers just about 50,000 square feet of shopping space, there is something for every taste.
Another great part of the Shell Factory is the nature park which is home to over 400 animals, some of them being rescued and found animals.
For a great time at Shell Factory and to really take advantage of your time there, check out the article "18 things you must know before visiting Shell Factory Nature Park".
ECHO GLOBAL Farms is a 50+ acres farm that sits in North Fort Myers and provides tours to the general public and also sell plants and related items at their gift shop.
A tour of ECHO farms takes approximately 2- 2:30 hours and it is packed with great information on rare plants and trees from all over the world as well as cultivation and different aspects of agriculture.
You will be accompanied by a tour guide who is knowledgeable and trained in everything that grows on the farm.
They are able to name plants and trees and give you tips and tricks on how to grow them. So, if you see something of interest during your tour, don’t be afraid to ask your guide, they are there to share their knowledge with you and are happy to do so
3 - The IMAG
The IMAG in Fort Myers is the perfect place to get closer to nature and to get to know more about the world we live in while having a great time.
The IMAG is a history and Science kid friendly museum located near Downtown Fort Myers, where kids will get the chance to get a close encounter with stingrays, experience the wind forces during a hurricane and even learn more about local history.
Be sure to check out our article on the IMAG kid friendly museum for more information.
4 - The Naples Zoo
The best way to learn anything is to experience it and what better way to teach children about animals than to allow them to experience them in real life!.
The Naples Zoo is a 43 acre preserve that houses lions, bears, pythons, amongst many other rare animals. Our favorite part is feeding the giraffe, what a thrill.
If you reside in Collier County, you can get in free on the first Saturday of every month.
For tickets and hours, check out their website.
With so many activities to do throughout the week and even during summer time, the Calusa Planetarium is the perfect place for homeschool children to learn and have fun all year long.
At a 105 acre, the Center consists of two nature trails, the only planetarium theater in SWFL, butterfly and bird aviaries.
There are programs designed especially for home school children such as the reptilian Thursday where children get to learn to learn about gators and invasive reptiles.
Visit their website for more information.
The CMON Golisano Children's Museum is a 30,000 sf museum in Naples where children has full access to exhibits that are kid friendly in a state of the art facility.
The goal of the museum is to inspire kids and families to learn while having fun.
There are also events, programs and summer camps available and all the information is available on their website.
This Eco Tour takes you on a trip of the Babcock Ranch in Punta Gorda, where visitors get to experience the Florida ecosystem and even get a closer look at the wildlife.
The tour takes approximately 90 minutes and it is available at different times depending on the time of the year. Make sure to check out their website before heading that way to find out their hours of operations.
Although this may seem like an adventurous ride that may not be suitable for children, it would actually be a great field trip depending on the age of your children.
If they are 7 and up, I believe that an air boat ride through the Everglades is going to spark more curiosity about the local fauna and perhaps get children more interested and involved with the preservation of the area.
From mangroves to Florida gators, both children and adults get to learn and have fun at the same time during an Airboat tour through the Everglades and if you are lucky enough you may even get to hold a baby gator.
Like the idea? We did too! See how our Airboat trip through the Everglades turned out.
The Bailey Matthews National Shell museum is located in Sanibel Island and it is the only museum in the country dedicated entirely to shells and mollusks.
Kids will have the chance to touch live mollusk and watch the giant pacific octopus.
Now, I will say that this museum is a bit more pricey than the others but if you go in a group of 10 or more you can get a discounted rate.
Their website has all the information you need to know before visiting and you can even see the giant octopus live directly from the museum. It's so cool!
Now, this one may be a better activity for older children, perhaps 10 and up because it can get a bit boring for little ones.
Not that the activity itself is boring but it requires more attention spam than little ones usually like to pay but it is indeed, a very interesting part of the local and also World history.
Children gets to see exactly where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford welcomed the most prestigious and famous people at the time. From presidents to celebrities, many important people came to those homes and it is absolutely amazing to see how well the property has been preserved after all these years.
Filled with history, the Edison and Ford Estates provides a way for all generations to see exactly how the biggest inventors in World history lived and what inspired them to continue working relentlessly to accomplish their visions.
To find out about times and prices, visit our article for everything you must know before visiting the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.
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