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The National Park Service turns 100 this summer, and to celebrate, they’ve been running, among other things, the Every Kid in a Park program allowing families to visit various parks, nature centers, natural wonders, and historic sites for free.
Visiting these places has always been one of my favorite pastimes. As a city girl growing up in Brooklyn, I learned to appreciate the outdoors experiences my parents provided through tent camping and day trips we would take during the summer months. Leaving the “asphalt jungle” even for short spurts was like stepping through a magic portal to novel environments and settings. Those trips awakened in me a desire for travel, knowledge and adventure that is with me to this day -- and my husband and I have tried to pass on that sense of wonder to our own children through our camping adventures. (Although, with an RV, it’s more like “glamping” in comparison to what my parents did).
We’ve had a lot of fun in our national parks, and look forward to returning to and visiting more in the future. For homeschoolers, the parks are awesome places for on-site history and science studies, with access to knowledgeable “instructors” and free educational materials, both at the locations, and on websites. Here are some of our favorite places -- and related free resources:
Read these articles describing the interesting science going on at our national parks:
Arizona
Grand Canyon
Petrified Forest
California
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