National Park Passport Book for Homeschoolers
Reading Time: 9 minutes Listen to the podcast version:
Fabulous Field Trips that are Fun and Educational
The National Park Passport book is great for homeschoolers.
It is an enjoyable way to learn history, science, and geography through exciting field trips.
It is especially attractive to children because at each place they get stickers or stamps to say that they have been at that park.
There is a built in goal in the book to complete all of the regions.
This gives the book an almost gamified effect and adds time management and organization skills that your child can learn.
How it Works:
Go to the National parks website and order your National Parks Passport book.
On the national parks site it is $12.98, yes you can get these books on many other sites, however, I have not found them cheaper than the actual national parks site.
The National Parks Passport Book is not a “free pass” into the parks.
You will still need to pay the entrance fees.
It is instead a kind of journal and “map” to show you all of the national parks and monuments in various regions with space to collect your stamps or stickers once you have visited each one.
Regardless of where you buy your National Parks Passport Book, be familiar with the official national park site because it can answer any further questions and give information you will need about individual parks.
The purpose of the book is to match national parks and homeschooling.
Once you have your book, look through it.
Look at your curriculum for this year.
What are you studying that can be reinforced by a visit to a national park or monument?
When are your children going to learn about the Civil War, for example?
If you live far from the Eastern or Southern United States, you may want to plan a time when you can pack up the car and have an extended roadtrip.
There are a lot of monuments and national parks to see that are rich in the history of the Civil War Era.
The Regions:
The Regions:The parks and monuments are divided into 9 regions.
There are over 400 sites to visit, including national battlefields, national seashores, national monuments, and national historic parks.
Region 1: North Atlantic Region
Region 2: Mid-Atlantic Region
Region 3: National Capital Region
Region 4: Southeast Region
Region 5: Midwest Region
Region 6: Southwest Region
Region 7: Rocky Mountain Region
Region 8: Western Region
Region 9: Pacific Northwest & Alaska Region
The National Parks Passport Book has each of these regions, a general map of the states with numbers where (very vaguely) the park or monument is located, a list of all of the parks in that region, and 5 places for regional stamps and five large areas for official cancellations.
Each region begins with a detailed description of one of the parks you can get in that region.
For example, for the North Atlantic Region there are three pages about the Adams National Historical Park that includes Salem Maritime Museum and the Minute Man National Park.
Adams is the link for many of the parks in this region.
Set Your Goals:
You are ready to go!
Where will you go, how often, and will there be a purpose?
You can set goals with your family to visit three parks or monuments that are outside of your region each year, for example.
One way to decide where you will go is based on travel you are already doing.
Every time you visit friend for family that live out of your region, you can take day trips to see the special places they have in their neck of the woods.
Another way to decide on the national parks you will visit is based on curriculum.
What will your children be studying?
Which areas of the country and national parks can complement their learning?
Choosing how often to go can be different for everyone.
It can become the way you de-stress and spend time together.
You can go on long camping trips or road trips on all of your vacations and visit these places.
Or, if going to the national parks is not something your family will naturally do, you will have to to schedule it.
Three seems to be a magic number.
While visiting three national parks a year does not seem like very much, especially if you live in the North Atlantic or Mid Atlantic Regions where there are over 45 parks in each of these and driving to any of them is less than a day away.
However, eventually, you will have explored all of the national parks near to where you live.
Eventually, you will need to travel further than a day trip to get new stamps and cancellation stickers.
Your children will be excited because they get the stamp or sticker in their National Parks Passport Books.
Remember, you only get these stamps or stickers at visitors centers.
Remember, you only get these stamps or stickers at visitors centers.What this means, is that you, mom, need to be organized enough to make sure that the center is open on the day you are planning to be there.
Each center has great information about why that site has been made into a national park or monument.
This learning can be used in many ways in your homeschool plans.
There are many reasons to visit these fabulous sites.
You can use them for Spring Break trips.
Summer Vacation plans.
Family bonding.
Inexpensive vacations.
Build patriotism and knowledge about the vastness of our country.
A special “thing” a Grandparent, Aunt, or other relative does with the kids.
The list goes on and on!
*Remember, if you are driving to check out 10 Fun Road Trip Activities!
And to keep those kiddos busy in the car check out:
Make the road trip fun!
100 Would you rather cards!
- Easy to print
- 8 "cards" per page
- Good for ages 5 and up
- A social emotional learning lesson for each level (not based on a social issue, but on true SEL learning)
- Some are thought provoking
- Some are just fun and goofy
questions to bring fun to your road trip
For the purpose of this article, we are going to look at how amazing the National Parks Passport Book is as a resource in your homeschool classroom.
Homeschool Lessons Using the National Parks Passport Book:
Wildlife and Agriculture:
Students can learn about the plants and animals that are native to that region or area.
What challenges have either or both the plans and animals faced.
I learned about the Hoover Dam and the razorback sucker when I went on a field trip with my son over 10 years ago.
When a non native fish was introduced to the area, the native fish, the razorback sucker, began to decline and was on the edge of being extinct.
There are now major efforts to bring back this population and it is now on the endangered list.
Your children can learn so much about plants that are edible or not edible, what affects their growth, what adaptations have they made, etc.
Geography and Map Skills:
In an “Alexa” and “Google Maps” kind of world, children are not looking at actual maps like they used to.
Learning about the regions, where the parks are located, figuring out how far they are from home, and learning how to use the map key are all great skills to study.
Research and Planning:
While the children are looking at maps and determine how far parks are from home, you can give the “reins” over to them.
Have your children research and plan one trip each year, at least.
You can tell them the main topics of all of the subjects you will be learning.
Then let them research the various national parks.
What can they find that syncs well with your curriculum?
Have they calculated the hours on the road it will take?
Will you need to get a hotel? Which cities will you stop in?
Will the visitor center be open so they can get stamps or stickers for their National Parks Passport Books?
*As an aside: I believe that this is actually the single most important lesson your child can learn.
The academia is important, but research and planning are crucial life skills that your child will need for success every single day.
History and Culture:
This seems to be the easy way to blend the national parks in with your curriculum.
Most of the monuments and parks have a historical or cultural significance.
That makes it pretty simple to match history lessons or current events that you may be teaching to what your children are seeing and experiencing.
Explore the stories of the people who shaped these areas though different times.
Study indigenous cultures, early explorers, or groups of people.
Look at original handicrafts, trades and skills.
Arts and Crafts:
Visual representation is an obvious way to reinforce the visits to the national parks.
Maybe the original handicrafts or trades you saw and witnessed were various forms of artwork like basket weaving, rug making, forging metal, glasswork, etc.
You can explore a form of art with the kids that you all saw on your visit as an exercise in the expertise of these people.
This is also a great opportunity to encourage your painters, sketch artists, and photographers.
Take your time at each of these amazing parks and let your children just “set up” and create.
Language Arts:
There are so many valuable lessons to learn from the park.
I wouldn’t want the children to do a “quick look, now write.”
I like the idea of teaching children how to record their voices into a phone or iPod, (I know, old tech, but very effective).
They can record all of their impressions.
When they first see the Grand Canyon, for example, what are their thoughts?
If there was a squirrel dancing on the edge, did they talk about it in their recorder?
Did your child voice what they learned at the visitors’ center?
Did they enjoy learning that the entire canyon was “cut” over millions of years by the Colorado River?
Later, after the art at the location, after the learning at the visitor’s center and the excitement over the stickers and stamps, after talking about why it is a national monument or park, after trying to see any natural impact you may have previously discussed, and very importantly, after those kiddos have eaten, have them listen to their recordings.
Do they want to write a poem?
Do they want to write a funny poem about the squirrel?
Should they write about a rock that was brought into the Grand Canyon by a visitor and how it was insecure at seeing it’s new “digs”?
Should they write an informative writing about how the Grand Canyon was formed and the impact it has on wildlife?
There are endless possibilities!
The point is that it is a great idea to have your children write about their visit.
However, they should write about something in the visit that was of particular interest to them.
I am a major advocate of using the National Parks Passport Book with your children.
This is one of the best teaching tools you have at your disposal in your Homeschool Classroom.
It naturally entices children to “win” and accomplish it by filling in the stickers and cancellation stamps for each region.
All of the while, it teaches our children, in a very enjoyable way, so much about our country’s history, people, cultures, and ecosystems.