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 Colorado 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
Berry Patch Farms
Berry Patch Farms is a certified organic working farm that offers pick-your-own produce. The farm is 40 acres and no fees or membership dues are charged. You are encouraged to bring your children so they may learn more about agriculture and to have an authentic farm experience. School groups are most welcome. They are located in Brighton, just north of Denver.
Plains Conservation Center
The Plains Conservation Center exists to bring the natural wonder of the prairie into the realm of personal experience by: preserving a remnant of the eastern Colorado High Plains, educating the public about its natural and cultural heritage and nurturing sound conservation and environmental ethics. A visit to the Plains Conservation Center offers a unique way to experience the natural and cultural heritage of the High Plains of Colorado.
Mordecai Children's Garden
The Children’s Garden offers a place for kids and families to play, explore and discover every spring, summer and fall. Because the natural environment constantly changes, no two visits in this magical 3-acre oasis will be alike. This garden is located at the Denver Botanic Gardens on top of the parking structure. Children can learn at the rooftop alpine garden, race pinecones down Springmelt Spring, hunt for bug in the Glorious Grasslands and observe aquatic life at Pipsqueak Pond.
Great Divide Brewing Company
Great Divide Brewing Company is located in two Denver locations: 2201 Arapahoe St. and 1812 25th St. They offer free tours of the breweries daily. Average tour time is 20 minutes. The tours are open to the public and free, but limited to the first 20 guests. Participants must be over the age of 12. The tour includes samples of their award-winning beers.
Denver Botanic Gardens
With more than 32,000 plants on 23 acres from such far-away places as Australia, Africa and the Himalayas, Denver Botanic Gardens is recognized as one of the top five botanical gardens in the United States. Open year round. They offer special programs for school groups.
Rocky Mountain Arsenal
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is one of the largest urban wildlife refuges in the nation with more than 15,000 acres of land. It’s a place where wildlife thrives and where visitors can reconnect with nature and experience the many wildlife-dependent opportunities the Refuge has to offer. Come walk the many easy hiking trails, take the self-guided Wildlife Drive auto tour, observe more than 330 species of wildlife, and explore the Visitor Center.
Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium Tours
Public Tours of Sports Authority Field at Mile High are coordinated through the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Museum and are professionally guided by knowledgeable and friendly tour guides. Areas visited on the approximately 75 minute walking tour include: the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Museum, a party suite, visitor's locker room, a keg room, Thunder's stall, the TV production area, the team store, and of course, the field. Fun for guests of all ages, stadium tours are informative, educational...
Buffalo Herd Nature Preserve
The County of Denver maintains this buffalo herd about twenty miles west of the city. The bison are direct descendants of the last wild herd of bison in the U.S. They all came from a herd of 7 bison brought from Yellowstone National Park in 1914. The bison herd can be seen from I-70 when heading west into the mountains on the right right side of the road.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a state and federally licensed zoological facility and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We are located outside of Keenesburg, Colorado, 30 miles northeast of Denver. We are located on rural, rolling grasslands, comprising 720 acres and sheltering more than 290 large carnivores alone. TWAS is the largest sanctuary of its kind and one of the oldest in the United States.
Coors Brewery Tours
Located in Golden, Colorado, and Memphis, Tennessee, Coors Brewery offers free tours of its facilities. Since 1873 the Coors brewery has thrived on a legacy of quality, innovation and customer service. The tour showcases the company’s history and passion for brewing.The brewery experience includes a 30-minute self-paced tour highlighting their malting, brewing and packaging processes. Cool off in the “fresh beer room," where visitors can sip a cold sample and rest on ice-cube benches in a refrig...
Myers' Gourment Popcorn Factory
Learn all about popcorn with a visit to the Myers' Gourment Popcorn Factory, located in Cascade, Colorado, west of Colorado Springs. They are happy to arrange for a tour of their facilities.
Colorado Homeschool Field Trips and General Outings
This is an all inclusive group for homeschoolers of all ages to organize outings. We all homeschool for different reasons. We may be part of other various groups/co-ops. Since we often travel for trips to places like the zoo, and some of us may be from more rural areas, this is a chance to make friends, network, and take advantage of group discounts.
Colorado Springs Homeschool Sports League
Colorado Springs Homeschool Sports League was founded in fall 2015. The league is a non-competitive league which means they do not have rankings and scores are not saved. Their focus is on fostering teamwork, building skills, and having a lot of fun! It's a safe place to learn a new sport or perfect an old one, all made possible by our wonderful homeschool community.
Downtown Aquarium
Located in downtown Denver, This world-class aquarium doesn't just display underwater creatures - it recreates their habitats and tells a story of two great rivers and their journeys to the ocean -- the Colorado River as it flows to Mexico's Sea of Cortez, and Indonesia’s Kampar River along its journey to the South China Sea. The aquarium displays 15,000 specimens, representing 300 species of fish, birds, mammals, and invertebrates, including tigers and sea otters, living amidst 1,000 live plant...
Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center
CWWC conducts guided educational tours and programs that focus on dispelling myths about wolves and wild canids and helping people to appreciate the roles wolves play in their ecosystems. Tours cover topics such as pack hierarchy, territory, communication, prey impact, and conservation. What is unique about the tour is that people also learn about the history of each wolf, coyote, and fox at the center. Some of these being personal rescue stories and unique personalities of many. Although some o...
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.
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.

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
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.
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