One of our road schooling resources has been regular visits to children’s museums, zoos, and science centers. We get into most of these places for free or at a steep discount as a result of nation wide reciprocal programs. These reciprocal programs were an awesome find in our first few months of traveling. About a year and a half ago we bought a family season pass to our local Planetarium on a Groupon deal for $49. Best. Decision. Ever. Unknown to me at the time, the Clark Planetarium is a participant in the Association of Science and Technology Centers Passport Program (ASTC). Many science centers across the United States have opted to participate in this program and offer free admission to members. This is great for full-time travelers like us, because we tend to visit a lot of the cities where they are located.
In addition to science centers, the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM), and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) also have reciprocal programs. They tend to be 50% off admission instead of free, but any discount is better than none if you are going anyway. Since we are typically in a city only for a few days, we have opted to participate in the ASTC, and the AZA programs. There are a few Children’s Museums that are on the ASTC list as well (Houston and San Francisco to name two) so that works out for us. Plus, we just don’t have time to do EVERYTHING.
North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Durham
How It Works
1. Buy a membership at your local participating ASTC, ACM, or AZA Museum. Utah, or Salt Lake City, more specifically has 5 ASTC museums to choose from. Most bigger cities have only 1 or 2. We started out with the Clark Planetarium pass, and then when we came up for renewal, we chose Thanksgiving Point because we will be spending a couple of months in Utah this summer and its my favorite museum. We also have a pass to Hogle Zoo which is a member of the AZA reciprocal program (both passes, indecently, bought online and mailed to us as we were out of state).
2. Use the Program List to find other participating museums where you will be visiting. I tend to star these on our Google Map so I know its something I want to visit when we are in the area.
3. Bring your membership card and ID to the out-of-town museum for free admission. There are times I’ve forgotten my membership, but was able to call MY museum on the phone, hand the phone to the out-of-town museum employee and have them verify my member status.
Jacksonville Zoo, Florida
A few of things to note: The program does NOT apply to museums within a 90 mile radius of home. This includes both the museum you have a membership to AND your home address. I had this genius idea to buy a membership outside of Utah so that I could visit ALL of the participating museums when we got home. Unfortunately that wouldn’t work as they’d check my ID and see that I actually lived there. So disappointing.
Free admission doesn’t generally include extra exhibits, IMAX shows, simulators, parking, or other expenses.
The BIG museums are generally not on the list. Indianapolis Children’s Museum, the San Diego Zoo, and the Monterrey Bay Aquarium are notable absent.
Science Centers , Children’s Museums, and Zoos are a fantastic way to entertain my kids for the day. Most of the time, we will spend anywhere from 2-6 hours exploring. To see a map and my thoughts on the ones we have visited, visit my Pinterest Map.
Perot Museum of Nature and Science: Dallas, Texas
We love visiting places designed to teach and interest kids. Our kids love to set out and explore and find the hands-on exhibits. If you have kids and travel, having these passes will save a bundle!
Links:
Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Travel Passport Program List
Association of Children’s Museum’s (ACM) Reciprocal Network
Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s (AZA) Reciprocal List
Rachel’s pretty good about wanting to do her own hair these days, although sometimes she still asks for help. She stands up on the toilet so she can see herself in the mirror. Most days I try to brush out Cara’s hair and do something with it.
The kids and I load up in the truck along with our adventure bag and a cooler for lunch while Sam moves out to the table to be more comfortable for work.
After the kids are in bed, Sam and I typically stay up until about 10pm working. I’ll blog, edit photos, or plan our itenirary. Sam will try and squeeze in some more work, blog, or currently he’s working on taxes. Once or twice a week, we’ll quit early, snuggle in bed with the laptop and watch one of our favorite shows on Hulu. Current favorites are White Collar (although I’m pretty sure the season just ended) and Castle. Since we have to pay for internet by the amount we use we’ll occasionally watch a DVD while we work instead.
3. Use a stroller. Disneyland and California Adventure are BIG. That’s a lot of walking – not to mention schlepping stuff around the parks all day. Since we don’t have a stroller with us (no room, plus we don’t really need one) we rented from the park for $15/day. Worth. Every. Penny. Yes, we could’ve gone out and bought a cheap one at Target for that much money but then we would’ve had to get rid of it again. They have good strollers. Even with all our stuff piled on, the stroller didn’t tip over and it was easy to recognize among the masses. Most areas of the park have designated stroller parking, and the Cast Members (that’s what Disney calls employees) will move yours while you’re gone if its not in the right spot. Just be warned. I never worried about leaving items with the stroller when we went on rides. They are strollers EVERYWHERE and its DISNEYLAND. You’d have to be special sort of black-hearted person to steal while you are there.
6. Visit the Frontierland Jamboree Ranch. So cool. I don’t think it was there last time we were there, but it was fun! We missed the show as the times were not listed in our schedule and you had to actually go there to figure out when it was. BUT we did listen to a piano man, have our own personal magic show, and see some of the lesser known characters. Its just an out of the way, non-crowded place to hang out for an hour. There’s also a petting zoo with goats, and a horse, but my kids weren’t super interested in that.
8. Bring your own lunch and snacks, but eat out for dinner. Disneyland has some GREAT food. They really do. But its expensive. We basically budgeted $45 per day for 5 of us for dinner everyday. Eating out is also FUN. We ate Flo’s V8 Cafe, had Mexican Food, and the CORN DOGS. Oh the Corn Dogs. They are delicious. By bringing our own snacks for most of the day, we could then mentally justify splurging on a Dolewhip for the Tikki room, Ice Cream on Main Street, or Beignets in New Orleans. We also used snacks to keep kids happy in line. For drinks, we refill our water bottles at water fountains or at the few water stations around the parks.
11. Get in a photo yourself every once in awhile. The BEST part about going with friends (at least according to the photographer in me) is that there is more than one camera. There are actually photos of ME in Disneyland. After we get home and go through them, we’ll create a Dropbox folder and share them. If you don’t have a friend, the staff photographers will take a photo with YOUR camera. Not just your camera phone either, they’ll use your fancy one, and they are actually pretty decent too.
Another month gone by! Time seems to be flying. Another month means we re-evaluate the biggest questions: How much money is it going to take? Can we really make this work?