Homeschool Field Trip to Historic Philadelphia

As you tour historic Philadelphia, take notes in your Junior Ranger booklet. (You can get a sneak peek of the Junior Ranger Activity Booklet online.) At the end of your visit, go back to the visitor's center and be sworn in as Junior Rangers. (The park ranger will check your work, so do a good job!)

You will be given a plastic badge upon becoming a Junior Ranger. If you want the cloth patch, go to the bookstore and buy it.

I love the Junior Ranger program because it gives you some specific questions to answer on your field trip. Kids seem to recieve it better from a park ranger than they would receive a worksheet from mom. Getting a badge is a real perk, too.

There is also a trading card program at Independence National Park. And this is totally free!

Places we loved and would hate for you to miss:

• Betsy Ross House (Requires purchasing a ticket, but worth it)
• Printing Press at Franklin Court (See the video below for an idea of what you will see there. Ben Franklin walked in during our tour!)
• The US Mint (Adults need identification to enter. There is a security check and metal detector. No photography is allowed.)
• The Liberty Bell
• Independence Hall
• Elfreth's Alley (See what old homes looked like.)

When you are back home, get the most out of your field trip by doing some notebooking of the things you learned. Field trips are perfect for notebooking because of all the great photos, postcards, and brochures that you collect.

Gather your things and make notebooking pages in the style of scrapbooking. You can see to the left a page my daughter made with a single postcard. The collage postcard features many significant places in Philadelphia. She labeled each one.

Click the image to see it larger.

Visit The Notebooking Fairy for free notebooking pages for all the students in your family.

Most of the PDF printables include three line styles for each page layout. Grahpics are a mix of full color and black and white. And the pages are completely free.

Benjamin Franklin Notebooking Pages
This set of free pages includes 3 line styles for all ages of students. Choose from black and white or full color images.

Betsy Ross Notebooking Page
Celebrate the fabled maker of our American flag with these free printable pages.

Liberty Bell Notebooking Pages with Copywork
This great symbol of freedom is the focus on these free notebooking pages and copywork pages.

This Kindle (or iPad, Nook, etc.) book is a PDF full on information you can access while you are touring around Philadelphia.

If you prefer an instant download, this book is also available at CurrClick in eBook format.