If you’re a parent in the Fort Myers area, and you’re thinking about homeschooling your child or just want to take your family on a fun field trip, you’ll want to check out these places!
As a traveling homeschool family, we are always looking for fun places to travel that have lots of learning opportunities. From planetariums to museums to nature preserves, there’s no shortage of educational opportunities in this city. There are lots of resources in Southwest Florida, and plenty of places where you can meet other homeschoolers.
Here’s a list of some of our favorite places that will educate and entertain your kids.
Shell Factory and Nature Park
Shell Factory and Nature Park is located at 2787 N Tamiami Trail, North Fort Myers, FL 33903.
Nature Park ticket prices are as follows:
- Adults – $14
- Kids age 4-12 – $9
- Kids 3 and under – free
- Free parking
Children can walk through the nature park and see tons of animals such as alligators, snakes, turtles, zebras, camels, raccoons, lemurs, spiders, iguanas, tortoises, goats, pigs, cows, porcupines, guinea pigs, skunks, peacocks, turkeys, butterflies, and more!
There’s a dinosaur park, an Eco lab, an aviary to walk through, a butterfly garden, a petting farm for the farm animals, a gator slough, and botanical gardens.
The highlight of my visit was when I walked behind a peacock in the aviary, and it spread all its feathers out for the perfect photo opportunity. Peacocks are one of my favorite animals, so I loved this! My son loved feeding the animals and getting to see a 2 day old guinea pig.
There are other things to do, some for additional costs:
- Zipline
- Carousel
- Shell factory
- Restaurant
- Gift shop
- Playground
Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve
Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is located at 7751 Penzance Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33966.
This is a great opportunity to do something very inexpensive. Visiting the preserve is free. Parking is $1 per hour or $5 all day.
There’s so much to see here! Herons, egrets, ibis, lizards, alligators, turtles, fish, owls, raccoons, snakes, and more. In addition to the amazing wildlife, you’ll also see beautiful cypress trees and plants.
The preserve has nice boardwalks, covered areas for picnics, a guided tour with lots of educational information, and ponds.
Your kids will love exploring this area!
Manatee Park
Manatee Park is located at 10901 Palm Beach Blvd, Ft Myers.
This park is free, and parking is only $2 per hour or $5 for the whole day.
You can walk through beautiful trails, play on playgrounds, or rent a kayak. Although it’s not necessary to take a kayak in order to see the manatees, you do get a lot closer by kayak and get to see more.
They have great educational programs, places to fish, gardens, playgrounds, restrooms, a nice walking path, wildlife viewing, and picnic areas.
Be sure to go December-March as the water is colder which manatees prefer. If the water is above 68° Fahrenheit, manatee sightings are rare.
The Butterfly Estates
The Butterfly Estates is located at 1815 Fowler St, Fort Myers, FL 33901. If you are unfamiliar with the area, use the address 1815 Hough Street for navigation purposes to arrive at the parking lot gate.
Ticket prices are as follows:
- 13 and older – $10
- Children 3-12 – $6
- Children under 3 are free
- Florida residents with a valid Florida ID receive a $1 discount
- Free parking
Butterfly Estates is part of the Florida Native Butterfly Society, a non-profit that helps all types of butterflies. It is a heavenly, peaceful place to visit. Your kids will enjoy it, but adults seem to love it even more because of the beauty and tranquil nature. They are benches inside the butterfly house where you can sit and relax while watching the butterflies and beautiful plants and flowers.
Butterfly Estates offers a great learning experience. As an educational facility, they teach all about butterflies that they hand raise, including the importance of butterflies as pollinators.
They provide educational tours, classes, outreach programs, and even show you the stages of care from caterpillar to butterfly life cycle. If you go in the morning, you might even get to see a butterfly release.
Before visiting, be sure to buy The Very Hungry Caterpillar if you haven’t already. My son is obsessed with this book and it really helps kids understand the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
Enjoy the greenhouse, gorgeous plants, flowers, babbling brook, koi pond, caterpillars, and tons of beautiful butterflies. You can even buy the supplies to start your own butterfly garden. They also have a gift shop and restaurant.
There is an art section where you can support local artists by purchasing their wonderful artwork such as jewelry, clothing, sculpture, pottery, and paintings.
Edison and Ford Winter Estates
Edison and Ford Winter Estates is located at 2350 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33901.
Inventors Thomas Edison and Henry Ford came to Florida to buy winter homes, and now you can tour their estate. The guided tour is $30.
There is so much to learn here! They have a historical museum, a rubber-making laboratory, and some of Henry Ford’s cars.
Located on a 21 acre botanical garden, it truly is beautiful. They also have a garden center with hundreds of plants and trees to buy if you’re interested.
What I love about this place is that they offer homeschool programs, with a focus on science and engineering in an outdoor classroom setting. The program combines instruction and hands-on activities to kids learn as well as enjoy learning, which is really important to me as a homeschool mom.
IMAG History & Science Center
IMAG History and Science Center is located at 2000 Cranford Ave, Fort Myers, FL 33916.
Ticket prices are as follows:
- General admission is $17.50
- Children ages 3-18 are $15
- Children under 3 are free
Kids who love hands-on activities will love this place!
They have a hurricane simulator, touch tanks, play areas, and an outdoor fossil hunt! You can even feed the fish and turtles. Stingray feedings occur at 11:45 AM and 2:45 PM so be sure to come for that.
Check out the interactive Weather Hall and 3D movies as well as the extensive aquariums and reptiles in the Living Lab. In the TV studio, there is a green screen, so kids can pretend to be weather forecasters.
They offer an indoor playground and an area for future engineers to build rollercoasters and more.
History lovers will enjoy learning about role southwest Florida played in World War II.
There is something here for everyone and tons of opportunities to learn.
Miss Potter’s Place
Miss Potter’s Place is located at 3747 Liberty Square, Fort Myers, FL 33908.
The garden and nursery are only available by appointment only so be sure to call first. It is truly educational and beautiful.
Miss Potter’s Place has over 100 exotic fruits (soursop, dragonfruit, strawberry tree, ice cream bean, allspice, tamarind), nut and spice trees, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and a butterfly garden.
Kids can also see bunnies, free-range chickens (that let you cuddle and pet them!), bee hives, and an earthworm commune.
Enjoy the vegetable patch which produces tomatoes, kale, bunching onions, beans, and okra.
You can buy fresh farm eggs, honey, fruits, vegetables, and herbs if you’re interested.
The front yard is full of blooming shrubs and plants that attract predatory insects, butterflies, and pollinating bees.
There are even classes about gardening, eating your harvest, and how to raise chickens.
Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium
Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium is located at 3450 Ortiz Avenue, Fort Myers, Florida 33905 on 105 acres.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children.
As an environmental educational organization, this place is great for homeschoolers! They offer Homeschool Thursday which has a classroom lesson, outside exploration, lots of hands-on activities or experiments, and some classes even include a live animal encounter.
Go on a guided hike, listen to the butterfly or animal talk, check out the natural history museum, or watch a planetarium show. Better yet, do them all!
The butterfly enclosure is amazing, and you can even get up close to some very large birds.
They have special events such as learning about bats, wildlife after dark, nature cartooning, Earth Day celebration, inventor day, full moon hike, recycling, and even summer camps. They are always adding more special event topics.
We love their daily animal demos. There are special topic talks weekly such as All about Alligators, Eyes on Eagles, Butterflies, and Solar Observing on Fridays at the Planetarium.
Railroad Museum of Southwest Florida
The Railroad Museum of Southwest Florida is located at 7330 Gladiolus Dr, Fort Myers, FL 33966 inside Lakes Regional Park.
Ticket prices for the train ride are:
- Ages 6 and older are $5
- Children 1-5 are free and do not need a ticket
- Children under 1 cannot ride on the train
They have live steam scale locomotives, rolling stock, and rail tracks to explore.
On the 10-15 minute train ride, you can expect to travel past four full-size operating grade crossing signals, through a tunnel (with lights and sound), by a waterfall, an operating windmill, over a trestle, and a bridge.
Located in a lovely park with walking trail along the water, it is very beautiful and peaceful. They have pavilions for picnicking, children’s play areas, a children’s garden, a splash area, and bike and buggy rentals.
This is a great place for history buffs, and railroad and train lovers and is designed for all age groups.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a great place to take your homeschooled child in Fort Myers, be sure to check out these places! They offer something for everyone and will help teach your children about history, science, nature, and more. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
Happy homeschooling!