Homeschooling in Orlando - OSC

From the time Noah was little, the Orlando Science Center has always been one of our favorite spots. In Florida, you can't really beat an indoor, air-conditioned outing - especially in the summer.

This year, we bought a membership at MOAS in Daytona instead - partly to try something different and partly because they offer much better homeschool classes. But the kids keep asking for OSC, so we finally made a trip back last week.

When we arrived, I was thrilled to find that they accepted our MOAS membership card for free admission. The two museums have been hashing out their reciprocal agreement for many months, and it seems that they have finally decided to offer reciprocol priveledges for each other's members (we visited MOAS with a friend who is an OSC member recently, and she was also granted free admission). The only exclusions from our entry were the I-MAX movies at the Cinedome, but there were plenty of fun exhibits to keep us busy.

It was fun to see how the kids' preferences have changed now that they are older. Kids Town, the toddler area that used to be the main attraction, was now a quick stop on their way to bigger and better things. We visited Nature Works to see the alligators, turtles and snakes and ventured up to Dino Digs to dust off fossils, check out the dinosaurs and dig up some dino eggs.

After that, we powered a city in the Great Hydrogen X-Change, took a brief look in the Grossology exhibit (something in there scared Ava, so we had to make a quick exit) and spent quite a bit of time playing with electricity in the Science Park.

This is the first time Ava has really shown interest in the details of the exhibits, and I love seeing her continue to explore learning.

The kids can't wait to go back, so I dug around on the website looking for signs of the new-and-improved homeschool program I've been hearing about. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any signs of it yet but will keep checking back.

Currently, they offer one homeschool class a month (and the topics seem to repeat every two months) but I've heard rumors of them upping it to every week. While on the website, I did learning about two new touring exhibits that open next month - The World We Create and A-Mazing Sea - that sound worth of a return trip.

Daily rates and annual membership info can be found on their website. When making plans to visit, take note that they've recently ended their summer "peak" hours and the facility is no longer open late on Saturday nights and is back to closing all day on Wednesdays.