 | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 Week of September 21, with a look ahead through mid October. Fifteen things worth your time, each with a link you can tap. Three of them are on a clock, so those come first. | | | ✓ | No link, no mention. Every price, date and address was checked against the venue's own page on Friday, September 18. If it could not be verified, it is not here. |
| | |  | | | STARTS MONDAY TEMPE LEGOLAND Discovery Center Homeschool Week Five weekdays at $12 a head instead of full gate price, with the build tables open. It is more indoor play than lesson, but at this price a Monday there is worth it. Monday Sept 21 to Friday Sept 25 only. Weekdays, no Saturday. $12 per person, $48 for a family of four. Tempe. Buy online and bring proof of homeschooling. | | | REGISTER BY OCT 1 PHOENIX Arizona State Fair free field trip days The best free item of the month and the only one with a hard cutoff. Homeschool groups are explicitly eligible, and admission is free for registered students and chaperones. The livestock barns and agriculture exhibits are the learning. The midway is the bribe. Register by Thursday Oct 1. Trip days are Oct 15, 16 and 22. Free. No group minimum, 30 students max per registration. Check in between 11 a.m. and noon, not flexible. Phoenix. | | | NEEDS 10 PEOPLE SCOTTSDALE Butterfly Wonderland homeschool days The cheapest way into a $115 venue, but it takes 10 people and two weeks of lead time. That makes this a co-op text, not a family decision. Book by about Monday Sept 28 for Oct 12 or 13. $12 per student, $16 per adult, plus tax. About $60 for two adults and two kids, against $115.80 at the gate. Scottsdale. | | | BOOK NOW PHOENIX Phoenix Zoo Homeschool Day The event is Oct 28, but buy now. At $25 a person with zoo admission included it costs less than a normal day at the gate, and it is the rare homeschool program aimed at ages 5 to 17 rather than preschoolers. STEM stations, animal interactions, science careers. No deadline is posted, which is exactly why you book early. Wednesday Oct 28, 9 a.m. to noon, then the rest of the day in the zoo. $25 general, $12 members. $100 for four against $155.80 regular. | | |  | | Dated items only. Where a county park is involved the program is free but the gate is $10 a vehicle, and it says so. | | | SEPT 24 TO 30 · FIVE COUNTY PARKS $10 A CARLOAD Scorpion Safari and Bug Theatre nights The strongest run of hands-on science in the next two weeks, and it costs ten dollars a carload. Rangers lead a night walk with UV lights, and scorpions glow under them. Groups are small, so sign up the day you read this. WHEN Thu Sept 24, Usery Mountain, Mesa
Fri Sept 25, Cave Creek
Sat Sept 26, San Tan Mountain
Tue Sept 29, White Tank
Wed Sept 30, Estrella Mountain, Goodyear
All start between 7 and 7:30 p.m. COST Programs are free. Park entry is $10 per vehicle, or $120 for an annual pass to every county park. SIGNING UP Registration required for most nights, capped at 20 to 30 people. WHAT TO BRING A UV flashlight if you have one, closed shoes, water. | | | MON SEPT 21 AND SUN OCT 18 · GILBERT AND CHANDLER FREE Desert Rivers Audubon bird walks No admission, no catch, and the leaders are good with kids who ask questions. The Big Sit is the lowest effort, highest payoff outing on this list: sit in one spot and count what comes to you. WHEN Higley Ponds walk: Monday Sept 21, 7 to 9 a.m.
The Big Sit: Sunday Oct 18, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. WHERE Higley Ponds, 5250 S Higley Rd, Gilbert
Desert Breeze Hummingbird Habitat, 4700 W Desert St, Chandler SIGNING UP The Big Sit requires registration. The season runs September through April, so it just opened. | | | FRI OCT 9 · MESA FREE i.d.e.a. Museum free family night Three hours of free entry at a $12 a head museum. Honest caveat: the museum designs for ages 0 to 12, so an 11 year old is at the ceiling. It is a good evening out, not a curriculum day. WHEN Friday Oct 9
5:00 to 8:00 p.m. COST Free. Regular admission is $12 per person, so a family of four saves $48. WHERE 150 W Pepper Pl, Mesa AGES Designed for 0 to 12. Their separate $5 homeschool rate is K through 2nd grade only. | | | TUE OCT 13 · PHOENIX PAY WHAT YOU CAN Desert Botanical Garden Community Day The best free day of the month. You choose the amount, including nothing, and it lands inside the garden's fall kickoff, with pollinator stations and hands-on programming from 10 to 2. WHEN Tuesday Oct 13
Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., programming 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST Free admission. They suggest $5, $10, $15 or any amount that works for you. Zero is allowed. WHERE 1201 N Galvin Parkway, Phoenix SIGNING UP No reservation is required, but a timed arrival is smart on a free day. Next one is Tuesday Nov 10. | | |  | | No date attached. These rotate week to week so you are not reading the same three forever. | | | BIGGEST MONEY SAVER ANY WEEK · MARICOPA COUNTY LIBRARIES FREE Culture Pass. Read the fine print before you count on it. Free admission to more than a dozen real museums, and the reason most families give up on it is the math. A pass admits two people, not four, and you can hold one at a time, two per month. In practice that is one venue a month for a family of four. It is still the best library card perk in the county. COST Free with a Maricopa County library card. ADMITS 2 people per pass. Your checkout receipt is the ticket. LIMITS One pass per household at a time, two per month, seven days to use it. In person pickup only, first come first served. WORTH USING Desert Botanical Garden, Heard Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve, Cosanti, Western Spirit, Superstition Mountain Museum. ALSO WORTH KNOWING Arizona Heritage Center is still on the list and is closed through June 2027. The Science Center, Phoenix Zoo and Butterfly Wonderland do not take it. | | | ANY DAY · WEST PHOENIX FREE Tres Rios Wetlands A 700 acre constructed wetland where Phoenix polishes its reclaimed water before it goes back to the Gila. Real civic infrastructure that happens to be full of herons and beavers, which makes it the cheapest how-a-city-works lesson in the metro. WHEN Sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year. COST Free. The permit is free too. WHERE Access and parking off 91st Avenue, Phoenix SIGNING UP A permit is required. It is good for six months of unlimited visits and arrives by email. ALSO WORTH KNOWING Self-guided only. Bring a field guide and it is a full morning. | | | ANY WEEK · CHANDLER FREE Chandler Nature Center at Veterans Oasis Park The best free recurring lineup in the Valley. Snake handling demos twice a month, a trout stocking afternoon, a solar system walk scaled across the park, and field packs you can check out and use on the spot. WHEN Mon to Thu 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Fri 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sat and Sun 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. STANDING PROGRAMS Meet the Snakes: first Wednesday and first Friday, 3:30 p.m.
Trout Time: second Friday, 3:30 p.m. WHERE 4050 E Chandler Heights Rd, Chandler ALSO WORTH KNOWING Family bird walks run November through April only. First one is Saturday Nov 7. | | |  | | Tours, foundries and the best homeschool rate in the state. | | | BEST STANDING DEAL TUE TO FRI, ALL YEAR · MESA $6 A PERSON Arizona Museum of Natural History homeschool rate If you keep one thing from this week, keep this. Six dollars a head on the affidavit rate against $50 at the gate for a family of four, fifty weeks a year, with no group minimum and no reservation. It is also the best dinosaur hall in the state. WHEN Tuesday through Friday, year round
Museum hours Tue to Sat, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays. COST $6 per person. Family of four: $24 against $50. Chaperoning adults get the rate too. WHERE 53 N Macdonald, Mesa AGES Children 6 to 16 qualify for the discount. WHAT TO BRING A copy of your notarized affidavit of intent to homeschool. They check it at the desk. | | | WEEKDAY MORNINGS · PARADISE VALLEY $80 FOR FOUR Cosanti bronze pour The best how-it-is-made stop in the metro, and almost nobody uses it. You watch molten bronze poured into sand molds at a working foundry, with a guide. A morning tour puts you right there for the 9:30 pour. WHEN Guided tours Monday to Friday, 9:15 to 10:30 a.m.
Bronze pours at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. COST $30 per adult, $10 per guest 18 and under. Family of four: $80. WHERE 6433 E Doubletree Ranch Rd, Paradise Valley SIGNING UP Reserve online ahead. Not a walk-up. No group minimum. ALSO WORTH KNOWING It is now a Culture Pass venue, which could cover the adult tickets. | | | OPEN 7 DAYS · APACHE JUNCTION $40 FOR FOUR Goldfield Ghost Town mine tour Forty dollars gets a family underground in a real hard rock gold mine and onto a narrow gauge train, with no reservation and no minimum. The mine tour is the good one: timbering, ore carts, how the shaft was ventilated. WHEN Open 7 days a week
Mine tours and train 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tours leave every ten minutes. COST $12 adults, $8 kids 5 to 12. Family of four: $40. WHERE 4650 N Mammoth Mine Rd, Apache Junction SIGNING UP None needed. No group minimum. | | | ESA FAMILIES Quarter 1 receipts are due in ClassWallet by Saturday Oct 31. Quarter 2 funding lands Oct 15 to 31. Do not let the deposit distract you from the upload. | | | Ten people is the number that gates most of Phoenix Butterfly Wonderland needs 10. The free guided tour at the Capitol Museum needs 10. Wildlife World needs 10 children. Most of the best prices on any list like this sit behind a group minimum, and joining one co-op fixes all of them at once. |  |
| | |  | | | 1 | Monday morning, go to LEGOLAND. $12 a head and the window is Monday through Friday only. It closes Sept 25 and does not come back. |
| | | 2 | Before Oct 1, register for the State Fair field trip. Free, no minimum, homeschool groups welcome. Registration takes a few minutes and the deadline is hard. |
| | | 3 | Post in your co-op group this weekend. Butterfly Wonderland on Oct 12 or 13 needs 10 people booked by about Sept 28. While you are at it, buy the Phoenix Zoo tickets for Oct 28. |
| | | Know a family who would use this? It is free, and it is meant to be passed around. Forward this email, drop the link in your homeschool Facebook group or co-op chat, or text it to a few families. THE LINK COPY AND PASTE THIS Free Friday email for Phoenix-area parents, homeschool or not: free days, field trips and things to do with your kids around the Valley, every one checked that morning. carpoolingwithjesus.com/homeschool |
| | | FROM THE SAME FAMILY Five minutes, on the drive to co-op. Carpooling with Jesus is a free kids Bible podcast built for the drive you are already making. No ads aimed at kids, ever.  Carpooling with Jesus EVERY SCHOOL MORNING One verse and one real kid situation, in five minutes. |  Goodnight Psalms BEDTIME One Psalm a night to wind kids down. |  Heroes of the Bible FIVE-PART SERIES One Bible character at a time. |
On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you already listen. | | | This list is free because Carpooling with Jesus Ministries, a 501(c)(3), keeps it that way. Support it. |
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