Homeschooling

Liam earning his Junior Ranger badge at Mt. Rushmore

Junior Ranger Badge 101

Before we starting traveling full-time I had never even heard of a Junior Ranger Badge or the Junior Ranger Program. But after months of visiting state and national parks and earning dozens of Junior Ranger badges along the way, we feel a little bit like experts on the topic. And we love the program so much we thought we’d put a post together to help other families get involved in the Junior Ranger program!

What is the Junior Ranger program?
Where can you earn Junior Ranger badges?
Who can earn Junior Ranger badges?
How do you earn Junior Ranger badges?
Why should you earn Junior Ranger badges?

Junior-Ranger-books-San-Antonio

What is the Junior Ranger program? The Junior Ranger Program is an activity-based educational program in most national and state parks. By completing workbooks and/or activities at a particular park you can earn a Junior Ranger badge. The Junior Ranger Program motto is “Explore, Learn and Protect” so the activities are geared toward reinforcing these values in the parks system.

Hadley working on her booklet at Glacier National Park, Montana

Where can you earn Junior Ranger badges? Most national and state parks have a Junior Ranger Program – just ask a park ranger. We have also earned Junior Ranger badges at wildlife refuges and national monuments – we always ask, you’d be surprised which places have them!

Who can earn Junior Ranger badges? Although anyone can complete the Junior Ranger Program the program is designed for younger school age children (under 12). Some parks have different workbooks or activities based on age while others have only one program for all ages.

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ASTC-Passport-Program-How-It-WOrks

Early in our full-time travel journey our sister-in-law recommended checking into the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) – we are so glad we did! This association represents science centers, museums and related institutions across the country.

When you have a membership to a participating museum in the ASTC program you qualify for the Travel Passport Program – allowing you FREE admission to participating ASTC museums across the country!

Only a month or so into our travels we picked up an annual membership for the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana while traveling through. The annual membership cost our family of four was $85 (although we would have spend $48 in admission fees during our first visit, so our extra out of pocket was only $37).

Museum-of-the-Rockies-Outside

Since then, we have used our Museum of the Rockies membership to get FREE admission for our family to science museums, children’s museums, zoos, natural history museums and many other institutions all across the country!

Microscope-museum-minneapolis

We have conservatively calculated that we have already saved about $317 in admission fees (that’s factoring in the initial $85 investment in the membership). And more importantly it’s provided us the opportunity to learn at these amazing institutions all across the country.

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Earn Junior Ranger badges at state, national parks

ASTC Passport Program :: FREE admission to museums nationwide

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