IA State Homeschool Organization
HI exists to provide support to homeschool families and protect home education in the state.
IA Homeschool Law
Iowa families have five options for homeschooling. They are homeschool by independent private instruction, homeschool by opt-out, homeschool with an annual assessment, homeschool with a supervising teacher, homeschool with a home school assistance program. More information can be found at the Iowa Department of Education, Home School Legal Defense Association, and Homeschool Iowa.
IA Homeschool Events
The 3-day Homeschool Iowa Conference in early June is held at the Mid-American Energy RecPlex in West Des Moines.
Nearly a thousand homeschoolers come together for a fantastic weekend that leave you feeling not only informed and equipped, but also refreshed and rejuvenated for your homeschool journey, no matter if you’re just beginning or have been homeschooling for a while.
Gain new ideas, strategies, vision, and perspective as you soak in useful information from the outstanding speakers, shop in the expansive exhibit hall, and tap into the special tracks, youth programs, and other custom-designed programming for homeschooling families.
Iowa Homeschool Field Trip Destinations
Located in Des Moine, Blank Park Zoo offers several popular family programs. There are classes for young children with fun hands-on activities and an opportunity to meet Zoo animals and Ruby’s Readers Book Club.
ZooQuest is a club-like program for ages 8-11 with each meeting focused on a different topic of the participants’ interest. Safari Camps are offered throughout school breaks.
Student Job Shadows offer a unique opportunity for kids thinking about working at the zoo someday to learn what it’s all about. School group tours must be booked at least 2 weeks advance to receive a school discount. There is a different rate for groups of 15+ that you can book 24-hours in advance.
Bloomsbury is in Atkins, IA, 10 minutes west of Cedar Rapids and 40 minutes north of Iowa City.
They offer group tours Wednesday through Friday from May through October.
Learn about agriculture and the rich heritage and history of farming with FUN activities. Groups must be 20 people or more, and home schools must provide proof of affiliation with a home school association
The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art offers a wide variety of tours and programs for adults, children, and families.
Art Bites (free and includes free admission to all of the galleries): On the first Wednesday of every month learn about an aspect of one of the current exhibitions in this 30-45 minute presentation.
Art Lovers Book Club (free): (in person) Book club selections are based on current exhibitions and is held on the third Thursday of every month. Join at any time.
Art Chats via Zoom: On the fourth Wednesday of every month at noon for about 20-30 minutes, they host a chat with a guest artist about their artwork in one of the exhibitions.
Family Fun Day (free admission): Three times a year the Museum holds a Family Fun Day with activities for all ages to enjoy.
Pajama Storytime (free for children and their adults): Storytime in the galleries, then a fun art activity for pre-school to age 7. Bring a stuffed friend to cuddle with and wear your PJs!
Doodlebugs (free at libraries): Doodlebugs classes have a theme that relates to the exhibitions and are held monthly at the Hiawatha, Marion, and North Liberty Community public libraries. Storytime then a fun, sometimes messy, art activity.
There is also preschool and elementary summer camps.
Admission is always free. They offer a variety of ongoing programs, workshops, membership activities, and volunteer opportunities. Art Spectrums is a free program (registration required) for children and teens on the autism spectrum, providing an opportunity for participants to exercise their creativity and build their self-esteem through sensory experiences that aid in the development of cognition, communication, and motor skills.
Also of interest is their Teen Arts or Teen Clay Academies for high school students. Applications are on the website. The 9-month programs begin each September and runs concurrently with the academic calendar, with each Academy program meeting once per week.
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Located on Highway 76 in Harpers Ferry, IA, Effigy offers some great hiking. Throughout the summer, guided tours and ranger programs will be offered daily. There are also a variety of “Pop Up” programs, so check the calendar when planning your visit. Like many national park sites, Effigy offers a Junior Ranger program which you can use to learn about the park even if you don’t get to visit in person. Use the website and YouTube to go through the discoveries.
The Effigy Mound Culture extends from Dubuque, Iowa, north into southeast Minnesota, across southern Wisconsin from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, and along the Wisconsin-Illinois boundary. The counties of Dubuque, Clayton, and Allamakee contain almost all the effigy mounds found in Iowa.
The mounds are considered sacred by the Monument’s 20 culturally associated American Indian tribes. A visit offers opportunities to contemplate the meanings of the mounds and the people who built them.
The stories and legends of the Native Americans whose ancestors built the mounds describe the effigy mounds as ceremonial and sacred sites. Archeologists believe the effigy mounds delineated territories of choice gathering and hunting grounds.
The famed field in Dyersville is open from sunrise to sunset year round. You can book a guided 30-minute tour to hear stories about the home from its early days as the Lansing family homestead in the early 20th century to its rebirth as the set for the 1989 fantasy classic. Keep in mind they do have allotted spaces for handicapped parking, but the parking lot is either grass or gravel. No outside food or drink is allowed into the field.
Interestingly, you can book to house to spend the night for up to 9 guests. This is for diehard fans, as the rate is a bit pricey.
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library contains the personal papers of Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States, and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover.
The Library offers a wide range of resources for educators. You can make arrangements for a field trip; and the Library is proud to offer programs for homeschool families that integrate art, history, culture, and STEAM through hands-on exploration, gallery tours, outdoor investigation, and more.
The website also has nice online research tools.
The Iowa Aviation Museum in Greenfield, Iowa is devoted to preserve, restore, and display antique aircraft of the “golden era of aviation” and related memorabilia all for the education and pleasure of the public, and to honor Iowa aviators of the past, present and future.
The museum consists of three areas. The showroom’s displays of donated memorabilia portrays the vast history of Iowa aviation in chronological order from balloons to the space program. The heart of the museum, the hangar, consists of numerous rare and unique aircraft as well as stories of rich aviation history. In the Hall of Fame/ library are the photos and biographies that recognize and honor lowans who have contributed to the advancement of aviation.
The Iowa Children’s Museum in Coralville, IA inspires every child to imagine, create, discover and explore through the Power of Play! Programming for families includes Community Events, Family Workshops, Kinder Club,
Kinder Camps, Toddler Takeover, Tech Trek and School Break Camps for elementary students, and field trips of 28,000 square feet of active learning.
The museum is closed Mondays.
John Wayne Birthplace and Museum
The life story of John Wayne began here in Winterset, Iowa. Step back in time and picture the life of a young midwestern boy. The modest four-room home has been restored to reflect its appearance in 1907.
Adjacent to the home, the John Wayne Birthplace Museum is open daily and offers self-guided tours of the largest diversified collection of John Wayne artifacts in existence, including movie posters, film wardrobe, original scripts, contracts, letters, artwork and sculpture — even one of his last custom-built cars.
Lake of Three Fires State Park
A hotspot for equestrian trail riding and camping, Lake of Three Fires State Park in southwest Iowa provides diverse outdoor recreation opportunities. The park’s 85-acre lake is a local destination for boaters and anglers, and several open picnic areas are available near the lake. Lake of Three Fires was dedicated in 1935 and is named after a group of Native Americans from the Potawatomi tribe who once inhabited the area known as the “Fire Nation.”
Families enjoy the more than 10 miles of multi-use trails, winding around the lake, through wetlands and prairie. You can stay overnight in one of six studio cabins or at the two modern campgrounds.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum
Charles Ingalls and his family moved into the hotel, still known as the Masters Hotel, in 1876. In 1973, the building was purchased by four people with the dream of restoring the hotel and opening it as a Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum opened in June of 1976 and now gets over 6,000 visitors a year from all 50 states and many nations!
Okay, even as a grown adult, this museum makes me giddy! You can wander along the banks of Silver Creek, as Laura did, dress in pioneer costumes, sit in a covered wagon, visit the herb garden to smell the herbs and read how these herbs were used by pioneers, ring the same bell that called the Ingalls to church and visit the marker that shows where the church stood, locate the headstones that Laura viewed in the Burr Oak Cemetery, as well as an old Burr Oak tree.
There is an annual Laura Days celebration held every 4th weekend in June and other special events throughout the year.
Open daily, the National Farm Toy Museum is a collection-based museum with two floors of displays based on agricultural equipment. Located in Dyersville, Iowa, home to the Ertl Company now TOMY, Scale Models, and SpecCast respectively, earning our town moniker “The Farm Toy Capital of the World!”
There is an upstairs play area with stationary pedals that kids can ride to their heart’s content. Don’t miss the dioramas and displays to spark their imaginations! The museum suggests engaging children with a game of eye spy to get them noticing and talking.
Along with this rich heritage, the museum hosts the Summer Farm Toy Show every June and Toy Farmer Magazine’s National Farm Toy Show each November.
The art galleries at the Octagon in Ames are free every day! Note: They are closed on Sundays for part of the year. The wide variety of in-person art classes are popular and have very reasonable fees. Sign up at least 3 days before the class. They also offer art kits for creating at home and host free crafting videos on YouTube.
There is a notable annual outdoor Octagon Art Festival on the fourth Sunday of September along Main Street in downtown Ames, IA, RAIN OR SHINE. Visual arts, children’s art area, food vendors, and performing arts form the foundation of the Octagon Art Festival. The festival features at least 100 artists and gets about 10,000 visitors!
Centrally located in Downtown Des Moines, SCI features hands-on exhibits, special-format theaters, Nocturnal Science Nights, and unique homeschool workshop programming for ages 5 to 14. If you schedule a group tour, consider adding a Discovery or Innovation Lab!
Is homeschooling for you?
The community of homeschool families is diverse. One study reports that 41% of homeschool students are Hispanic, Black, Asian, or other non-White/non-Hispanic groups (2). Homeschoolers come from all faiths – Christians, Jews, Muslims, agnostics, atheists. Teaching parents have a range of formal education, from high school diplomas to graduate degrees, and cover the array of household incomes.
How do you homeschool?
While laws regulating home education vary from state to state, homeschooling IS legal in all 50 states. Many states offer more than one option. One of the first steps in your family’s homeschool journey is to become familiar with the laws in your state. Then the fun begins!
Click on your state below for resources on homeschool regulations, state homeschool organizations, homeschool conventions in your area (here’s why these are amazing for new and experienced homeschool parents), as well as other homeschool perks in your state.
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Disclaimer: Please note that the information on this page is provided for your convenience as a research tool and resource as to where to find the information you need to homeschool in your state. The team at 3 Moms Blog are not attorneys. This content has not been reviewed by an attorney. It is not legal advice.
Brian D. Ray. (2017) A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice, Journal of School Choice, 11:4, 604-621, accessed April 7, 2023 at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15582159.2017.1395638
US Department of Education. (2019) Homeschooling in the United States: Results from the 2012 and 2016 Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFINHES: 2012 and 2016). Accessed 4/7/2023 at https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020001.pdf