Homeschool Days
For children who have ever wondered what lives beneath Sarasota Bay, a day at Mote Science Education Aquarium offers something better than an answer: a chance to investigate.
By Edit Sarasota Staff
For children who have ever wondered what lives beneath Sarasota Bay, a day at Mote Science Education Aquarium offers something better than an answer: a chance to investigate. During Homeschool Days, marine science leaves the textbook behind and becomes tangible, curious, and wonderfully close to home.
Designed for homeschool students ages 6 to 14, the program invites young learners to explore the research and discoveries that have long shaped Mote’s work. Through hands-on activities, participants can encounter the habits of scientists—observing carefully, asking better questions, testing ideas, and making sense of the living world around them. The format is especially well suited to children whose education already makes room for learning beyond the classroom, where a lesson can unfold through an exhibit, an experiment, or an unexpected conversation.
The program’s age-specific structure recognizes that a six-year-old and a fourteen-year-old may approach the same ocean with very different questions. Monthly classes are offered for students ages 6–9 and 10–14, along with a class designed to accommodate families with children across the full 6–14 range. All fall-semester Homeschool Day programs take place in the afternoon, leaving the morning open for the rhythms of family life—or perhaps a quiet walk along the bay before turning attention to the sea’s more intricate mysteries.
Mote SEA, located near University Town Center, extends Mote’s broader mission of connecting marine research, conservation, and public education. The organization has been part of Sarasota’s scientific and civic identity for decades, giving residents an unusually direct relationship with the waters that define the region. At the aquarium, that relationship can become personal: a young student begins to see the Gulf not simply as scenery, but as a living system worth understanding and protecting.
Homeschool Days takes place Thursday, October 22, 2026, at Mote Science Education Aquarium, 225 University Town Center Drive, Sarasota. Families can choose the class format that best fits their children’s ages and spend an afternoon exploring the science behind Sarasota’s most essential natural resource.