There is just something magical about the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Personally, I love the east coast because of all the history it has to offer.

Things to do in Philadelphia with Kids

• Terminal Reading Market
• US Mint
• The Home of Betsy Ross
• Independence Hall
• The Liberty Bell
• Ben Franklin Museum
• Carpenter’s Hall
• Franklin Square

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. William Penn was given the land by King Charles II of England in 1861. He named the land Pennsylvania after his family and wanted it to be a refuge for those who wanted to worship without persecution.

In the American Revolution, Philadelphia was the center of a lot of the action and was the meeting place for the First and Second Continental Congress. The Declaration of Independence was signed at Independence Hall in 1776. In 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state.

I love the history of Philidelphia and it brought history to life as we strolled the city’s sidewalks!

Day One: (Red Day)

On our first day we visited the following places:

• The US Mint
• Terminal Reading Market
• The Home of Betsy Ross

The US Mint

This was a truly fascinating experience! They make the coins at this location and offer free self-guided tours. It is the largest coin factory in the world and you are able to see all the action! The children loved seeing the process of making coins from beginning to end plus the history behind it.

When you enter, they have a fun activity call “History in Your Pocket.” You pull out any coin you have, find the year that it was made on the coin, and then search to see what happened during that year. The kiddos really enjoyed searching and reading the history made during that coin’s birthyear.

We followed the coins as they go through the minting process from beginning to end. We got to see how they design a coin, how they make sure they look alike, and the process of turning it from metal to actual currency.

The tours are free but in the summertime, there may be a line to get in. We traveled in August and didn’t experience a wait at all. As you would expect, when you enter, you do have to participate in a security screening. Ours was very uneventful even with all the baby equipment we had with us at the time.

Terminal Reading Market

This is one of America’s largest public markets and they have just about anything you could ever ask for. We arrived at about mid-morning and planned to grab some breakfast while we looked around. There were so many options to choose from. We wanted to try it all but didn’t have the time, budget, or room in our bellies!

We ended up sharing some pretzel breakfast sandwiches and donuts. We decided to come back for lunch because I had to get a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and this seemed like the perfect place to do that. I was not disappointed and the flavors and atmosphere were very authentic.

There is no charge to go in and look around and the food seemed to fairly priced for the location. It is definitely a place to experience but it was difficult at times to maneuver with our large family. Georgie Lou was a year old at the time and so we had to navigate the foot traffic with a stroller.

I want to go back someday! Check out their website HERE.

The Home of Betsy Ross

We had learned about Betsy Ross and the first American flag so we wanted to make sure it was on our list. I had visited there as a child and wanted to experience it with my own children.

It is a very nice, well-maintained facility. They offer self-guided tours and audio tours. There is a fee for both while the audio tour is a little bit more expensive. I bought the audio tour for Sam, our teenager while everyone else enjoyed a self-guided one.

There were some interactive demo’s throughout the house where they taught the kiddos how to make 5-point stars and about how they washed clothes during that time period. The kiddos had already learned about how to make a 5-point star during our Betsy Ross unit study and so getting to see this was really neat for them.

Day Two: (Orange Day)

This day was crammed packed with stuff but they were located close together so all we had to do was walk from one place to another. We packed a lunch in our backpacks and had a picnic near Independence Hall.

Independence Hall

We arrived at the Independence Hall Visitor’s Center around 9:00 am to make sure we got tickets to see Independence Hall and barely made it. We happened to get the final tickets for the day. The tickets are free, however, they have timed entry so you are assigned a group who will tour together. There just happened to be for a tour within the next hour and so we headed over to wait for our turn.

The Independence Hall tours of the first floor are led by a park ranger. The tour lasted about 30 minutes or so. We were able to tour the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House which served as the meeting place for the Pennsylvania Assembly. The Continental Congress declared Independence in this room in 1776. In 1787, the US Constitution was signed which makes this room a notable part of our American history.

We even got to see the actual chair George Washington sat in while presiding over the Constitutional Convention!

At the time, they happened to have an exhibit featuring the life of Ben Franklin. After our in-depth study, it was really neat to see some of his things firsthand.

The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell was definitely something we wanted to get a good look at. After we finished up at Independence Hall. we headed across the street to see it since it is located near the Independence Hall Visitor’s Center. We simply had to stand in line and wait for our turn to tour the visitor’s center and see the bell. We had a chance to snap a quick picture before moving on.

Ben Franklin Museum

Honestly, The Ben Franklin Museum was the highlight of our day. It was probably because so much of our Ben Franklin Unit Study was right there in front of us. I was amazed at how many hands-on activities they had for the kiddos to experience. He was truly a fascinating man!

Behind the museum, we visited The Franklin Court Printing Office and got to see a demonstration of how things worked back then. We bought a copy of the Declaration of Independence printed by that press.

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The Franklin Court Courtyard is located right outside the museum and it had a steel structure indicating the location of Ben Franklin’s family home off of Market Street.

Carpenter’s Hall

We viewed Carpenter’s Hall from the outside because we didn’t have enough time to tour the inside. It was where the First Continental Congress met in 1774 and it housed The Franklin Library Company. It has a lot of rich history. Click HERE for more information about Carpenter’s Hall.

Franklin Square Park

If you read my post, Educational Field Trips for Homeschoolers, I mentioned mixing fun and learning together. This gives the family something to look forward too and is the reason why I planned for us to visit Franklin Square. It offers a variety of things to do for the kids.

It was a bit of hike for us to get over there from where we were but it was fun anyway. The Franklin Square Park offers Philly Mini Golf, Parx Liberty Carousel, Square Burger and Franklin Square Playground.

Some of the kiddos opted for the playground while some wanted to golf their way through Philly. Rick and I went our separate ways while each of us took a group of kiddos with us.

The Philly Mini Golf allowed you to golf through a lot of the Philadelphia landmarks like the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin’s Bridge.

Lodging

We travel in an RV since we have a large family of nine people. Staying in a hotel would cost us a small fortune so we love our motorhome. There is only one campground within 30 miles of Philadelphia and it does not boast great amenities because it’s all about the location on this one.

Campus Park & Ride is basically a parking lot with a security gate, They did offer electric and water hook-ups and full-service restrooms with showers. This is one of the reasons we planned our visit to Philadephia for just two days because we spent most of our time in the city and not at the RV. The kiddos were already worn out from their sightseeing and so they were ready for some quiet time and dinner by the time we made it back to the RV.

Transportation

We do not tow a vehicle behind our motorhome so that limits our transportation options significantly. The campground offered a free shuttle to a local bus stop and from there we used public transportation the rest of the time.

I have to tell you a funny little story the first time we boarded the bus in Philly. We had cash but only bigger bills so the machine would not accept our money but the bus driver told us to get on board anyway. Then he informed us he couldn’t give change but since we were already on the bus, he couldn’t kick us off either. He was very kind to direct us to the bus depot where we could get what we needed. All the bus drivers were kind and friendly like that! The moral of this story? Bring small bills and coins to ride the bus!

Food

On the second day, we didn’t eat out at any restaurant because we packed all our food and enjoyed picnics. How does that look for a large family? Everyone carries a backpack with their lunch and snacks packed inside. Rick, Sam and I divide and carry some of the little one’s lunches and supplies.

Anytime we plan to do this, I always look up food and drink restrictions for wherever we are going ahead of time. I want to make sure we don’t have to throw anything away because that would defeat the purpose. If there are restrictions, then I will plan to visit that place in the afternoon after we have already eaten our lunch.

This was a great educational field trip and vacation. I highly recommend you take your family to the great city of Philadelphia! It holds some great memories for our family!

If you are interested in the Benjamin Franklin Unit Study we did in preparation for this trip, check this post out!