Now that you’ve survived Hurricane Arthur and thought that wasn’t so bad you might feel that the summer, when the kids are out of school, is the time to move to Daytona Beach. Then you suddenly think about school and culture and all the other needs of your children. Good news on that front, Daytona Beach has plenty to offer.
Schools in the Daytona Beach area are part of the FCAT testing system. Every child takes a once a year test and the grades go into deciding how to improve schools. This has meant a large improvement in education in Florida as a whole.
What if you don’t like the school district? Florida offers both home schooling and partial home schooling as well as online schooling for kindergarten through 12th grade. In tradition home schooling you teach your child every subject and they are tested on a regular basis by the county school board. Partial home schooling is the same except if there are a few classes you’d rather not teach you can work with the local school district so your child can attend only those classes and be home schooled for all other subjects. Online schooling is relatively new. All classes can be taken online from your home. Testing is still done by the local school board.
Colleges are not quite as numerous in the Daytona Beach area as they are in Central Massachusetts. Recently the local community college was accredited and is now Daytona State College which offers 2 year, 4 year degrees as well as certificate programs. This is also the home of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. The area has smaller branches of business colleges and technical schools.
Culture has always been an important part of educating children. While the history here is quite different from Central Massachusetts there is still a lot of it. Instead of Pilgrims, there were Ponce de Leon and Spanish settlers. You can drive through the Daytona Beach area and see small parks with historic sugar mill buildings still standing. Just over fifty miles north is St. Augustine, the oldest city in the continental United States. More modern history is approximately 70 miles south at the Kennedy Space Center.
Locally Daytona Beach has both museums and theaters. The Ocean Center hosts concerts, plays and events. In and around Daytona Beach are numerous small, live theaters and there is also the Symphony Society which brings orchestras, dance companies and operas from other parts of the world to perform in Daytona Beach. Museums are a great feature of the area. Just two are the Southeast Museum of Photography and the Cuban Museum which contains a planetarium as well as visiting exhibits and a truly awesome collection of dinosaur bones.
If you like history and science there is the Port Orange Lighthouse with historic buildings to walk through on the grounds as well as a lighthouse where you can climb to the top and see the area. The same area is where the Marine Science Center is located. These are just two of the family-friendly attractions to visit.
Daytona Beach is home to the Daytona Speedway but that is not the only sport featured in the city. Just north of Daytona Beach is the home of the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association). Daytona Beach has plenty of golf courses for enthusiasts as well as tennis courts. Hiking and biking are popular in the Sunshine State as well as bird watching. You’ll find sports from auto racing to volleyball here.
While Daytona Beach is primarily a tourist area you’ll find plenty for both adults and children to experience with the diverse culture, sports and schooling available.