I can recall one of my first years of homeschooling. I had 3 little ones and a big desire to instill in them the wonder of the natural world and a deep love for learning. It was the first month of school and we were studying insects. Picture coffee filter butterflies, construction paper caterpillars and life cycle toys. We talked about the basic needs of living things, the beautiful world God created for insects and the way we can respectfully explore these beautiful creatures. It was all really neat information. And they enjoyed it. But then, I took them to the butterfly conservatory – and I witnessed the incredible spectacle of learning coming to life.
I remember that day so vividly because it changed something pivotal inside me. As I sat back and watched the instructors at the conservatory bring the insect world right to my children’s fingertips, I was left in awe. And so were my children. Here was the caterpillar’s cocoon that we saw in the books. And would you look at that… it needs to hang a specific way, and not be disturbed or touched. And here are some spiders who actually do have 8 legs instead of 6. The kids even got to tag some monarch butterflies and set them off on their flight from Canada to Mexico – just like we saw in the Planet Earth documentary.
Here’s what I learned that day: field trips are the practical experience of the learned material. They make the homeschool more rich and real and tangible. And the coolest thing is that they are really easy to incorporate. There are the predictable ones like the butterfly conservatory, the museum, the planetarium. But if you take some time to think outside the box, you are sure to come up with some incredible ways to extend your children’s learning so far outside the walls of your home.
If you’re doing a unit on transportation, reach out to your autoshop and see if they’ll let you bring your kids to watch the cars get fixed one afternoon. If you have older kids, ask how they might be allowed to help at the shop for the day. People tend to be a lot more lenient to having kids at their workplace if it’s in the context of homeschooling given that the mom is there and the number of kids if far less than that of a standard classroom. After you finish the autoshop, check the train schedule in your city and take your kids on a train ride downtown for ice cream. Next, google your nearest airport and look up places near the runway with a great view of planes taking off and landing. How’s that for a rich unit on transportation?
The ideas for field trips are endless. They don’t have to cost anything. They don’t have to be actual businesses – think of your neighbor’s pond. They don’t even have to be super creative – think of your local East Side Mario’s restaurant for a field trip during a unit on Italy. Here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:
- Unit on ecosystems
- Hike at a local conservation
- Neighborhood park – find a piece of forest, or even a puddle to examine
- The zoo
- The aquarium
- A local farm – go see what you find in the rafters of the barn
- Unit on the human body
- Local doctor’s office
- Local dentist’s office
- Local eye doctor’s office
- Have a specimen shipped right to your home for dissection
- Visit a blood donor clinic and ask how it works and who it benefits
- Tour your nearest hospital
- Unit on money
- Local bank
- Grocery store
- Thrift store
- Have a business owner friend come over and do a presentation on their work – bonus if it’s a young entrepreneur
- Unit on Mexico
- Mexican restaurant for dinner
- Have a friend who visited Mexico recently come over and talk about their experience – bonus if you have a friend who is originally from Mexico
- Art gallery – find some artists from Mexico and search for patterns in their style
- Visit your local museum and make sure to go through any Mexican exhibits
- Unit on physics or energy
- Visit your nearest amusement park and calculate acceleration and speed of different roller coasters
- Go Treetop Trekking and talk about potential vs kinetic energy on the courses
- Search for a nearby circus school or a gymnastics gym (many have drop-in hours) and experience gravity in a cool, new way
The sky is the limit when it comes to incorporating field trips into your homeschool. And the benefits are endless too. The kids get to see the applications of their school content, the impacts of what they’re learning in the context of the real world, and they deepen their understanding of the material by experiencing it in ways that would not be possible otherwise. And on top of all that, you don’t have to plan the details of the material taught that one particular day – score!
If you have gone on cool field trips as part of your homeschool, please share them below so we can be inspired.
