Today we are headed out on a homeschool field trip to Barnwell State Park. In the last post I mentioned that I sometimes have to STRETCH to find something that fits with our unit. Today we’re visiting the park because, as part of our Earth Science unit, we are learning about land features. This state park happens to have an artesian well on the property which I thought my kids would enjoy!
Our family is slowly working our way to becoming Ultimate Outsiders by visiting all 47 South Carolina State Parks. Today’s park is the 10th we have visited. This park is about an hour and a half away from our home.
Monday: Prep
All good trips start with planning, right? The afternoon before our field trips, I pack lunches and snacks while I’m already in the kitchen doing something else. I throw in bottled water and drinks, a new vial of insulin, and stick our cooler bag in the fridge.
The State Park website has a BINGO scavenger hunt, so I print three copies. I printed these on cardstock and attached pens, then stuck them in the kids’ backpacks.
I also checked the backpacks to make sure we had adequate supplies for managing type one diabetes on the field trip. Each of the older kids’ backpacks gets a tube of glucose tablets (what we use for low blood sugar). I also carry two tubes in mine. The older kids’ backpacks get the pouch of supplies that are usually in little sling bags we take everywhere with us. In the littlest Housand’s backpack, I add a spare pull up, spare pair of pants, and a pack of wipes. I save the wipes packages when they’re almost empty and use those for days like this.
Monday night I tell the kids’ about our field trip, and help them pick out appropriate clothing. I also put the bug spray out near our shoes so we don’t forget it.
Tuesday
7:00 We come downstairs for breakfast. The kids usually have morning work laid out for them, but on field trip days, they put on their shoes and medical alert bracelets while I make breakfast.
7:10 While they eat breakfast, we recite our Bible verse for the week and discuss our story, and I add the main character to our Bible timeline. I read the poem for them that goes along with today’s composer study song, which we’ll listen to in the car on the way. While they finish breakfast, I pack backpacks in the car. I also put ice packs in the cooler bag and put the insulin vial in its special ice pack carrying case.
7:20 Because this field trip is a pretty long drive, we get ready to leave now. When we’re going somewhere closer, we will do reading and math before leaving. Today, we will do those after we get back. Kids are instructed to go to the bathroom, get their water bottles, and sit on the blue bench when they are ready. While they’re doing that, I will put everyone’s devices in the car and gather my things. (the kids have two ”phones” each, one is to monitor blood sugar and send updates on that to parents’ phones, and the other controls their insulin pumps)
7:38 We load into the car. I play the song from Carnival of the Animals that we are listening to a few times as we leave the neighborhood. Once they start to lose interest in that, I play an audiobook. We own a few kids’ audiobooks, and I also check some out of the Libby app (a library app we can access with our library card). Today we are listening to an hour long audiobook with several Pinkalicious stories. I keep a tagged list of different audio books that we can check out.
9:40 After one false potty alarm, two real ones, and a diaper change, we finally arrive at the park. We first head to the empty playground. Since we don’t play when other families are using the playgrounds due to Covid, this is the highlight of my kids’ day.
10:00 Quick trip back to the car to grab a forgotten water bottle. We pull out our BINGO cards and read through the items to find. We start on the Dogwood Nature Trail and find several things pretty quickly. It’s SUPER hot outside today (95 degrees), so a lot of the animals on the card aren’t hanging out where we can see them, despite that, we do manage to fill in one column to get BINGO.
10:30 My kids are FREAKING out about every bug that flies by them, thinking its a wasp. One is too hot and just can’t walk anymore. I make the executive decision to turn around before everyone loses their marbles (including me). I give them a big pep talk (first we walk on the dirt, then we walk on the road, then we walk on the boardwalk, then we’re back!). Then, refill everyone’s water bottles for the very long journey of a quarter mile, then replace the lyrics in some Dora the Explorer songs and start marching to motivate everyone. WE CAN DO THIS! Big cheers when we make it to the road! More big cheers when we make it to the boardwalk.
11:00 We make it back to the park office. We stop outside to put on our masks and make sure everyone has their own BINGO cards. Inside, the ranger offers a bag full of cute little SC Parks branded items. My kids all choose a yo-yo (annoying but not as annoying as the whistles I cringed at when he displayed). We head back to the car and do a diaper change for one and potty break for two.
Then, I refill waters again and pass out lunches. I pre-open everything when packing the lunches but leave the wrappers on so I can count up the carbs quickly to give insulin for the lunches. But this way I’m not standing in a parking lot ripping open wrappers in the heat. Our DVD player is currently broken, so we listen to Disney music while the kids eat their lunches, then go back and listen to the Pinkalicious books over again. The littlest one takes about a 30 minute nap.
12:45 We made it home just in time to see Daddy before he heads to work! Kids are super excited about their yo-yos, the playground, and BINGO. They don’t seem to remember how hot it was, or how many bugs they screamed at and ran from. SUCCESS!
We head upstairs for showers & baths because we are sweaty and covered in bug spray. Then, the kids watch a “for fun” show on my bed while I shower. Back downstairs, we do our reading lesson and watch our learning show for the day. Today is Bill Nye, most of his episodes are available on YouTube. I am as tired as a teacher on the first day of school tonight. I contemplate going to bed at 7 pm with them.
Even though our homeschool field trip days can sometimes be a lot to manage, I really do love them. The fun we have together and the experiences the kids are getting far outweigh any difficulties. If you’re on the fence about adventures with your young kids, consider this your push to JUST DO IT. You can always turn around and leave if its absolutely horrible (I HAVE!) and you can bribe them with ice cream!
So, what am I missing? What does your family do to make homeschool field trips better? Let me know in the comments!
If you loved this minute-by-minute breakdown of our day, check out how we schedule other homeschool days here!
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