Field trips are about 75% of the reasons I wanted to homeschool. Seriously. When I was student teaching, I got to teach South Carolina History 4 times per day. I always wished we could load up the kids every day and take them to the places we studied. (I would pay big bucks to be Mrs. Frizzle)
When we decided to homeschool I knew field trips would play an important role in our learning. Generally, we try to go on one field trip each week. During Covid that has been somewhat difficult due to lack of precautions in our area. Even so, we’ve managed to find plenty to do.
We never run out of ideas, because I keep a master list of field trips on my computer, on Pinterest, and we also have a South Carolina State Park Passport. When I’m planning a new unit, I’ll check those places first for ideas. If I can’t find anything that relates, I start googling. I can usually come up with something that vaguely connects to our learning. For example, visiting a sundial during our light and shadows unit study fit perfectly. I can hype ANYTHING into a field trip.
Looking back at some of our random field trips throughout the years made me smile. It was SO hard many times to get out of the house, especially when we had newborns, but absolutely worth it. And our kids won’t remember how difficult it was for us to manage, but they will remember that you made the time to give them fun experiences.
On Thursday, I’ll take you minute-by-minute through what a field trip day looks like in our homeschool. I’ll share what we pack, what our homeschool schedule looks like on field trip days, and bring you along on one of our most recent field trips. Come back and join us!
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