This article explains the value of homeschool field trips. Looking for ideas for homeschool field trips? Look no further! This article helps you in your quest for interesting and educational journeys, both near and far.

The Values of Homeschool Field Trips

Homeschool field trips can add a lot to your homeschooling experience. While homeschooling, for the most part, may encourage you to stick close to home, homeschool field trips free you to explore other places. While homeschooling may limit your and your childrens' opportunities for interactions with others during schooltime, homeschool field trips can create an educational opportunity for socializing.

On homeschool field trips, you can broaden your students' days with experiences that go beyond what they can find in books, videos, or other multimedia presentations. Such field trips provide opportunities for encounters and interactions that can range from the practical (how to pump gas or use the stamp machine in the post office) to life-changing.

As Close as Next Door

It's possible to construct homeschool lessons with an eye to heading out of the house. Here are some ideas:

 - Interview neighbors about:

• their favorite book/song/movie
• how long they've lived in the neighborhood and what changes have taken place
• the place they were born
• their favorite food and how to prepare it

 - Visit neighbors to:

• determine the average number of books/spoons/lamps/computers people in your area own
• determine how much the height of kitchen counters/dining room tables/desktops varies
• identify and count the number of species of flowers on each property

Of course, any of these could be done farther from home as well and many more activities that involve visits outside the home are possible.

Types of Field Trips

One way to look at field trips is to consider them by category.

 - Athletic/Sporting Field Trips

Physical education doesn't have to begin and end with jumping jacks and push-ups. Try some of these ideas:

• go ice skating
• go for a walk or hike
• take a jog or a run
• swim in the local lake, pool, reservoir, ocean
• play miniature golf
• bowl
• have a neighborhood game of croquet or bocce
• visit a batting cage

And then there's the spectator side:

• horse shows
• dog and cat shows
• baseball, football, soccer, rugby, cricket, lacrosse, field hockey, etc. games

Household Activity Field Trips

Household activity homeschool field trips take the errands, chores, and tasks of the household and focus on the educational possibilities they present. Consider how you could tie each of the following to the classroom:

• trip to recycling center / town dump
• grocery shopping
• buying stamps at the post office
• adopting a pet
• visiting someone in a nursing home / hospital / rehabilitation center

Entertainment Field Trips

• see a movie based on a book your child has read
• watch a live sporting event, from T-ball to B-ball
• see a play or musical
• take in a choral or instrumental concert
• watch a ballet or some other type of dance performance

Enrichment Field Trips

Enrichment field trips are trips that aren't required by the household and don't fall into the entertainment category, but can be engaging and enlightening.

• spend a day on a farm
• visit a museum: art, history, or specialty
• go to a planetarium or aquarium
• visit a botanical garden or arboretum

Vacation Field Trips

A family vacation can do double-duty as an extended homeschool field trip. Having time in a place allows for soaking up the environment in a way that no sources at a distance provide. Spots to consider:

• Washington, D.C.
• your state capital city
• ocean locations, where you can observe marine life
• urban centers, where you can investigate the transportation systems, the cuisine, and the architecture
• rural bed and breakfasts, where you can experience the differences between city and country living
• locations in which the foreign language you're teaching in your homeschool is spoken
• locations that you're studying in social studies

And wherever you're going - near or far - bon voyage!