The Year We Went on All the Homeschool Field Trips
We’re still pretty early on in our homeschool journey—though it feels like I’ve been in this journey for quite some time. As a second gen homeschool fam, it makes things interesting. My current homeschool journey feels like a continuation of my personal homeschool journey growing up. This is my fourth official year homeschooling, okay maybe third, since I have only sent my NOI (notice of intent) in three times, the first year was just pre-k. However, it seems like a long journey, but we are really just getting started.
With that being said, I noticed we have been neglecting a favorite of all kids alike—whether homeschooled, attend public or private school— field trips! So I made a mission this school year to go on homeschool field trips as often as our schedule will allow. I believe we have made an excellent dent in this mission.
Homeschool Field Trips of Years Past
Previous years I made the mistake of setting aside one day a week for homeschool field trips, Fridays. There were so many reasons this just didn’t work:
- If we didn’t finish up all our work during the week, I would feel guilty going on these field trips.
- Many homeschool field trip opportunities didn’t always land on a Friday.
- What if we were having a bad day or just not wanting to get out on a Friday for a homeschool field trip? I felt like we had wasted the day away even though other things may have been accomplished that day.
- And, lastly, I felt like a bad mom/teacher if I didn’t have a homeschool field trip lined up for EVERY Friday. That was just too much pressure on myself.
What We’re Doing Different This Year for Homeschool Field Trips
This year, at the very beginning of the school year, I looked over homeschool field trips on local websites/Facebook pages and wrote them all out. I then crossed off any that seemed too advanced for my little ones, any that seemed like the drive didn’t warrant the homeschool field trip, and any that would not work with our schedule. I then highlighted the ones that I felt pertained the most to what we are studying this year or that would interest my crew the most. Connecting online with local websites and
social media pages has been a wealth of information for me in my homeschool journey. They are the biggest resources I have found for finding these homeschool field trip ideas! I encourage you, even if you aren’t big on social media, to find local homeschool groups. They are also a great resource for encouragement, finding and purchasing used curriculum, selling your used curriculum or seeing what works for others that you may not have thought of! For this school year’s homeschool field trips, my favorite resource for has been our local HEAV (home educators association of Virginia) website.
So far this school year we have enjoyed:
- going to the Natural History Museum in Richmond, VA for a fun Space/NASA homeschool day
- going to the state fair of Virginia for homeschool day (actually I think we went a different day, but experience all the things!)
- NOT school related, but enjoyed a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in WIlliamsburg, VA
- going to a local pumpkin patch for homeschool day Back Home on the Farm in Harrisonburg, VA
- going to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville, VA–timely as we are studying American History this school year
- going to Langley Research Center for NASA’s open house in Newport News, VA
- going to the Bible Museum in DC for the Creation Homeschool Day in November
- going to The Lurray Cavarns
Future Homeschool Field Trips
A few more homeschool field trips on our list for later this year:
- we would like to leisurely check out Williamsburg
- go for a visit to Jamestown
- head to Montpelier
- explore the Virginia Science Museum
- have a picnic at Maymount Park
- go to a few zoos, maybe: Richmond Zoo, Natural Bridge Zoo or DC Zoo
- something I am super hopeful to go and do in 2024 is to check out the Liberty Bell in PA, go to the Hershey Park and go to the Crayola Factory
- a dream I would love to do is take the kids to New York City
A few fun things we have done in preparation for all the homeschool field trips this year are:
We purchased the kids new digital cameras. This has been super helpful to encourage the girls to pay attention while on tours and while exploring. We bought these cameras because they are super durable if they are dropped, get wet, and my favorite feature: there are no games! So they are solely used to take photos!!
The kids have journals to document our homeschool field trips, though this has yet to be implemented. I use the Canon Ivy printer to print out sticker photos. They can print 1-3 photos and then write a brief summary of the field trip in their journals we picked up from Walmart. My seven-year-old writes the most about the trip. I typically dictate what she says and then she copies. Or some days, I just write out the hard to spell words for her. My five-year-old writes at the most one sentence. My three-year-old draws pictures and only gets to print one picture. My two-year-old just scribbles in his journal, happy to be included.
The week/day of our homeschool field trip, we read a book and watch a short video (I love BrainPOP on YouTube!) that pertains to our trip. And then we discuss the short video-what they saw, what was said, etc. I used to love the idea of surprising the kids with our homeschool field trips, but I have since learned it’s better to tell them. This allows them to be excited to learn!!
I hope some of these ideas encourage you include more homeschool field trips into your school year. I’m not pro at this homeschool thing. We are still new to this homeschool journey. If you have any tips or tricks for exploring more homeschool field trips, please share in the comments! And please share where some of your favorite homeschool field trips have been to!