Field Trip
There are many benefits to homeschooling your children. One benefit is the freedom and opportunity to enhance curriculum with field trips. Field trip destinations are often more willing to accommodate a smaller home school group than they would be a larger group. Many different units of study can be enriched by imaginative field trip ideas.
Science Study
Consider visiting a planetarium for an astronomy unit. A zoo, a farm or a veterinarian's office might be suitable field trip destinations for an animal unit. If there is a rock quarry nearby, this would be an ideal spot to dig for fossils to supplement a geology unit. A plant unit might be enhanced by taking a nature hike at a park with hiking trails. Encourage children to look for plant specimens and bring along sketch books to draw the plants they see. A bird or animal unit might also be enhanced by a nature hike.
History Study
A homeschooling family could, for example, visit a museum of natural history to spend the day touring. If American government is being studied, a trip to a courthouse to observe the public proceedings might be educational. If homeschoolers are studying community service and helpers, perhaps scheduling a tour of the local fire station, post office, a jail or other emergency service office would be interesting.
Entertaining Yet Educational
There are many entertaining field trip destinations that can also be educational in nature. Select a live show or play at a local theater that children would enjoy. Perhaps there is even a play that complements or enhances a unit being studied. Exposing children to various forms of live entertainment, such as opera, can be an effective way of helping children develop appreciation of the arts.
Visit an art museum and arrange a tour by a docent so children can have an especially educational tour of the museum.
If there are local businesses that interest your children, try to arrange a tour. Possible businesses include a local manufacturing plant, a newspaper printer, food manufacturing such as a bakery, a local grocery store or even the kitchen area of a restaurant. Often these businesses will allow children to participate in some form, and children will be able to leave with samples of the business product.
Tags: trip destinations, animal unit, arrange tour, being studied, Field Trip, nature hike, There many
