10 Fabulous Homeschool Field Trip Ideas
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Field trips are one of the best hands-on learning opportunities around. The best part about homeschooling is that you can go on field trips as often as you like with no limits (other than financial restraints) on how far you can go.
As you’re planning your upcoming school year, be aware of opportunities to take your learning on the road by planning homeschool field trips to tie in to the topics you’re studying – or just for fun! Need some ideas? Some of our favorites have included:
1. K-9 demonstration. Two officers from our local police department came to a church gym that we’d secured for the day and brought their K-9 partners. That was such a cool experience! The officers did several different demonstrations and we learned about how the dogs are trained. I highly recommend setting up a demonstration with your local police station if they have police dogs.
2. Doughnut shop. This tour resulted in one of the biggest turn-outs ever for one of our group’s field trips. I mean, really, a doughnut shop. Need I say more? We got to see the entire process of how the doughnuts were made – and we all got a free doughnut!
3. Fire station. Fire stations are always cool. Plan your visit for National Fire Safety Week in October to maximize the learning opportunity. You might even score coloring books and plastic fire fighter hats.
4. TV stations. I think we managed to hit all three major network affiliates in our area – and we learned something every time. Once we went specifically to visit the meteorologist and learn about the weather. This is especially interesting during hurricane or tornado season, when your kids can learn more about severe weather events.
5. Radio stations. As with TV stations, it’s fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes at the radio stations we listen to every day.
6. Coca-Cola Bottling. We did this very early in our homeschooling journey, but it’s still one of our most memorable field trips. I’ve never seen a place as clean as that Coca-Cola plant. It was fascinating to learn how the cans are filled and the lids put on. If you don’t have a Coca-Cola plant near you, any beverage bottling plant would probably be similar – except, you know, they won’t give you yummy Cokes at the end.
7. Museums. We’ve visited history, science, train, children’s, and archaeology museums. Ask around. You may be surprised to discover small, local museums that you didn’t even know existed.
8. Walking tours. One of my favorite field trips was a walking tour of our city. So often we miss the learning opportunities that are all around us, especially as relates to the history and interesting sites in our own city. A walking tour slows you down and allows you to catch things you miss when you’re driving through.
9. Grocery stores. It’s often a joke that homeschoolers can turn a trip to the grocery store into a field trip, but we really have gone on an official grocery store field trip. It was arranged through The Field Trip Factory, a nifty little site with all sorts of field trip opportunities. We learned about nutrition and food safety, and the kids got to taste test a variety of fruits and vegetables.
10. Zoos and aquariums. We always enjoyed tying aquarium or zoo visits into studies about animals, habitats, and geography. One time, we took a map of the world and tried to find at least one animal from each continent. You could get really creative and put together a little scavenger hunt or bingo board for your next zoo or aquarium visit, too.
Gregg Harris has a great book called A-Z Guide to Homeschool Field Trips that makes a great homeschool field trip resource. I think it’s out of print now, but if you can get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it. It lists all sorts of ideas for places you can go – and places you might be going anyway, such as the doctor or dentist’s office.
The book also suggests lots of questions students might want to ask and topics you might want to research further after the trip. Those question ideas are perfect for avoiding the uncomfortable silence that so often follows the inevitable query, “Does anyone have any questions?”
What are some field trips that you and your family have really enjoyed?
updated from an article originally published May 4, 2010.
images courtesy of depositphotos
This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday and the Hip Homeschool Hop.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
We live very clost to a tv station and several radio stations, yet I never even thought of going on a fied trip there. I guess I always thought those places were ‘off-limits’ to us plebians. 🙂 We also have a Pepsi bottling company near us, along with Nestle and Josh Earle Candy Company. I never thought of going there, either. Did you call ahead of time to set something up?
Yes, I always called ahead. Some places won’t do tours, but it never hurts to ask.
Those are all great ideas!! We love field trips and have gone on a bunch of very fun ones. Recently I set one up with our local public transporation company and it was awesome! Thank you for sharing your ideas. 🙂
Fun ideas. Our librarian told us that they do tours of the library, too, to teach kids about how to use the library and things like what happens to the book you put in the return slot.
These are such great ideas! We love a bakery, too! We’ve watched donuts falling off the machine belt and helped add sprinkles. Nothing like a fresh, warm donut to make a memory solid!!!
Volunteering at pet centers or the vet is a real eye opening e experience for kids and parents alike. We’ve moved quite a bit over the years – Houston, Denver, Dallas, Tulsa, Austin…. and so every time I call around. We have one that wants to be a vet now!
Your imagination is the limit! Call and ask. Most companies are excited to have someone interested in what they do all day! We take this into consideration when we travel as well. Once in Morocco, the kids helped the local kasbah baker bake bread. Now THAT was awesome and of course we had to compare and contrast the experience there vs the experience we had our local bakery. I taught language arts for 15 years in the public school system and my favorite activities after any outing involve writing! 🙂
The post office was a great learning experience for us! Also farms when it’s harvest season. Annual labor day trip is to the Apple orchard and strawberry picking is every may.