Home Schooling Field Trip Ideas

Field trips for your home-educated child or children serve many purposes--learning, career contemplation, exploration and plain old fun. They can be elaborate or simplistic and can be done for little or no cost, depending on the trip and all it entails. Often, the child or children view these as the lighter side of school and tend to relax, facilitating the learning process all the more.

The age group your child falls into should guide the choices you make for these field trips. Younger children fare better with short, age appropriate, hands-on types of activities, while older students, perhaps with career paths in mind, are better stimulated by trips where they can develop and/or apply skills within their career path goals.

No or Low Cost Trip Ideas

Your local library can be an excellent field trip for younger children. There are often free or low cost activities offered, such as learning to knit, which can be fun and engaging to youth. For the older student talk to your librarian about a shadowing day where your son or daughter can observe, and perhaps assist with, activities involved with library science.

Farms are wonderful adventures for young learners. Seeing and learning about the animals, crops and work involved with how food comes to be on their dinner plate is a truly fun and science related experience. If your community has a Farmer's Market day, talk to the farmers there to arrange one of these fun, educational trips.

Visiting a Dairy is both fun and educational. A trip like this can be the next step beyond a farm, teaching your child or children about the process of turning the milk a cow produced into the fun-to-eat food we find on and in so many entrees. For the older child, the pasteurization, sanitation and food science processes can be a great addition to science or culinary courses.

The local television news station and meteorologist are little thought of trips. Consider how educational and fun it could be to observe and learn how weather is forecasted and tracked for your community and the surrounding area. Science suddenly becomes less boring to your older student with a field trip like this.

City or Town government meetings are ideal for your older child who is studying Civics. Meetings for councils and boards are generally open to the public and can give a bird's eye view of how your local governing body operates. This trip can also engage your child in wanting to learn more about community service and how he or she can get involved with helping and participating.

Higher Cost Trip Ideas

The more obvious and often more readily thought of field trip ideas involve museums. Some may have free admission days or events but on average, a typical museum entrance fee will run between $10 and $20. If your community has a museum with a children's section, keep that in mind for your younger student.

If period history is of interest to your older student, or if they are studying European history, a trip to a Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) event might be in order. The SCA groups are nationwide and events take place in several states throughout the country. These events typically include demonstrations of blacksmithing, woodworking, weaving, jousting, archery and rapiers. These events generally have an entrance fee and costs for food, drink and items for sale are additional.

Finally, a costlier field trip idea relating to American history or government might be touring Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Library of Congress and the like would provide a wonderful experience for young and older children.

There really is no limit to field trip ideas for your child. With a little imagination, a clear vision of what you want him or her to learn and some phone calls or e-mails you can arrange an exciting, stimulating, out-of-the-ordinary day, evening or afternoon for your learner that will hold their interest or you can plan a more elaborate trip. Remember, the more engaging and fun education can be, the more likely your children are to retain what they learn and excel.