One very important aspect of homeschool is the field trips. Between COVID restrictions and trying to get all our school work done it can be difficult to find those fun activities to do with your kiddos. I have compiled a list of different (some are out of the box) field trips you could do this year.

Nature

Nature is one of the perfect homeschool field trips because it is fairly cheap if not free!! I am all about free in homeschooling. Taking a nature walk is a great way to have a field trip. These nature walks can be in a city or in the county. On a walk you can talk about the different animals you see, the different sounds you hear, the different textures around you, etc. The possibilities are endless. Once you get home, have your child look up different birds or animals they saw or try and identify the birds by their different calls.

We have used a scavenger hunt before to focus our walks. I printed out a BINGO card from PBS Kids and used it as a scavenger hunt. I added to the fun by letting my 3 year old take a picture of everything we found. She had a blast, we got outside, we went for a long walk, and learned about different items in our neighborhood.

We also have done a hike on the weekend so that Daddy could come with us. We went to a local museum and nature area and learned about Lewis and Clark. You can read about it here on my weekly review.

There is so much you can do in nature. Julie Naturally writes about a lot of other ideas (especially for older children) here in her article about Learning Outside. She discusses geocaching, bird watching, fishing, etc. and how they are easy to connect to any learning that is done at home.

Volunteering

Another one of the great homeschool field trips is volunteering as you serve your community and learn about the world around you. Check out this great idea from Hess UnAcademy about volunteering at a wildlife refuge. At the end of the article there is also a a Wildlife Service Curriculum that you can use to document your child’s learning.

Another way for any child to volunteer is to make something for a local group. Our local homeless shelter is looking for cards to be made. My little ones can do this and learn about what it means to be homeless and how we can help the homeless. Easy day exploring something new.

Last year, we made cookies for our Fire Department. We spent a few days making cookies and decorating cookies. We took them to the local fire department (I called ahead to make sure they would be there baring an emergency) and even got a quick tour of the fire station. It was an easy lesson in serving our front lines. (Due to COVID restrictions, I would call your fire department or police station before making anything to ensure they can take baked goods or if it needs to be store bought.)

Immersion Learning Experiences

For older children, immersion learning experiences are a great way to learn about a variety of things. For example, it is hard to just read about changing a tire and be able to do it correctly the first time. You need to practice. Field experiences can help you child with these out of the box skills. Check out this article from Julie Naturally about different types of Immersion Learning.

Grocery Stores

Most families go to the grocery store every week. This is a great way to get in a field trip. Learning about money, have your child keep record if how much you have spent during the trip and have them count out the money to give to the cashier. Learning about different types of food, talk about healthy vs. unhealthy food as you walk through the store. Have your child try and figure out if the chips they want is better or worse than the crackers they want by looking at all the nutritional value. Learning about a budget, give your child a budget and have them buy the groceries for the week. Learning about colors, have your child find different colors at the store. This experience can be used at any age! Check out my G is for Goat Week from last year when we did this ourselves. Want to extend your grocery shopping field trip, use my dramatic play packet to create your own grocery store at your house!

Grocery Store Dramatic Play Packet

This is a digital file to create your own grocery store in your home’s dramatic play area.

$7.00

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Zoos and Museums

One last idea is looking at your local museums and zoos. We have so much fun at our local children’s museum that we got a membership so we can go whenever we want. The kids play hard and learn a ton just through doing. Zoos are the same. We talk about the different animals, the different habitats, the different sounds, etc. We learn so much. If you don’t have any near you there are tons of virtual ones you can visit as well. Check out my article about Zoos where we visited a ton of virtual zoos. We also have used Explore.org before. I love this site. There are webcams you can view from all over the globe. We have watched animals living in Africa and bears in Alaska and even puppies in Maryland.

What is your favorite out the box field trip you have done with your kids?

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