When we started homeschooling, I couldn’t have imagined some of the homeschool field trips we would take – like glass blowing or climbing to the top of lighthouses or going behind the scenes at an ice cream shop. I couldn’t even begin to list every homeschool field trip we have done. Field trips can be an amazing way to connect your kids to the world around them. But the learning doesn’t have to be limited to the field trip itself. Have you thought about how you can keep learning beyond the field trip? Keep reading to find out some simple ways you can keep the learning going even after the field trip is done.
When is the best time to use extension activities?
When it comes to extending your learning beyond the field trip, you have choices about when it can be done.
You can do it before you go – this helps your kids to connect what they already learned with what they’re seeing before them. Our family finds going in with background information to make the experience really valuable.
Or you can do it after you go. You can recall what you’ve seen and learn about that. You could even take pictures of things you want to study further and look at those pictures. You can also sketch from them later on or paint a picture. This can work well to spark an interest in something unexpected.
Whether before or after, both are great options for extending your homeschool field trip.
Books
You can always add books to your field trip experience! If wherever you are visiting has a gift shop, this can be a great place to peek in. You can buy books at the gift shop, but you can also just peek and see what books they have displayed. This can give you a great idea of what kinds of books might compliment your visit well. For example, if you see they have a lot of books about sea creatures in the gift shop, you can have a pretty good idea that reading about sea creatures will extend your learning further.
Videos
Watching videos about something you saw on your field trip can also be a great way to take your learning further! Not only could you randomly search Youtube for videos about things you saw and are curious about, but you can also check if wherever you are visiting has a Youtube page. In this day and age, many institutions have Youtube pages and it can be a great way to see behind the scenes features or extra information about what you saw!
Unit Studies to Tie in With Your Homeschool Field Trip
Whenever you are doing a unit study, a great add in can be going on a related field trip. This can really help bring the unit study to life. In fact, one of my long term goals is to create a series of unit studies designed to lead up to a field trip at the end! In the meantime, some of my unit studies already have a field trip feature like my Wetlands Unit Study, which has a journal for observing at a wetland as part of your study!
Utilizing Location Websites for your Homeschool Field Trip
Another great way to extend your learning is to look on the website of wherever you are taking your field trip. Often times, they will have educational resources available to help extend your learning. Additionally, previewing what you’re going to see – like what exhibits are available if you go to a museum – can help you know what you might want to study. It can also be a good resource for finding out if there are special, limited time opportunities.
Keep Your Eyes Open
When we are on our field trip, keeping my eyes open is another valuable resource.
And I don’t mean some people are out there just walking through the venue with their eyes closed.
I mean, while you are there, look for further resources. Sometimes, this will look like a little bonus “exhibit,” like a cart set up to show you a few items that you might be able to touch and feel from the museum’s collection. It can also look like fliers that feature additional information or resource lists of related books and websites.
The Benefits of Having a Membership
We typically choose at least one place a year to have a membership to. We’ve found this amazingly beneficial for our homeschool. It can also be a great way to extend the learning. We love having a membership for the following reasons:
- Access to special members only events and perks – many places have these!
- Having a membership allows us to go for shorter periods of time. Visits can often be pricey, but knowing our costs are spread out over an entire year allows us to pop in for just an hour or two if we desire. There’s also no pressure to see everything in one visit, so if you want to dive deep into one exhibit – you can!
- The ability to go deeper. The first time you visit a place, you tend to see the things that most stick out. But with repeated visits, you tend to go beyond the things that are most prominent and into the nitty-gritty and less explored areas.
- Reciprocal benefits – many places will have a network of other similar attractions in different cities you can visit. Sometimes these will be within driving distance. Other times, you may be able to take advantage of them while traveling
- A familiarity – The more you visit, the more familiar you will be with what is available. As an example, we currently have a membership to a small art museum. One thing they do periodically is to release a scavenger hunt. One of my kids loves to do these scavenger hunts. The most recent one he got, he looked at it and said right away, “Oh, that one is from ‘Dream of the Marsh Potatoes.'” He took that one small snippet of the picture – not even the whole picture – and he knew it because we were familiar with the museum already. The familiarity can bring a deeper level of knowledge and understanding.
Above All, Have Fun on Your Homeschool Field Trip
The best thing you can do on your field trip is to have fun! Field trips are an awesome opportunity for hands on learning that your kids may remember for a lifetime. Finding a way to balance the educational goals of the field trip with having fun will help you hit the sweet spot and make it a rewarding experience.
Stuck for ideas of where to go on your homeschool field trip? This is a great list of affordable field trips.
What field trip has been your favorite? How did you prepare for it?
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