Let's Get Out And Explore!

The school doesn't have to be boring with the kid's noses stuck in books all day, there is a plethora of great free, or darn near free field trips to take so you can bring excitement back into learning. Get creative and remember you are the teacher, you know your kid's best. I will compile a list of some great field trip ideas that I have experienced with my own family, and some that I have been told were great places by my homeschooling friend.

County Fair
Giant corn dogs, fried twinkies, and humongous turkey legs are my idea of a great school day, but of course, there are learning opportunities as well. Fair's an amazing educational resource because you are a private homeschool you get in free with your family, all you have to do is sign up for your school, pick a day, print out your parking voucher and tickets, and voila! You are in the fair for free. Head on over to the link below if you are in the Los Angeles area, if you are not worried all county fairgrounds offer these or similar programs(.https://fairplex.com/tlcfairplex/programs/fairkids ) As a private school you are allowed to take in food and beverages, there are specific times you need to be in fair by but there is not a time you have to leave, so prepare for a full fun-filled day. On the same link, you can print out forms for the "read to ride program" which gives your students ride tickets for completing book reports. They have museums, dinosaur exhibits, competitions you can get your children enrolled into, and western living demos, and every year they add new and amazing things to do, you truly can stay a whole day and not finish everything.

Museums
Google "free museums" in your area, most of the time you can get into a museum for free as a student as long as you arrive during school slots. Some great ones are Science Museums, American History Museums, Art museums, Children's hands-on Museums, which are great for little ones, and of course Air Museums. The great thing about using museums as part of what your learning is you can create a curriculum in relation to the museum you visit. To make it a full school day you can print out color pages from Pinterest or you can google "free color pages", to get a variety of curriculum-related pages. You can also create word searches, and multiple choice questions on what you guys learned that day, or have the kids take notebooks so they can jot down fun, interesting facts they learned. When they get home they can write an essay about the whole experience and this can go towards the day's credits, your little ones can draw pictures if they can't write just yet.

National Parks
Head on over to your state's National Parks, there's nothing like hiking in the vast mountains. Your children can create notebooks on the types of flowers, trees, bugs, and animals they come across. Use those notebooks to do reports on either one of those subjects, or create project boards with samples of leaves, flowers, or whatever else you can imagine. Most of these parks have Discovery centers where you can learn more about the park and the animals that reside there, and take advantage of the free information you can collect to use at a later time. If you have a little photographer in the family this would be a great time for them to practice nature shots and use the edits as part of there end of year project, the list goes on and on of the creativity you can have. Remember it is all about having fun while you learn.

Zoo
 Most zoos offer student discounts I have seen a discount of up to 15% off but I'm not too sure how much cheaper you can get tickets. Try going on sites like Groupon or Retailmenot for additional savings. These discounts will vary by zoo so do your homework on what is the cheapest way to go. If you go on the zoo site you can find a "Things to do" tab where they list all the activities your child can take part in along with the hours they are doing them.  Again create notebooks according to species, or focus on a few animals at a time and have your kids get information on what they eat, how they sleep, where they live, how they interact as a family, etc. These notebooks can be a beginning source for the kids so when they get home they can explore further on the internet and create a whole project on what they learned. Always remember that going on field trips counts as a school day credit so don't mark yourself absent on your attendance. Learning is learning!

Farms
Check out your town's farms, they have valuable resources to educate your children. Growing crops, caring for animals, and farm life, and they even give demonstrations on using farm tools. A Lot of farms give you the option to "you pick" your berries, apples, and other fruit so call ahead and see what they offer. Feel free to take lunch, and a blanket, and relax while having a picnic. Have a good look around as they may have a store where they sell home-baked goods from seasonal produce.

Aquariums
Last but certainly not least aquariums! Google if your city has an aquarium close by or better yet make a vacation out of it by traveling out of your city to explore some amazing aquariums across states. Again it counts as school days because you are educating your children. As mentioned above create notebooks, and do reports on what was learned. Aquariums do have discounts for students and also have programs your children can be part of. I know our local Aquarium of The Pacific has an "Educate" link if you press that it takes you to the "Homeschool" tab, click and it will have things offered by the aquarium specifically for homeschoolers. Some of the events listed are Homeschool Days which states "During these special events, no classroom-based school trips will be booked. This allows our educators to bring ocean related activities and biofacts to homeschool families throughout the morning. These engaging learning stations will allow students of all ages to experiment, investigate, and explore marine habitats and concepts. ". Another one is Homeschool Science Nights the description on their site says this "While enjoying the Aquarium, families will have an opportunity to explore interactive science stations with Aquarium educators and learn how scientists are collecting data to conserve species like sharks, whales, and sea turtles". Always remember to call ahead when planning a trip so you can get the most out of your adventures in learning.