Exploring education: the homeschooler's guide to field trips
How field trips inspire fresh learning in your homeschooling, why they're valuable, and how to incorporate more in your routine.
Field trips can inspire a level of learning that doesn’t happen in the classroom. They can enhance the curriculum and create an immersive learning experience for children.
Homeschooled children, in particular, have a unique opportunity to go on field trips often because of the flexibility of homeschooling. So your kids have a chance to get more of the educational and social benefits of hands-on learning. Let’s talk more about what good field trips can do in homeschooling and how to best incorporate them.
How valuable field trips can be for homeschoolers
Field trips are especially valuable because of how they can enhance the curriculum for your children. While one child might be great with in-classroom learning and traditional instruction, another might need hands-on experience and autonomy in their education.
Field trips can accommodate different learning styles and offer another way for your kids to learn the lesson you’re teaching. The socialization benefits are noteworthy as well. Parents who homeschool their children work hard to ensure their kids get lots of opportunities to socialize.
You further the socialization opportunities for your kids when you incorporate excursions into their education. For example, you can invite other homeschooled kids to come with you. Or, your children may meet other kids and interact with adults just by being out and about.
Finally, the benefits go beyond furthering your child’s education and helping them socialize. Being outside can positively impact your and your kids’ health and well-being. For example, let’s say you take your children on an outing to the state park. They get to learn about different plants, animals, and waterways.
Being in nature can also inspire better health by increasing physical activity and reducing stress levels. If you or your children are living with anxiety or depression, being in nature can boost your mood and facilitate centeredness to better cope with symptoms.
Field trips can create an immersive education experience for your children that inspires them to be engaged and enthusiastic about what they’re learning. The social and health benefits increase their value as well.
Field trip best practices for parents homeschooling their kids
The impact outings can have on your children’s education and personhood is worth every effort to make them happen regularly. Thankfully, it’s simpler than most think to make field trips a priority for homeschooled kids.
Start a field trip fund
Excursions are as expensive as you make them. But even low-cost trips will require some kind of funding, whether for gas, food, entry into an event, or other expenses. So, it’s a good idea to start a field trip fund to ensure you aren’t stressing about covering costs. You can contribute to the fund with your personal income sources. You can also look into grants for homeschooling families.
Search for grants that help you with homeschooling expenses in general and allow you to choose where to allocate the funds. See if there are any grants specifically for field trip funding for homeschooled kids as well. An internet search for “grants for homeschool families” will get your research started.
Get your kids involved
You want your kids to get the most out of every outing. You want them to be excited about each one to help fuel their engagement. One of the best ways to incite this enthusiasm is to allow your kids to choose the field trips you go on.
Discuss your children’s interests with them to flesh out what kind of expeditions would help them explore those interests. Consider your curriculum, too. What trips would help hammer home each lesson? Have your kids start a list of field trip ideas and keep adding to it to ensure you never run out of outings that are meaningful and most likely to make an impact on your children.
Invite other homeschool families to join you
Just because it’s only you and your kids in your homeschool classroom, it doesn’t mean others can’t join you on your field trips. Invite other homeschooled families to join you to give your kids a chance to work on their social skills and enjoy learning with other children. You can also cut down on costs when other families come along.
For example, gas and travel costs are significant expenses. If you decide to carpool with the other families, you can split the gas bill. They might also be up for sharing vehicle maintenance costs, like oil changes and tune-ups if you’re going on field trips together often enough.
Sit down with the homeschool parents you’re closest with to see if regular outings are something they’d be interested in.
Don’t feel like you have to plan everything out
One of the best things about homeschooling. is that you don’t necessarily have to stick to the schedule traditional educational institutions adhere to. You can tailor every day to the educational needs of your children.
Take advantage of spontaneous excursions. For instance, take your science experiments to a local park. Go on a virtual field trip to a zoo or museum if you can’t get out of the house. Drop by the grocery store to continue your lesson on budgeting. So don’t feel like you have to plan everything out when it comes to your field trips.
Rely on resources
You don’t have to go it alone when it comes to coming up with field trip ideas. In addition to your own instincts, you can rely on online resources to look up potential field trips by state, consult a local parenting magazine for specific ideas, or find a website that offers excellent suggestions.
Conclusion
Field trips can enhance the way homeschoolers learn, socialize, and take care of themselves. Incorporating them into your homeschooling curriculum is manageable with the right plan. Get ahead of the costs, get your children and other homeschool families involved, and take advantage of spontaneity to incorporate outings with ease.
Get more educational resources and inspiration for your homeschooling in this eBook. It includes 40 free and low-cost educational apps, books, games, and more.
