Field Trips
Who says homeschooling has to happen at home? Most homeschoolers will tell you that they spend almost as much time out of the house as in it. Field trips are learning opportunties that offer fun ways to make every life experience a learning experience. You'll also find tips and strategies for planning, managing, and attending field trips with your homeschool support group.
Resources
Field Trips: Bug Hunting, Animal Tracking, Bird-watching, Shore Walking
With Jim Arnosky as your guide, an ordinary hike becomes an eye-opening experience. He'll help you spot a hawk soaring far overhead and note the details of a dragonfly up close. Study the black-and-white drawings -- based on his own field research -- and you'll discover if those tracks in the brush were made by a deer or a fox.
In his celebrated style, this author, artist, and naturalist enthusiastically shares a wealth of tips. Jim Arnosky wants you to enjoy watching wildlife. He carefully explains how field marks, shapes, and location give clues for identifying certain plants and animals wherever you are. He gives hints for sharpening observational skills. And he encourages you to draw and record birds, insects, shells, animal tracks, and other finds from a busy day's watch.
Community Field Trips in New Mexico
Homeschooling Littles in Colorado
This group is for people planning to or homeschooling their littles and older. Their goal is to grow together as a group forming friendships and camaraderie along the way. Almost all events planned are geared towards preschool to elementary aged kids. However, this doesn't bar you from bringing your older children. They are welcome to join in all the events.
CiCi's Pizza Field Trips
CiCi's Pizza offers Lunch & Learn Field Trips for school groups. This is a hands-on workshop at CiCi's designed by teachers to help kids develop basic math skills. Students use pizza ingredients and other related items to solve problems, and in the process make and enjoy their very own pizza! They offer beginner, intermediate and advanced math level curricula.
Colorado Homeschool Field Trips and General Outings
This is an all inclusive group for homeschoolers of all ages to organize outings. We all homeschool for different reasons. We may be part of other various groups/co-ops. Since we often travel for trips to places like the zoo, and some of us may be from more rural areas, this is a chance to make friends, network, and take advantage of group discounts.
Zoos & Wildlife
Alameda Park Zoo
The Alameda Park Zoo in Alamogordo was established in 1898 with a small collection of waterfowl and deer. The park served as a diversion for weary railway travelers to enjoy as the steam locomotives refueled. Today the well shaded, seven acre Zoo is home to 90 different species, nearly 300 animals. Visitors enjoy playful otters, colorful birds, endangered wolves, and are entertained by the antics of a variety of monkeys. The Zoo also offers travelers a shaded picnic area and playground on seven acres of city park.
Albuquerque Biological Park
The Albuquerque Biological Park includes Albuquerque Aquarium, Rio Grande Botanic Garden, Rio Grande Zoo and, in the near future, Tingley Aquatic Park. The BioPark has an estimated 6,000 animals, 11,000 plants, 300 staff and 350 volunteers.
Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park
Dedicated to the interpretation of the Chihuahuan Desert, Living Desert State Park in Carlsbad is an indoor/outdoor living museum displaying more than 40 native animal species and hundreds of succulents from around the world. While on the 1.3 mile self-guided tour, which takes approximately 1.5 hours, visitors will discover sand dunes and mountainous areas, where pinon and juniper trees contrast with the desert floor below.
Field Trip Tips & Guidelines
Field Trips 101
Field trips can inspire your child to study a topic, give him further insights into his current studies, or provide closure to a completed unit. Is there somewhere you’d like to take your children to reinforce a topic this year? Or just want to visit because it would enrich their lives? If you let your support group (or even just a few other families) know that you are planning to go and they are welcome to tag along (think: group rate)—voila! You’re planning a field trip!
10 Rules for Taking Field Trips
At the beginning of each school year, it would be a good time to have a field trip manners lesson with your support group. Parents and children alike sometimes need to think about what it’s like to be a docent or tour leader. Perhaps your group would even like to consider creating some field trip rules. The rules in this article are ten examples.
Field Trip Report Form
This handy printable form lets your child record a written record of your field trip visit.
The Ideal Homeschool Field Trip
Guidelines for planning a great outing with your homeschooling kids. This post is written by an experienced homeschooler who loves to get out and about to learn in a variety of ways.
A Field Trip Should Not Be a Free-For-All
A reminder of the importance of teaching children respect and proper behavior when out enjoying field trips.
Field Trip Planning Form
Helpful form for getting organized when planning field trips. Free and printable.
Organizing Homeschool Field Trips for Groups
Organizing group field trips is becoming a highly desired activity in homeschool support groups and co-ops. Not only do they offer social interaction but learning experiences as well. But without good planning, a field trip can end up being just a glorified play date. Home education time is limited, especially with the increasing number of extra curricular options for homeschoolers. Parents are becoming more selective of outside activities and attendance on group trips will fall off if participants aren’t seeing an educational benefit in addition to social time. This e-book will describe how to plan and host a great group field trip that will leave
the participants anxious for more and perhaps even take a turn at planning themselves.
10 Tips for Finding and Planning Homeschool Field Trips
While it may be easy to understand the value in visiting the aquarium, history museums and other great field trips, a good field trip can provide much more than interesting facts and new discoveries. Field trips don’t have to be complicated or expensive in order to be effective. These ten tips will help make your planning go smoothly.
Field Trip Guidelines for Homeschool Groups
This letter can be used to establish an understanding about homeschool groups when you organize a field trip.
Field Trips in a Large Family
There are lots of things to love about a large family, but being agile and moving about quickly isn’t really one of them. Learning in action and experiencing something first hand is one of the best things about homeschooling. It’s often what really sets apart our education from that of a traditional brick and mortar school. It is worth it to make the effort for field trips, though it doesn’t necessarily make them any easier!
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Featured Resources
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Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work
Maria Montessori is important background reading for parents considering Montessori education for their children, as well as for those training to become Montessori teachers. The first woman to win a degree as a Doctor of Medicine in Italy in 1896, Maria Montessori's mission to improve children's education began in the slums of Rome in 1907, and continued throughout her lifetime. Her insights into the minds of children led her to develop prepared environments and other tools and devices that ha...
Taking Charge of Your Child's Education: A Guide to Becoming the Primary Influence in Your Child's Life
Every parent wants to give their child the best start in life. The best way to do that is to get fully involved in their educational process as their primary influence. This book is full of helpful information, resources, and tools that will lead you to home education success. Erica Arndt recognizes that the most important factor is the family unit relationships. This book will help you as you make your decision to homeschool.
America's National Parks: The Spectacular Forces That Shaped Our Treasured Lands
From stunning mountain ranges to arid expanses of desert, America has been blessed with an incredibly diverse land -- and the vision to protect it for our and future generations to enjoy. These lands are ours to view, wander, learn from, and revel in. America's National Parks captures all that is great about all fifty-six parks in the national park system. It also gives interesting, easy-to-understand background on the geological and ecological forces that continue to make each national park so ...
Writing Strands & Reading Strands
This program is based on research which shows that there is no useable relationship between the study of grammar as an abstracted skill and the ability to communicate. Writing Strands provides quality reading, writing and speech materials for homeschoolers with children ages 3 through 18. The guided exercises in Writing Strands progress incrementally and allow students to work independently, yet provide the guidance students need to sharpen their ability to inform, persuade and entertain in writ...
Why We Homeschool
It is a common misconception that most parents homeschool due to bullies, school shootings, or bad teaching content. While these things are important, there is a higher purpose for choosing to home education your children. Even if all those things were corrected, there are stronger reasons to stay committed to the homeschool model. So why do you homeschool? This book looks at the meaning and significance of a true Christian education.