by Elena dal Friuli

Created on: July 23, 2011

Most children learn best when allowed to experience in first person the information teachers are trying to relay. For parents and children, one of the pros of homeschooling is the opportunity to take as many field trips as desired. 

Consider the following two inexpensive trip ideas as your children discover concepts in the sciences, language arts, math, and other subject areas. 

Local state park 

Most cities are a relatively short distance away from a state park and most of these parks allow entrance for a nominal parking fee. If the parking fee is a problem, check with your local library to see if they offer a national park pass to their patrons. 

Once at the park, children can discover real life applications to concepts learned at home in math, biology and language arts.

For example, if your youngest child is just now learning to tell time, encourage her to tell you the time of arrival at the park and when you start different activities, all the way to the time you will leave the park. For the older child learning the basics of arithmetic, include some adding and subtracting to see how long you spent engaged in each activity. 

If your children are learning the life cycle of plants, encourage them to find plants at different stages of the cycle and allow them to explain it to you. If they are studying the different types of plants, help them identify these plants by looking at their leaves. Match their shape and color to the leaves of the plants you have been discussing in the lessons. 

Most parks have at least one body of water. Take advantage of it by discussing the water cycle. If possible, have the children take samples of the water and have them check it for possible animal life forms. 

End the field trip with a writing exercise. Let the children write about their day at the park and their discoveries. As they read their compositions, ask them to explain grammar rules they previously learned. 

To find your local state park, visit the U.S. National Park Service website. 

Discovering Main Street 

All cities have a main street downtown. Some call it Main Street, some call it Broad Street, and others may have a different name for it. Whatever its name, it is bound to have things worth discovering during a field trip. 

Math is probably going to be the easiest subject to work with during the walk. The youngest children can count store fronts and doors, while the oldest can figure out how many store windows per store door are on a specific stretch of the street. Have them discover geometric shapes in the displays or on the buildings. 

If the children are studying the geography of the United States, make it a game to find out-of-state license plates. Let them tell you the capital of the state, the location of the state, and possibly even the type of landscape that characterizes the state. 

If there is an historic building downtown, help them learn about its significance and then review with them what was happening in the state, the U.S. and possibly the world during that same time period. 

Taking field trips during the school year to reinforce concepts studied in the homeschool lessons can be inexpensive and fun. The trick is to have an open mind, a bit of foresight and the desire to make these trips as educational as they are entertaining.

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