3 Fantastic Field Trips for Homeschoolers

3 Fantastic Field Trips for Homeschoolers

Whether you’re going on a field trip to extend learning, provide hands-on opportunities, or to visit experts in a field of study, you can be sure that your homeschoolers will benefit from the outing. As EducationNext points out: “In particular, enriching field trips contribute to the development of students into civilized young men and women who possess more knowledge about art, have stronger critical-thinking skills, exhibit increased historical empathy, display higher levels of tolerance, and have a greater taste for consuming art and culture.”

Whether you’re planning to visit a local firehouse, museum, aquarium, or cultural center, you can be sure your homeschoolers will reap the benefits of the field trip. Here are some excellent field trip destinations to help you start planning your itinerary:

Historical Sites Significant To Your Lessons

Historical sites are abundant in the United States, so there is agood chance there is at least one near your home. Of course, historical sites such as Gettysburg, Boston, Washington, DC, Williamsburg, and Philadelphia are fantastic places to go on a field trip when you are teaching about our nation’s history. U.S. News & World Report ranked the best historic destinations in the USA, and any of their locations would be a fantastic trip for homeschoolers because they contain “preserved landmarks, notable monuments, and tourist-friendly services.”

Depending on where you’re going, you might spice things up by encouraging the kids to dress up. For example, if you’re going to Colonial Williamsburg, they could wear colonial costumes. Or you may want to create a scavenger hunt or challenge questions for them during the trip, and give them journals or cameras so they can document their experiences.

Science Centers

There are only so many experiments and hands-on activities you can provide for your homeschoolers. Taking a field trip to a science center will give them more opportunities to touch, learn, and experiment. There are some science centers in the U.S. that cater to younger children; in fact, Parents magazine has rounded up a list of the 25 most innovative places that are perfect for younger kids, and I have included their top 10 picks here:

1.     The Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio

2.     Exploratorium in San Francisco, California

3.     Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts

4.     Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey

5.     St. Louis Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri

6.     New York Hall of Science in Flushing, New York

7.     California Science Center in Los Angeles, California

8.     Sci-Port Discovery Center in Shreveport, Louisiana

9.     The Franklin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

10. Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, Maryland

If you take a field trip to a noted science center, kids will be engaged in the interactive exhibits and will remember their experiences learning about science in fun ways for a long time.

Museums

Museums hold mysterious and fascinating objects, from dinosaurs to early airplanes. Museums are fantastic field trip destinations for homeschoolers because they have exhibits that appeal to a variety of interests and have several connections to your homeschool curricula. Of course, as Larry Olmsted, contributor to Forbes points out, museums that are geared toward adults have exhibits that are appropriate for children, such as the dinosaur skeletons at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, Chicago’s Field Museum, and the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.

But, there are 12 museums in the U.S. that are best for children, according to Olmsted. You may want to consider these when compiling your fantastic field trips for homeschoolers short list:

1.     Children’s Museum Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Indiana

2.     Port Discovery in Baltimore, Maryland

3.     Boston Children’s Museum in Boston, Massachusetts

4.     Brooklyn Children’s Museum in New York City, New York

5.     Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio

6.     Children’s Museum of Denver, Colorado

7.     Discovery Center Museum in Rockford, Illinois

8.     Children’s Museum of Houston, Texas

9.     Children’s Museum of Maine in Portland, Maine

10. Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

11. Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota

12. The Strong in Rochester, New York

Wherever you take your homeschoolers for their field trip, they are sure to have a fantastic time learning, exploring, and experiencing outside of their normal learning environment. Historical sites, science centers, and museums that are geared toward kids hold the key to enriched learning opportunities.

Jamie Strand is a former homeschool kid and unashamed science nerd. He’s a community college professor and proud father of two daughters who wants to inspire a passion for science and math in today’s young people. That goal drove him to start SciCamps.org with help from a good friend. When he isn’t teaching, Jamie can often be found digging for fossils in the backyard with his daughters, exploring the local nature preserve, or binge watching Star Trek reruns.