What do you do for "feild trips"?

[mommymarliah]

My son is only 5 but I am looking for feild trip ideas, so far we have been to the big indoor playground, I would also like to take him to the childrens museum, any other ideas for feild trips??

[beaner&tiegs]

Oh my, I guess we do tonnes of field trips, but we also live in a city with tonnes to do for kids. I kind of turn most things into a "field" trip, I guess (in my mind, that is.....) Do you live in the city?

Every couple of days we go to the small branch library at the end of our street, so for a special trip we'll go to the big library downtown. All sorts of museums, Science World, Aquarium, city garden, different neighbourhoods to have lunch and browse around, to various public markets, chinatown, we did a month long bike trip in the Queen Charlottes and read lots of books about the Haida along the way, and camped on the beaches and read lots of books about oceans/drew pictures. When I was pregnant we would make an adventure of going to the midwives, and Kea would practice checking me out with her doctor kit afterwards. When we get groceries, she helps me write a list, helps me find where things are and then wants to pay a portion of it with her money. Geez, I guess much of our life is a field trip?! How do you define a field trip?!!!! One thing I want to do is start a neighbourhood journal, where we can draw pictures, take photos and write all about our neighbourhood, notice changes, etc.

[atypicalandrea]

I go to Tourist Information and pick up pamphlets on anything I think the kids and I would like to do, or I let them pick. Then we do 'em! We even go to regular museums and art galleries, not just the Children's ones.

The grocery store will usually do tours, so will the fire & police depts.

[APMomof3]

We are going to a working farm next week! I can't wait. LOL
Also, our homeschool group does a lot. They go to Sci Works (a children's science museum), an apple orchard, a trip to the state capitol, and all of the same plays that the public schools go to. I know there are more, but these are what we have just for the month of October.

[annettemarie]

Next week we're going to the pumpkin patch with MOPS, this week we went to look at fish at the pet store, the week before we went to Purity Candies where we found out we could bring a group in next week to make candy canes! Sometimes it's worth joining a homeschool group just for the field trips! There are also some web sites that list places to visit.
Annette

[UnschoolnMa]

We don't really consider most of what we do field trips, just everyday family fun and living. Library, museum, shopping, parks, hiking et. Our unschooling group however does go on field trips together. I just scheduled our group for a harvest trip to the farm. We are going to take a train ride to the pumpkin patch and pick pumpkins. Then we go to their critter area to pet and visit the animals, then the corn maze and hay fort, and then maybe some snacks. We've also painted pottery, and had potlucks. In the future I plan to have us visit a newspaper office to learn how that works, maybe a news station, a bakery who might let us bake something, etc.

[Brisen]

riversprite, I was reading your post and thinking it sounded like Ottawa. I grew up around there, and I really want to move back. There is a lot for kids to do here too, though.

We do a lot of the same things that have been mentioned. I like taking the kids to conservation areas too, throughout the year. It's nice to see how things change with the seasons. A local group also arranges lots of field trips -- often tours of businesses (pizza hut, home depot, loblaws, etc.) or volunteering (they do a lot at the food bank, for instance). The university here also has free concerts regularly. The group also buys group tickets for plays and musicals.

[daylily]

We've been studying ocean life and tommorrow we're going to the National Aquarium in Baltimore! I'm really excited, and so are the kids. Later this year, we plan to go to the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.

But for small-scale things, we go to parks and visit the library weekly (at least). I'm not trying to say that homeschooling should compare to public school, but I'll just point out that when dd was in public school she went on some really *lame* field trips--like her teacher's house, that also happened to be a vineyard, or walking around downtown, which we do on our own all the time, or a trip to a children's museum that we belong to and used to visit almost weekly.

[riversprite_ca]

Originally Posted by Brisen

riversprite, I was reading your post and thinking it sounded like Ottawa. I grew up around there, and I really want to move back. There is a lot for kids to do here too, though.

Yes! It's Ottawa. I'm actually in Aylmer (across the bridge) but I lived in Ottawa from the age of 10-25.
Where are you now?

[littlest birds]

We're in a small town, and there aren't a lot of special kid-designed destinations. One thing I am longing to do is go to a small airport where we can actually see takeoffs and landings up somewhat close. This is the kind of thing my almost-5s would love because it is so visible and exciting. I avoid places where it is not easy to understand what's going on or hard for young children to behave, for the 5-and-unders.

My dh teaches traditional dance, so my kids have been to quite a few dance events with us and are often exposed to traditional music. When dd1 read a book of instrument makers across America, we found a local dulcimer-maker in the book, so we walked over to the shop and I let her go in and talk to him while I played in the grass across the street with our younger children. They had a nice one-on-one conversation and he gave her samples of wood that he uses and a postcard with a dulcimer photo. These things are part of our local culture, giving a connecvtion I like to nurture.

This is also a college town, and there are many events at the college--performances, exhibits, workshops, etc. Most of these are free. We chose to live here, and in walking distance of campus, in large part to have good access to the college's public offerings.

There are also Arts Councils in many towns and cities that offer good possibilities... There are children's theaters in many towns, too.

It's not worth it generally for us to go on outings to the cities, even though the museums and other things seem appealing. We kind of let our outings only gradually take us outward from home and our everyday experience, so our own community seems best. It seems there is so much so close to home that is new to explore for children this age.

[mom2kbeth]

We love field trips!! We go everywhere and have since dd was born, way before we ever decided to homeschool. I am one to want to go everywhere, to let the kiddos experience everything they can!

Some places we go frequently or have really liked are:
wildlife foundations (just went to our favorite yesterday - awesome!)
pick your own farms (we try to go weekly from June - November)
beach
libraries
kid's museums
science centers
shows/plays
bowling/mini golf
aquariums (also did that this week)
historical sites, like Old Sturbridge Village
natural history museums
drum circles
harvest festivals
animal farms
butterfly conservatories
nature centers
train rides

We belong to a homeschool group and I plan lots of trips for the group to go on. I also just started up a preschool/kindergarten aged co-op and we are doing field trips every other week while the weather is still nice (we meet inside on the alternate weeks). The possibilities out there are endless - pick up pamphlets and brochures at your library or at hotels in your area for more ideas.

[Mom4tot]

All of the above!

[Fieryfly]

Our field trips are very similar to what others have listed. An easy way to do field trips is to get a behind-the-scenes tour of your favorite place and then enjoy your usual activity there. We've done tours of the movie theater, ice skating rink, Baskin Robbins, etc. and then watched a movie, skated, ate ice cream, etc.

[reeseccup]

All of the avove...

We have an 'exotic animal farm' here that is inexpensive, as well as a few museums, the collesium(sp) for plays, plus you can call your local fire/police dpt. , dental/eye or other health care office, radio, tv, equestiarn barn, local bakery or grocery store, local movie theature, florist, plant nursery,parks, golf courses, historical sites, towns, county fairs, octorber fests ect. to see if they would mind giving a tour for your kids.

Field trips are limited only by the imagenation, not asking for visits, and rejections. I'd take the risk and ask, the worst that could happen is being told no.

[reeseccup]

State Capital tour in Jefferson City, Mo For those that live in MO some of my favorite places to go as a kid were:

Graham's Cave

Daniel Boon's Missouri Home

Herman Missouri, Old German town

Rockbrige St. Park


Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis

I also remember loving a Riverboat ride, think we took it when we visited Hannibal, MO (home of Mark Twain)

Just some ideas, do a search for historic sites in your state and take some trips that way.

[eilonwy]

I like to think of everything as a field trip, although my niece recently told me "Rynna, field trips are supposed to be fun!" :LOL Apparently, they're also supposed to be rare; going to the park doesn't count because we do it all the time. :LOL

Today she's at Hersheypark with my brother and sister (her uncle and aunt). I'm sure that counts as a field trip! :LOL

Seriously, though. Anytime we get out of the house. I'm hoping to take her to Longwood Gardens at some point in the near future; that should be fun.