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The Best Part of Homeschooling - Field Trips!
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Hi Friends! Meeting thousands of you
each year at the annual home educators conventions got me thinking – many
folks never get to hear my little “kwips” about how we've approached “school on
the road.”
Besides my love for knowing exactly what is being
taught to my kids (and bubbling my adult curiosity), Home Educating has
the wonderful privilege of field trips! Let’s take advantage of this time
with our kids and let me share some tips that make field trips and
corresponding workbooks fun!
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Michele Z |
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Just to get our feet wet, let’s
explore the basics of how to use products from
KidsLoveTravel.com to
plan science/history-related curriculum and field trips.
Any touristy website or guide
book is going to lead you straight to the major attractions – amusements,
children’s museums, huge historical parks, etc. Sure, our KIDS LOVE
TRAVEL GUIDES have them, but quite often they are not our favorites things
to do in each state. The real “meat” of our family mission are those
hidden gems that we discovered over 10 years,
5000 places with our kids,
and 275,000 miles! Here’s some categories in our
ACTIVITY INDEX
to examine closer at various stages:
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Preschoolers – Animals & Farms, Museums (children’s) |
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Early Elementary – Adventure – boats, trains Tours,
Outdoor Exploring |
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Late
Elementary – History, Science, Factory Tours,
The Arts |
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Teens – High Adventure – Tours, Outdoor Exploring,
Sports, Amusements - invite friends along and buy pizza for meals |
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Grandparents – History / Seasonal & Special Events
– especially bring them along to a war reenactment, ice cream social
festival, fall harvest or Christmas open house. Old-fashioned memories
flow…and, it gives seniors an opportunity to share some of their
heritage in a fun setting – without Grandpa Harry’s boring slide shows.
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Planning a Field Trip
Ok, now you know how to use
our Activity Index to determine WHAT TYPES of things are best suited to
your kid’s age, but what about how to plan that day trip? Each chapter of
our books is a Day Trip region – a two hour radius of the state. Once
you’ve chosen 1-2 places or events that you want to see most, find that
chapter (for example, Northeast) and stay there. Browse through the
listings and choose 2 to 3 more sites that pique your interest. (Note:
often, it’s best to let each child pick one thing they really want to do –
so, at some point in the day, everyone is happy ;-). If you can’t easily
decide, use our Chapter Favorites or Quick Tours itineraries (new books
starting 2008) to plan it for you.
Workshop Handouts -
Click State Name
How Do We Combine Field Trips
with Curriculum-based Products?
Here’s my suggestions (tried and true) based on
grade levels:
| PRESCHOOLERS:
Since we’re promoting Animals & Farms, let’s stay with that. Really,
just the experience of seeing animals and watching them is learning
enough. Sometimes, the kids want to take that home with them and you may
want to purchase some picture books from the gift shop before you leave.
KidsLoveTravel.com has an
Invisible Ink book set on Animals
and there’s a Travel Mystery
about Zoos and one about Aquariums that you can read to them. There are
Vocabulary and related activities suggested in every book. |
| EARLY ELEMENTARY
(grades K-3): Adventure and Outdoor Exploring are the name of the game
with this age. I recommend Travel
Bingo for the road trip to your destination. It teaches kids the
power of observation (Science) and word association (Language Arts). If
you’re going on a historical boat, trolley or train tour – or, maybe to
a historical re-enactment festival – what better way to sneak in
curriculum than the State Activity
Books. Start with the Coloring Book (grades K-2) or begin the Big
Activity Book. Add the colorful Pocket Guide so they really catch the
feeling that their state history is really fun! (if you’re traveling
out-of-state, try the new USA Big Activity Book). All of the State
Activity Books also cover Natural History so it would tie into that trip
to a State Park or Nature Center. Introduce
Travel Mysteries as part of your
Reading time (aloud or silent). Let the kids choose titles that really
interest them the most – for example, Pirates or Disney. |
| LATE ELEMENTARY
(grades 4-6): Ok, this is the prime age to really input a ton of basic
history and science. Normally, boring, right? Not the way we do it!
Hands-on attractions and workbooks full of fun and games force boredom
out and stimulation in! State History is a requirement at this age. So,
I recommend two products that correlate with the State Standards: 1.
State Big Activity Books (best for 3rd-5th grade) – less intense, for
casual styles. Better pick up a State Pocket Guide too, as you’ll need
to look up about 40 pages of answers to questions in the Big Book there.
2. State Dailies – a new spiral bound format that allows the self-guided
student to read a little background and then complete the simple puzzle
or problems (best for 4th-7th graders) each day or each week. I like the
fact that this is really a Unit Study that covers requirements in
Language Arts (Reading, Writing, Vocabulary), History, Math, Government,
etc. – not just History. Many History and Science Museum websites have
specific online activity sheets you can supplement with. If you’re
writing a report on a historical figure, several websites now provide
excellent biographical information of that individual during the time
period they lived at the site. (Note: beginning in 2008, we’re now
including Educator information in our listings). If you’re wondering
which attractions are out there, be sure to consult your
KIDS LOVE TRAVEL GUIDE in the
“History” section of the Activity Index. This is also the perfect age to
encourage strong reading skills correlated to other disciplines. Any of
you that have met me at a show know how passionate I am about Family
Travel, but also how excited I am about the new series of Travel
Mysteries or, “History Mysteries”, as I fondly call them. In these
books, real kids go on a field trip and something disappears. The kids
in the story (ages 6-14) use clues from historic sites in the area to
solve the mystery. You can easily tackle subjects like the Underground
Railroad, the Gold Rush, Colonial Times (Jamestown), or the
Revolutionary War (Freedom Trail) with mysteries! Kids read the mystery
first. Once you’ve got them interested, then use the Teacher’s Guides
(Unit Studies) to solidify it all. They relate the storyline to problems
in Math, Vocabulary, Writing, Spelling, Science (often a cooking
project), Art, Geography and History – you get everything but music
lessons in one booklet! Each booklet has two options: a read-aloud
group/family path or traditional worksheet pages. Try a few sets out and
see if your kids don’t love it… |
| MIDDLE SCHOOL
(grades 7-8): To prepare for High School, there is a strong school focus
on understanding timelines of U.S. History & Government and a good
control of Essay Writing. I’ve already introduced the State Dailies as
your curriculum guide for State History (usually done already in 4th or
5th grade). If you haven’t completed a unit on your State History – you
better get it done soon. For those of us that have completed Elementary
State History, we’re kind of in the “shadow years” of pure curriculum at
this age – nothing quite fits. Still, there’s a Middle School
requirement to complete another unit on State History and Government as
it relates to U.S. History. This group craves Adventure– so give it to
them! Here’s the best (and cheapest) way I know how to tackle it: 1. Use
our KIDS LOVE TRAVEL GUIDES
“History” column in the Activity Index. Choose maybe 10 historical
places or events that cover several different time periods. Because our
reviews focus on what we discern as the most engaging aspects of each
attraction for KIDS (not how many awards they’ve won or what cafes or
shopping they have on site – a common online tourism bent), you can
easily choose the best picks for your family that allows you to absorb
the most educational value. 2. Next, contact the Education Director
personally to schedule your visit. Education Directors are thrilled to
hear from folks who really want to learn – that’s why they are in their
position. The Director will either direct you to the attraction’s online
lesson plans and activity sheets or send them to you by mail. Usually,
this is FREE of charge or a very minimal charge. You’ll find resources
to read before your visit, activities to do during your visit, and then
tests to take afterwards. (Note: beginning in 2008, we’re now including
Educator information in our listings). Guess what, you just acquired
your History & Government curriculum! |
Geocaching and Letterboxing
Geocaching and Letterboxing are the ultimate
treasure hunt and can add excitement and fun to your driving, camping and
hiking experiences. You'll need a GPS receiver that will determine your
position on the planet in relation to the cache's "waypoint," its
longitude/latitude coordinates. You can buy a decent GPS receiver for
around $100. More expensive ones have built-in electronic compasses and
topographical maps. Geocaching employs the use of a GPS device (global
positioning device) to find the cache. Letterboxing uses clues from one
location to the next to find the letterbox; sometimes a compass is needed.
Both methods use the Internet advertising the cache, providing basic maps
and creating a forum for cache hunters.
| Geocaching -
The object of Geocaching is to find the hidden container filled with a
logbook, pencil and sometimes prizes! Where are Caches? Everywhere! But
to be safe, be sure you're treading on Public Property. When you find
the cache, write your name and the date you found it in the logbook.
Larger caches might contain maps, books, toys, even money! When you take
something from the cache you are honor-bound to leave something else in
its place. Usually cache hunters will report their individual cache
experiences on the Internet. (www.geocaching.com). |
| Letterboxing -
The object is similar to geocaching — find the Letterbox — but instead
of just signing and dating the logbook, use a personalized rubber stamp.
Most letterboxes include another rubber stamp for your own logbook. The
creator of the letterbox provides clues to its location. Finding
solutions to clues might require a compass, map and solving puzzles and
riddles! This activity is great fun for the entire family! (www.letterboxing.org) |
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Kids Love Travel Guides |
State Activity Books
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Invisible Ink Books |
Best Travel Games |
Travel Mystery
Books |
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Best-selling family travel guides available for:
Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland
(includes DC),
Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee &
(Virginia...includes Washington, DC) |
Kids will
learn about State History, Geography, People, Places, Nature, Animals,
Holidays, Legend, Lore and much, much more by completing these enriching
activities. Includes dot-to-dots, mazes, coloring, matching, word searches,
riddles, crossword puzzles, word jumbles, writing, and many other creative
activities. Available for all states listed at left. |
The
ever popular series from Lee Publications that you remember as a child is
still available! Many categories to choose from including, Mr. Mystery,
Disney, Know Now, Guess & Show, Mazes, Bible, and more! |
So
many choices for hours of backseat fun and entertainment. Auto Bingo (4
varieties), Travel Mazes, Magnetic CD Case Games, Kids Travel Maps, Travel
Find-A-Word and more! |
Our kids love
these books! A great way to engage the kids and learn about places they may
visit. An EXCITING new series of mystery books for kids ages 7 to 14
featuring REAL KIDS in REAL PLACES! This series plunks real
children in a current-day adventure mystery set in famous settings across
America. |
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For Quick Links to our catalog, click on any picture below:
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