I hope some of you can help. I need ideas for feild trips for homeschooling group we are starting at church here. All different ages of children will be involved. I am new at this. Hopefully it could be educational, but I am not completely stuck on it. So anything would be appreciated. Thanks

-- Bonnie (josabo1@juno.com), August 03, 2000

Answers

Some of the more memorable trips I remember from my childhood, and ones I plan to take our granddaughter on this year as we begin to homeschool, were to the bakery (wonderbread), McDonalds, a cheese factory, the post office, the mint, and a dairy/milk plant. All were very courteous, and gave the children a small sample of the product they made, except the post office, which gave out brochures, as I recall. Good luck, and if anyone else has some good ideas, post'em, please! Just depends on what is available in your local area. Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), August 03, 2000.

I am a veritable font of good ideas (just ask my husband!), but I need to know where you live and what sort of budget, age of kids, etc. are pertinent. In the meantime: Go see a working farm of any sort and have the farmers and workers show how math and reading skills are needed in the day to day (figuring correct animal medication dosages or chemical mixtures, home office inner workings, trade research, etc) as well as husbandry, meteorology, foreign and domestic news literacy (a shortage in one thing in one country can often have big repercussions down on the farm, as well a tobacco-like court problems). Etc, as nauseum.

Pick a writer or other artist from nearby and study their work in the environs they would have "haunted" during their life, a la one of those "Hemmingway tours" that tourists pay big $ for. You could get a cooperative lit/drama student from a local college, etc. to dress up and play the part, maybe do some readings, or whatever.

Any museum, of course, is always good, but why don't you set it up so that the kiddos can learn how the museum runs, how exibits are chosen and laid out, how funding is raised, etc, so that they just don't take these things' presence for granted. Like farm idea above, this is a good way to show practical applications of math, reading, science,etc.

Explore a local ecosystem and get good and familiar with it, visiting at different times of the day and in different seasons. Do clean-ups and have science projects related to the inhabitants. Here's wher it gets good - after they are involved and interested, have several experts like rangers, county ext. guys, local college profs or students, etc, come in and show how other nearby ecosystems affect and are affected by "your" ecosystem. Have kiddos research the effect of local development, past and planned, on the stability and health of said system and have them work up best and worst case scenarios for a variety of changes, real or imagined. Visit "end product" ecosystems connected with yours, such as a river that is fed by your stream, or cleaned by your watershed or wetland, etc. Research projects abound based on these subjects.

Take kiddos to a local business and have them go through the same sort of thing as with the farm, including learning how the co. hires and trains, what laws and such the co. must follow in its day to day business (both product or service related and personnel related, such as handicap accessibility laws and health care) Have student creat a fictious co. and figure out how to meet legal requirements without bankrupting the co. or losing business. Go into advertising and other peripheral components of a real co.

Animal shelters are also a good place to visit. Have the students "adopt" a shelter and raise $ for food, put on a donation drive, or contact local businesses to get cash or product donations. All shelters have a wishlist of needed items, from screen doors to computers. See if kids can use their creativity to find sources fo rhtese items. Ditto for human shelters, too

Trade shows - get permission to take a field trip to a computer or other trade show and let kids talk to the people in the business and learn what is hot and what they will need to learn in order to get jobs, etc.

State fairs are always good. Plan several projects. Save $ by getting ride tickets in advance (usually heavily discounted) and see if the fair has a canned goods day, to save on entrance fees. Poss. projects: 1. Pick one animal per student and research background of breed, how good it is for the chosen purpose (fur, milk,etc) and so on , including poss. interviewing owner. Also research other types for similar useage and do comparisons of cost vs. yield vs. viability, etc. 2. Get an interview with the people in charge of the fair and find out what goes into pulling it off. Ditto for an independent vendor or two and perhaps the rides company. 3.Explore the variety of foods and trace the backgrounds of fair favorites such as popcorn and funnel cakes. 4. Have kiddos create entries for judging at the fair and encourage them to contact the judging panel before or after and learn how they do what they do and what the look for, also the purpose behind these exibits (encourages sound farming practices, creativity, etc) 4. Talk to other fair goers and where everybody comes from and why they're there. Get suggestions on how it would be better and what they liked and didn't like. Add to the kids impressions and put together a presentation to give to the board of fair directors, perhaps at a meeting of said folks.

If you want any more ideas, I'm always willing to clean out my head for a good cause. Hurray for homeschooling!!!!!!!!!!

-- Soni Pitts (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 03, 2000.

Our most memorable trips have been to the parents' workplaces. One was a lineman, and he arranged a trip to a power plant. The local power company has a safety class designed for kids, which was also interesting. (The kids got rides in the cherry picker) One dad, a roofing contractor, got a small group into the top of the state capitol dome, on which he was working. Small groups often are allowed in places restricted from large groups. Find out what the kids want to see. Have fun!!!!

-- glynnis in KY (gabbycab@msn.com), August 04, 2000.

My kids beg and beg me to go to the Discovery Museum that's close by. It's a small place, but you can learn about gravity, how pully's work, hammer and saw up wood, electronics, they have one room that you can dig in a huge sandbox and find fossils, a ranger "cabin", an ambulance with all sorts of medical equipment, and their favorite room is the one that has an entire wall that you can climb on. It's made up of "rocks" jutting out and a cut-up-tire pit at the bottom. They could spend hours in there. Don't know if there's something around you like that. Thought I'd mention it. Good luck!

-- Misha (MishaaE@aol.com), August 04, 2000.

If you have a LIving History event locally, take the kids to that. Rendevous, or reinactments of historical events. E-mail me, with your location, and I'll get out my current issue of Smoke and Fire News, which has a listing of such events. Maybe you'll have one close by. Tipis at some; military camps at others. Pre 1840's clothing and cooking over fires, blacksmithing at some of the larger ones; LOTS of things to see and hear and smell. Kids love them and learn a lot.

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), August 04, 2000.

Wow Soni, I wanna come to your school. What great ideas!

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), August 04, 2000.

Actually, I don't even have any kids. Just not my thing. I am, however, possibly going to be in charge of helping my sister homeschool her little terrorist when she becomes of age. If it does't kill her, it should make her stronger!

-- Soni Pitts (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 04, 2000.

If you are a member of AAA or other travel group get a tour book of your area. They have lots of great ideas, large and small. Oklahoma has a book called Exploring Oklahoma with Kids, maybe other states do too.

Here are some things we have done: 1.Toured a print shop following a piece of work from beginning design to end product. 2.Praire museum with children's program. 3. Dairy 4. Bottling plant (soda pop) 5. Cheese factory. 6. Blue Bell ice cream plant. 7. State capital building. 8. Many, many museums of all kinds.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), August 04, 2000.