Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks {week 14 lesson plans and recap}

Homeschool field trips are a great way to make learning fun. They are also my secret weapon for shaking things up when our homeschool is feeling a bit boring. Every week this year, I am sharing our weekly lesson plans, as well as a recap of our prior week. This is Week 14 and we kicked off it off with a field trip.

Tips and Tricks for homeschool field trips

Now that I only have one child at home, I set a goal at the beginning of the school year for us to do a homeschool field trip every month. I have not met this goal. We’ve gotten out of the house for field trip learning exactly twice so far this year.

Last week, we made it three.

Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

I realized as we wandered around the history museum last Monday, that my days of museums and science centers are coming to an end. As it is, I feel lucky to have a kiddo who still loves most of the exhibits at sixteen.

Because field trips have always been such an important part of our interest-led lesson plans, I thought I would take some time this week to share what I’ve learned about making homeschool field trips a success.

Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

Field Trip Success Tips

Choose Wisely

I have learned that I need to choose field trips based on the actual children I am homeschooling and not what other families are doing.

For example, my oldest has massive sensory issues related to sand. I made him participate in a tide pool field trip years ago that did not end well.

The same child could spend hours at the aquarium touch tank. The aquarium was a much better choice for us. Same learning, different field trip.

Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

Bring A Friend

If we can find another kid or two to tag along with us, our field trips are more successful. My kids have been more willing to try things, or visit exhibits they otherwise would’ve skipped, because their friend was interested.

Plus, another child or two means I can relax a bit while they explore.

This past week, we took a friend who attends public school with us as it was her spring break. We had so much fun showing her all the things at the museum and science center, because we had gone so many times before as homeschoolers. She had never been. It was fun for all of us!

Don’t Make It Boring

I made this mistake the first few years. I would print out worksheets from the museum website and make my kids complete the short answer questions as we walked through.

I thought I needed those worksheets for it to “count” as learning. The reality is, I was restricting their learning. My kids have learned so much from being allowed to explore and engage freely, without being constrained by short answer essay questions and trying to find a place to write.

Take As Much Time As You Need

I used to feel pressure to get to all the exhibits. I would try to encourage my kids to move on so that we could get to one last section before we needed to leave. Or rush them through an exhibit so we wouldn’t miss a special presentation across the building at 2:00PM.

What I’ve learned is to let go of any expectations of how much we will see throughout the course of the day, and instead focus on how deep my kids engage with the exhibits they find most interesting.

Leave Whenever You Need To Leave

When your child is sensory overloaded or completely bored by the field trip, it really is OK to call it quits and head home. Even if it’s 11:30 in the morning and you already paid for tickets.

You want field trips to be enjoyable. Plus, no one learns anything when they are struggling.

If you have more than one child and only one wants to leave, a tip that has worked for me (If there are no other parents present) is to split the difference. Allow the interested children to continue going to all the exhibits while you engage with the child struggling. In our family, this often meant allowing my youngest to continue while my oldest and I followed along. My oldest watched YouTube videos with headphones on a bench or walked and talked with me about his special interest instead of looking at the art. Then, we left a little earlier than usual to help everyone stay calm and enjoy the day.

Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

This what our field trip looked like last week!

Last Week’s Homeschool Lesson Plans vs. Reality: (including our homeschool field trip)

Monday

THE PLAN

  • Field trip with friend to museum and science center

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

  • Field trip with friend to museum and science center
    • Human Body Exhibit
    • Ocean Exhibit
    • Bird Exhibit
    • Decomposition Exhibit
    • Mammals Exhibit
    • Dinosaur Exhibit
    • Nature Exhibit
    • Butterfly Garden
    • Desert Biome Exhibit
  • Audiobook in car for two hours round trip

Tuesday

THE PLAN

  • Drivers Ed Online
  • Everyday Math Word Problems
  • Human Body Final Overview
  • YouTube Video – His choice, something educational
  • Online Voice/Music Lesson – one hour
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

  • Drivers Ed Online
  • Song Lyrics for reading practice
  • Ocean and Marine Biology (Museum experience follow-up)
  • Online Voice/Music Lesson – one hour

Notes on Tuesday: We were exhausted after a long day of learning on Monday and did not do nearly as much as planned. For reading practice, my son reads through song lyrics as reading/dyslexia reinforcement.

Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

Wednesday

THE PLAN

  • Rock Climbing with Coach – 2 hours
  • Driver’s Ed Module
  • CTCMath
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Science: Human Body Study
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Thursday

THE PLAN

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • YouTube Video – His choice
  • Reading practice – Shakespeare
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

Friday

THE PLAN

  • CTCMath
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports
  • Creative Writing Activity
  • YouTube Video – his choice and educational
  • Ancient American History

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

  • CTCMath
  • Ancient American History and Map Work
  • Spelling (I have been creating my own lists of spelling words by grade level. This week, I quizzed him on the first and second grade lists and he did better than I expected! I plan to publish all of the grade level spelling lists as we go so that you can see how he is progressing and use the lists with your own kiddos as well. I am listing them by grade only as a reference for myself. Grade level means nothing in this homeschool!)
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Rock Climbing In Our Backyard
Homeschool Field Trips: Tips and Tricks

Our Homeschool Lesson Plans For This Week

Monday

  • YouTube Video – His choice
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Infusion – 4 hours

Reference Notes: Every Monday, my son has subcutaneous immunoglobin infusions. This means we typically keep learning to a minumum.

Tuesday

  • Drivers Ed Online
  • Everyday Math Word Problems
  • Human Body Final Overview
  • YouTube Video – His choice, something educational
  • Online Voice/Music Lesson – one hour
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

Reference Notes: Tuesdays are our first full school day of the week. Because my son always feels better post-Monday’s infusion, we typically do a large percentage of our more traditional homeschool work on this day.

Wednesday

  • Rock Climbing with Coach – 2 hours
  • Driver’s Ed Module
  • CTCMath
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Science: Experiment TBD
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

Thursday

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • YouTube Video – His choice
  • Reading practice – Shakespeare
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

Reference Notes: We typically spend Thursdays in lessons mostly outside our home.  My son attends a program on Thursday afternoons through a local private school. The school is closed this week for Spring Break so we are making do at home.

Friday

  • CTCMath
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports
  • Creative Writing Activity
  • YouTube Video – his choice and educational
  • American History – The 13 Colonies

New Interest-Led Homeschool Lesson Plans And Updates, Every Week

Get Our Weekly Homeschool Lesson Plans

Sent directly to your inbox each week.

    We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

    Additional Resources For Strength-Based And Interest-Led Homeschooling

    Take a look at all of our past lesson plans and recaps!

    Research shows that a learner allowed to spend the most time studying in areas of strength, tends to perform exponentially better in all areas including the areas of weakness.

    These resources will help you get started.

    homeschool planning pages
    lesson plans

    Similar Posts

    2 Comments

    1. Your posts are so encouraging! My son is also dyslexic and we have a lot of ‘what-actually-happened’ days.

      1. I feel like almost ALL of our days are “what actually happened” days. 🙂

    Comments are closed.