Planning field trips for older kids

If you have older kids you know how hard it is to find field trips for them.  When your kids are in elementary school you can take them to the pet store and the grocery store for field trips.  There’s some great science, some math (at the grocery store at least), and all in all a great day.  But once your kids are older there’s not as many good field trips.  If you are lucky enough to live in a big city you can take them to museums, but that can quickly get expensive.

Here in Austin, we are lucky to have some great museums nearby.  Going to those museums gets expensive very quickly.  The Texas History Museum costs my family $30-40 per trip.  Our local science museum costs around the same amount per trip (we have a membership there, so we don’t have to pay that price EACH time).  Two field trips cost me $80.

That adds up pretty quickly.

 

I’m in the lucky situation all of my kids are more or less the same age.  Most homeschooling families don’t have that situation.  Instead they have kids ranging in age from birth to high school.  So a field trip perfect for a high schooler will have the 3 year old bored out of their mind and causing trouble.  Reverse that for the 5 year old’s field trip.

 

{This post is sponsored by Field Trip Zoom, all opinions are my own, but seriously they’re awesome}

 

Instead, try a virtual field trip with Field Trip Zoom

Field Trip Zoom (link to the December 2016 schedule) offers virtual field trips through over 90 different providers.  This past month we have virtually visited Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee (I lost track to be honest).

 

Learning about code talkers from #ww2 with @fieldtripzoom #ihsnet

A photo posted by Ticia (@ticiam) on Nov 21, 2016 at 10:21am PST

We have watched a dissection of a squid, learned about chemical properties, and had the most amazing week of Civil War field trips.  Seriously they had about 10 field trips offered for their Civil War week and I wanted to sign up for every single one of those field trips.

 

We did not have time for a field trip on nutrition, Day of the Dead, several more Civil War events, several anatomy field trips.

 

I have actually had to turn down field trips.  They range from early elementary (which I haven’t tried really) all the way up to high school.

Going back to the homeschool family with kids in wide age ranges.  Their high schooler could sign up for the field trip on Civil War medicine (I’m writing this right after the week of Civil War field trips, so it’s fresh in my mind), and learn some amazing things about the advances in medicine.

 

Your 3rd grader can learn about the advances in naval technology (that was an amazing talk by the way, we went to the junior high talk on that, and the kids were fascinated by the battle between the iron clads, and I got all sorts of ideas for future lessons).

 

Admittedly Civil War week didn’t have anything for early elementary, but it’s not a topic I’d cover that much with first graders.  Instead they could do some of the Native American history talks for this month (which were pretty cool).

 

My kids are super excited about the December field trips, Shark Week, and World Wars week (we just participated in one on Comanche Code Talkers as part of their Native American Month series).  I’m already signed up for five more field trips next month.

Oh!  They just added Christmas Traditions across Europe.  Make that six.

 

Five Eight more reasons to sign up for  a Virtual Field Trip and Field Trip Zoom

• The cost for the entire year is only a little more than a single field trip for my family
• I can go on field trips in my pajamas
• Field trips don’t have to be canceled if someone has a cold
• Did I mention field trips in my pajamas?
• No fighting traffic or finding a parking space
• It is really hard to be late to your own home
• The opportunity to learn from experts across the country
• This makes a great family Christmas present

 

Ready to sign up?  Because I love Field Trip Zoom

Field Trip Zoom has a coupon code for my readers: 01339  It expires December 31, 2016, so don’t put it off too long

 

Still not ready to sign up for Field Trip Zoom?

Did you read my post?  They’re awesome.  Okay, then maybe you should stalk them a little and see who they are online.

Facebook will keep you up to date on the field trips happening each week.  So will Twitter

Youtube has an example field trip and some cool videos your kids will love, well my kids loved them.