Homeschool World Forum

Hello! I did a search and was unable to find this topic...doesn't mean it's not there - just couldn't find it. lol!
I am part of our 'service team' for the local homeschool group. We get together once a month and plan the events for the group. I would love to hear what other groups do. What kind of field trips/arts and crafts/fun days/sports do your groups do together? Our group consists of about 100 families - however not all of them participate in all the events planned. I guess I'm looking for things 'out-of-the-ordinary' -- not the obvious like visiting the firestation, police station, etc. Hope that makes sense! Thanks in advance for your ideas!
Blessing! Rhonda

I'm a tour guide with Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours in the Guyandotte section of Huntington, WV.

We offer both historical and haunted history tours of this little town that just celebrated its 200th birthday! Our tours began with a Civil War era only tour hosted in conjunction with Guyandotte Civil War Days. Guyandotte Civil War Days itself has all sorts of activities available for home schoolers in mind. The week leading up to the actual event is filled with educational hands on workshops and living history exhibits during the mornings. We invite our local home school group, as well as a few classes from local elementary/middle schools. There's also a lecture series each weekday evening, which may be of interest to older kids/parents, and that weekend, among the normal battle and festivities are more hands on living history exhibits especially for kids and a kids program by Stan Clardy.

Back to the tours...we offer them year-round now, for various special events, but we also offer private tours for groups. All the tours, even the ghost tours, are heavy on the history, and we can customize the tour to fit certain time periods, certain historical significances/people, architecture, etc...if you can dream it, we can customize a tour for it. We can also tailor to certain age groups.

Its really quite fun...the tour guides all dress up in various period correct attires and we have a few actors portraying some of our more famous citizens. It's educational...and a little out of ordinary for a field trip, lol. I'm actually considering, though, sending out some invitations to our local home school group inviting them to book a tour...all of which are completely FREE. Anyone think anyone would be interested? LOL

Anyway, a few other ideas for fun field trips may include:
1. Professional sports game
2. Factory tours, especially ones where you can taste-test food or take home souvenirs.
3. Any living history presentation, including Civil War reenactments, etc.
4. Museums/IMAX theaters
5. Plays/concerts
6. Bank--when we went there in elementary school, we always got a 50 cent piece. When I was a preschool aide, they gave them a WV state quarter to take home.
7. Papa Johns, lol...I used to be a shift manager there, and since I had been a preschool aide, they'd always make me help with field trips. We'd let the kids make their own mini pizzas using the Cinnapie thingie's crust.
8. Sports Field Day organized by age

I was the field trip coordinator for our HS group that consisted of over 200 families.
At the bottom of this page:
http://www.homeschool-by-design.com/homeschool-field-trips.html
there is an A-Z list of ideas and also a link where you can read what readers have written about trips they have planned.
Best wishes!

Those are some great ideas! I remember as a kid (not home schooled) going to Pizza Hut to make our own pizzas'. We had a blast! I plan to share some of these ideas with our group as well.....we were just thinking about ideas.

Over the summer we did a bunch of field trips and learning activities with the theme - the Amazing Race. It was so much fun - everyone's kids are still talking about it a year and a half later - next summer we hope to do it again. You could even do it throughout the school year to spice up your field trip life. Here is a search http://blog.denschool.com/?s=amazing+race+leg - just scroll down to find them
or Here are the individual links:
leg 1
http://blog.denschool.com/oh-what-do-yo ... ummertime/
leg 2
http://blog.denschool.com/amazing-race-leg-2/
leg 3
http://blog.denschool.com/amazing-race-leg-3/
leg 4
http://blog.denschool.com/amazing-race-leg-4/
leg 5
http://blog.denschool.com/amazing-race-leg-5/
leg 6
http://blog.denschool.com/amazing-race-leg-6/
leg 7
http://blog.denschool.com/our-last-leg- ... zing-race/

Have fun!!!

Hello everyone, I remember as a child we enjoyed our field trips by number of interesting ways like playing games, watching the horror movies and one of the best way of enjoyment is making different recipes.

rnrnWe are planning a trip next yeart and all want to fish for halibut. What outfitter and harbor did you fish out of?rn

Depends where you are. We did Lake Polk(in TX). Didn't book any outfitters beforehand, but it wasn't very packed when we arrived, so just found one locally. You can obviously check some websites those days, a lot of info online on good outfitters(I'd go with some review sites like yelp to find a good one)

Also we recently did some squirrel hunting with ones that were interested in this - rented a few small caliber hunting rifles at https://gritrsports.com/shooting/firearms/rifles/

Field trips are like magic wands for curious minds, right? If you're on the hunt for awesome ideas, here are a few gems. How about a trip to a local museum? They're like treasure troves of history and cool stuff. Or a nature hike for some fresh air and discovering the great outdoors—always a winner!

If you're feeling adventurous, a visit to a farm or a zoo can be a wild ride of fun and learning. And hey, don't underestimate the power of a good ol' library visit—books can take us on the grandest adventures!

Got any other stellar field trip ideas up your sleeve? Let's swap our secret spots for epic adventures with the kiddos!