Homeschool World Forum

[blessedinMN]

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

[TheresaHPIR]

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

[Jill]

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!
_________________
Jill
http://www.homeschool-by-design.com
Where love and learning go hand in hand.

[desertsuncat]

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.
_________________
desertsuncat
http://4freefood.mysundanceglobal.com

[Jacob7846]

are there any tours organized in new york?

[chris1999]

[David Brown]

Here in Melbourne there is a walking trail along the beach. the whole trail is actually a scale size (1:100,000,000 I think) model of our solar system. It starts from the sun which is about 4 foot in diameter and along the path at the scaled distances are more scale models of each planet on display blocks (earth is about .6mm and the moon really tiny. If there's anything like this near anyone then I think this would be a great walking excursion to learn about the solar system.
_________________
www.richgamesforlearning.com

[mindy8]

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-you-do-in-the-summertime/
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-of-the-amazing-race/

Have fun!!!
_________________
Mindy
Free Printable Download: [URL="http://blog.denschool.com/st-patricks-day/"]St Patrick's Day CLIP (Creative Learning in a Pinch)[/URL]