Homeschool Field Trip Ideas are Great for Other Families, Too

When you homeschool, the learning never really stops. Every trip or visit to the grocery store is an opportunity for learning.

But sometimes it’s worthwhile to add more deliberate excursions to your homeschool curriculum. Or if you don’t home school, planning “field trips” with your kids can still be a lot of fun.

Bethany Ishee has a guest post with some great ideas for field trips for homeschooling. She talks about virtual field trips to places you can’t actually visit in person because of budget or distance, everyday trips with an educational spin on them and other events and places you can visit with your kids.

She’s also got some tips that will make these trips easier, potentially less expensive and more educational for all.

What are some of your favorite field trips for kids? We love the library and our local children’s and art museums.

[Photo via Bethany Ishee.]

When it’s hot outside it’s fun to do any kinds of activities that involve ice, water or anything cold. Check out my water and ice activities here, and read on for sensory and science experiments using and inspired by ice cream, and maybe grab a sweet treat after you’re finished.

In the Playroom has a bunch of ice cream inspired STEM challenges that would be great for older kids. These include things like designing an ice cream cone holder that will hold cones upright, making the highest stack of “scoops” (using cotton balls) and making a cover that can keep ice cream from melting so quickly. The challenges and printable pages kids can use as they work on their experiments individually or in teams are included in a free download.

This ice cream water table from Happy Toddler Playtime doesn’t use real ice cream, but you could try chilling the shaving cream for the fake ice cream base (though cans of shaving cream should not be frozen). Or just throw some ice cubes in there while you play.

You could also make fluffy ice cream slime (not edible) with this recipe from STEAMsational Family and use that in a sensory tray or table if you like.

Happy Toddler Playtime also has an ice cream cone volcano idea, which is the classic baking soda and vinegar project with an ice cream twist.

Turn building an ice cream cone into a lesson about sharing with this idea from Extremely Good Parenting. Read the book Should I Share My Ice Cream? and then make paper into an ice cream ball you can share with someone else (or just make for fun).

Learn about states of matter and sequencing with a melting Popsicle experiment (you could also do with ice cream) from Mrs. Jones’ Creation Station. This is a good one if you have a sunny spot on the playground or in the yard where kids can observe and time the melting of a frozen treat, ideally while eating their own. There’s also a free printable for kids to record their observations if they didn’t get too sticky.

Have you read?

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