Field Trip Ideas - what are your top 3?

[clementine]

I don't like to always be on the go, but I like to have a few GREAT field trips a year. Anyone want to share their top 3 field trip ideas?

[GSMP]

We like National Parks. The have the Junior Park Ranger program while you are touring the park and the kids learn while earning a badge. Not all of them are free though.

 

Museums....we are fortunate to live close enough to D.C. and all the museums are free. Pick a subject, find the exhibit.....:001_smile:

 

Depending on the ages....fire stations, police stations, hospitals and restaurants. The ones in our area will give you free tours and things to do as long as you call ahead.

 

We like to visit anything historical. All of our dating was done mostly free....so I try to find these things for the kids.

 

I think a lot that must depend on where you live.....and what's available.

 

I know...not much help.....sorry.

[Amy in Orlando]

That depends entirely on where you live.

 

For us, Central Florida, we tend to these three things:

 

1) The beach - our national seashore rangers are an amazing resource

 

2) A zoo - Orlando, Jacksonville or Tamps (combined with the aquarium) are all great day trips

 

3) One of our many springs - again the rangers are wonderful and happy to help us learn

 

 

For shorter field trips, we've done:

 

1) tours of the kitchens of some local restaurants and, once, some cooking lessons from a cool chef

2) park days - if we aren't meeting with friends, I try to set up a scavenger hunt kind of thing

3) letterboxing or geocaching - VERY fun

4) a tour of the local newspaper or tv station (ours have age limits of 11 or above, check in your area - I arranged for a friend to take my little guy to the park while I took the older)

5) if you can manage it, a tour of your local garbage/recycle facility can be very, very fun and interesting

6) post office tours are cool too though you usually need a group, same with water processing places

[clementine]

I really need to look into the geocaching - that could be done year round & around our own schedule - Thank you!

[nmoira]

I'm no fun... sewage treatment plant, water works, local recycling center.

[newbie]

I'm no fun... sewage treatment plant, water works, local recycling center.

Is that your 10:30 at night response.

 

Jet

[clementine]

You guys are so wonderful - I've got really girlie girls, but I think they'd love places like that. I'd just never think of them myself :tongue_smilie:. Thanks everyone!

[nmoira]

 

Is that your 10:30 at night response.

:tongue_smilie: They're actually the three most interesting field trips I've been on.

[newbie]

:tongue_smilie: They're actually the three most interesting field trips I've been on.

 

I am eco friendly, but you top me. My eco friendly is a behind the scenes tour at Sea World.

 

Jet

[nakitty]

If you have a California Pizza Kitchen near you...I highly recommend getting a group together to go there. I believe it cost us $10 a kid but it was well worth it! The kids got to tour the entire restaurant and then MAKE A PERSONAL PIZZA!!! It was sooo much fun! The kids had a blast and the pizza's were delicious. :001_smile:

 

We like tourning farms...behind the scenes tours of museums and zoos...Trader Joes and Schnucks grocery store (in St. Louis) were both a lot of fun for the kiddos...Conservation Dept tours....fire stations...hmmm...that's all I can think of atm...

[gandpsmommy]

I really need to look into the geocaching - that could be done year round & around our own schedule - Thank you!

 

What is geocaching? I've never heard of it.

[Debbi in Texas]

Pizza Hut did a tour of their restaurant for us and let us make personal pizzas. There was no cost!! They even served everyone drinks.

[G5052]

As my darlings have gotten older, of course it has changed.

 

In early grade school -- the grocery store (they took us EVERYWHERE and gave us lots of treats including a cake at the end after we watched the baker finishing it), the Post Office, Domino's Pizza (reduced price pizza at the end).

 

Older grade school -- farm tours, living history museum, factory tours. Their favorite is the circus, but that's less educational than the others...

[jail warden]

I have set up the field trips for our homeschool group for the last 2 years and our best have been: serving lunch to the homeless at a local shelter, nature walks at local parks(they give a guide for us), and visiting the fire station. They have enjoyed all the others(such as visiting the planetarium or a play), but those have been the favs. Especially the homeless shelter. They loved the fact that they could help out and we parents loved that they got a sneak peak into a world they don't ever get to see otherwise. HTH!

[crazycoffeechic]

I really need to look into the geocaching - that could be done year round & around our own schedule - Thank you!

 

We just started doing that and it is so cool!

 

What is geocaching? I've never heard of it.

Its like a worldwide scavenger hunt, here is the description off of the website:

 

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

[Tina]

We have done about everything we can find to do in our neck of the woods in the last 8 years, between Scouts and our co-op. We've hit all the museums, the boys have seen at least 3 different fire stations, newspaper and TV stations, radio station, airplanes torn apart to be cleaned, and much more. We've seen someone carve a totem pole with a chainsaw, and toured the local transit bus company. After doing the local hospital, the head of the lab volunteered to share what they do with the blood including slides, with a handful of teens on another date. Sometimes it's just hard to think of some of the less obvious ones! Just page through the yellow pages sometime to find some new ideas...

 

My kids absolute favorites are the State Historical Society trips: the logging camp, the French trading post, the living history farm, etc.

Another was going to see caves on vacation, right after we'd done earth science.

 

A friend and I were brainstorming for the coming year. There is a guy who makes shoes, a taxidermy, a blacksmith/glass blower, a dialysis unit, the coast guard station, a candy making shop, the courthouse/jail, a beekeeper, a dairy that processes cheese, the National Weather Station, and lots of others for younger kids, too.

 

Can you tell I love field trips?! Even did a session on them for the Scouts and the local hs conference once. :)