Favorite Field Trips {5 Days of Field Trips}

To wrap up my week of Field Trips, I'd like to share some pictures and links of our family's all-time favorites. I've also collected a list of links from fellow bloggers and I'm sharing their favorites too.

We are lucky (in my opinion) to live within reasonable driving distance of Gettysburg and several other Civil War Battlefields; Fort McHenry; Washington DC; Harpers Ferry; and Historic St Mary's City.  There are plenty of destinations in our area that we still need to visit too! On vacations, we have been able to visit some amazing places as well. Here are some of the standouts:

Homeschool Coffee Break favorites in Maryland include:

Historic St Mary's City in southern Maryland - You can visit the living history park and enjoy many hands-on activities. In  History Lesson: St Mary's City I share about some of our experiences there. We also loved our Camp Flintlock encampment experience nearby. It has been voted by our boys (Kennady was too little to go along) as our  Most Memorable Field Trip Ever. We stayed in tents, dressed in period costume, cooked over an open fire, gathered and chopped our own wood, learned how to shoot a flintlock rifle, and learned how to throw a tomahawk! 

We've been to the Chesapeake & Ohio National Historic Park several times, and highly recommend it if you're in the area! Among the highlights - mule-towed ferry rides! Read more and see pictures at: Think Back Thursday: C&O Canal (History Lesson).

Nearby Hashawa/Bear Branch Nature Center has some great programs. We especially loved spending a day there during Maple Sugarin', where we not only learned about tapping maple trees and making maple syrup, but got some close-up looks at birds of prey. My Nature Center PhotoJournal tells about our day.

Memorable Homeschool Coffee Break vacation field trips:

We enjoyed a family field trip to Philadelphia, where we saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. 

Our family's favorite vacation to Florida allowed us to see Castillo de San Marcos and other parts of St Augustine, including the Colonial Spanish Quarter. In addition to those blog entries, I more recently shared a History Lesson: St Augustine post that explained how a vacation field trip from several years previous helped us in the current year's history lessons.

   

My family enjoys visiting lighthouses. Two that offer nice tours are Ponce Inlet Lighthouse in Florida, and Marblehead Lighthouse in Ohio. And yes, we had a great History Lesson: Lighthouses this past year!

                               

Visits back home to the Calgary, Alberta area are few and far between, but always include a trip to Banff National Park.  Another Canadian favorite is in Toronto: the Hockey Hall of Fame. On the Atlantic coast of Canada, we really enjoyed our trip to Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick last summer - we went to an airshow, saw the Bay of Fundy at high tide and low tide, and went on a whale-watching cruise on a sailing ship!

Crew Members' Favorites

I asked fellow Crew members to share some of their favorites, and here is a selection from all over the country, and a couple overseas! (All the links should take you to their blog entry with pictures and description of their memorable field trip adventure. Have fun visiting!)

If you're in Boston, LaRee at Broad Horizons recommends visiting the National Historic Parks in the city. She explains in two posts - a Weekly Wrap-up and one titled Boston!

Sara at Embracing Destiny lists nearby Plymouth Rock among her family's Favorite Field Trips. She also tells about a field trip to the Almanzo Wilder Homestead in New York state.

  

New York state is more than just New York City! Heather at Thrifty Mom Spot really enjoyed a trip to the Corning Museum of Glass.

Meg at Adventures with Jude tells about their local zoo and how they incorporate their visits into their science study in S is for Snowy Owl and other Critters at the Zoo.

Lisa at Our 4 Kiddos shares some Pennsylvania destinations: Crystal Cave and Valley Forge National Historic Park. She also tells about some of the things to see and do in Washington, D.C., and about a trip to Assateague Island on the Chesapeake Bay.

Marcy at Ben and Me tells us that Mitchell, Indiana is home to one of their favorite destinations - Spring Mill State Park. She's got more pictures and description at Q is for Quintessentially Pioneer.

Lisa at Golden Grasses shares about a pioneer theme field trip too - their visit to the Ingalls Homestead at DeSmet, SD. She also takes us on the field trip behind the faces at Mount Rushmore.

Jennifer at A Glimpse of Our Life also recommends Mount Rushmore, and she tells about Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, FL and Butterfly Palace in Branson, MO.

Speaking of Branson, Beth at Ozark Ramblings informs us that the Titanic Museum there is worth visiting. She also recommends Cahokia Mounds.

Diana at Aspiring to Be has some great pictures of the Museum of the Appalachia in Tennessee.

Nicole at Mama of Many Blessings is sure kids will especially enjoy the Iowa Children's Museum. Her family also visits these Butterfly Gardens in Michigan every year, and also recommends LEGO KidsFest.

From Clara at A Slice of Homeschool Pie, we learn about the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, and the ShurTech Brands packaging plant (they're the people that make Duck Tape!). They've also visited Auntie Anne's Pretzels.

Emilee at Pea of Sweetness shares about the Space Center Houston.

Lexi at Lextin Academy tells about visits to Sea World and the zoo, and a blueberry-picking adventure.

Christa at Fairfield Corner Academy offers these suggestions: a local police department; a National Weather Service station;  and Mt Holy Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Leah at As We Walk Along the Road lists some of their favorite field trips: F is for Field Trip.

Jennifer at Chestnut Grove Academy hosts a Friday Field Trip blog hop where she and other bloggers share some favorites. 

And finally, from an international Crew Member in the UK - Sarah at Delivering Grace tells about some memorable field trips in England: Scotney Castle; Rochester City and Castle; and Bodiam Castle. If your children enjoy the Railway Children books, you may be especially interested in her field trip to the Bluebell Railway, which is home to a station used as the setting in the books.

What has been your family's favorite field trip? Have you visited any of the great destinations listed above? Leave a comment and let me know! Stop by for a cup of coffee and more discussion about field trips during the 5 Days Blog Hop, and be sure to visit the other Schoolhouse Crew members and their 5 Days topics. Just click on the banner below to return to our Blog Hop Home!

©2006-2013 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

Keep It Fun! {5 Days of Field Trips}

Field trips are supposed to be fun. Educational fun, yes - but FUN! I have to admit that I've heard a line something like these from my kids a few times: "Mom! Stop making everything educational all the time!" or "We're on vacation. We shouldn't have to do school stuff." Oops. In my effort to take advantage of a great educational opportunity (especially while on vacation!) I have to be careful not to be a Buzz Killington and suck the fun out of the experience!

But honestly, if our family happens to be on vacation somewhere near an amazing museum or historical site, we are NOT going to skip seeing something really cool just because my kids fear there might be a pop quiz. (For the record, I do very little 'testing' in our homeschool.) The solution for us has been to keep it low-key, and we prefer to save anything that seems like a worksheet or a reading assignment for later, as much as possible. Even for the field trips we take that are local and designed to go with the curriculum, I've found that for my kids it usually works out better to just go and enjoy and worry about the scholarly application after we get home. If you're at the zoo or the aquarium, sometimes it's so much better to just focus on the animals, and fill in the worksheet at home.

Any place we visit that has educational/field trip possibilities, I pick up brochures or maps or any other info I see that is free. If it's a planned trip, I check the website for anything helpful there. Most museums, science centers, national and state parks, and many other destinations have a section on their websites titled something like "For Teachers" or "Education". Information found in those sections is useful for planning the trip, and much of it can be used from home before or after your trip - or even if you don't visit the place at all! The National Parks Junior Ranger program has many activities that can be completed from home, for example. Almost every National Parks website I checked had a "For Teachers" section, and every section included something about planning a field trip. There are curriculum suggestions and lesson plans as well. Of course, they are written with classrooms in mind, so not all the lesson plan activities will work for homeschool families, and not all the field trip planning tips will be useful if you are visiting with just your family. 

I checked the website for Monocacy National Battlefield, which is a Civil War battlefield park not far from us and found their suggestions to Plan a Field Trip included suggestions of where to begin and in what order to best view the park. It also outlined the guided tour options available for groups and what ages they're appropriate for. They also offer two lesson plans and guidelines for the appropriate grade levels and how much classroom time they would take. Information about the Junior Ranger program, including the downloadable Junior Ranger booklet, is found on the "For Kids" page. That page also has links to other sections of the website that explain how archaeologists are studying Monocacy and what kinds of things they can discover. When we visited Monocacy, it was a family day trip. We picked up the Junior Ranger booklet at the Visitor Center, and Kennady worked on some of those activities as we went through the Visitor Center. My hubby and I did our best to read the majority of the information with the exhibits, but the kids were naturally more interested in the interactive displays. After the Visitor Center, we went outside to see the battlefield itself and walked on one of the trails. When we went home, the Junior Ranger booklet and the maps and brochures I'd picked up went into a folder with our history curriculum, and later on during our study of the Civil War we referred to those things and to our memories of that day's trip, as well as other similar visits to Civil War sites in our area.

We've made similar "see it now - study it later" local field trips to Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Fort McHenry, Catoctin Mountain, and Historic St Mary's City.

   

   

   

We've taken the same approach to educational opportunities while on vacation. Especially on vacation, I believe in just enjoying the experience as it happens, and using the photos and brochures and websites to spark the memories and discussion when we're at home and it fits with our curriculum.

In the summer of 2009, we had a family vacation in upstate New York, not very far from Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. When we got home and started our new school year, we kicked it off with a unit study about baseball. So even though the tour of the Hall of Fame was just for fun, we turned it into a field trip after the fact. (I also discovered that the Baseball Hall of Fame has some great materials you can download for your lesson plans on the Curriculum page. 

(My post about it: B is for Baseball {History Lesson})

We visited the Florida Everglades on another vacation, had a little fun with the Junior Ranger program when we were there, and then had some great memories to talk about when our history text included a lesson about the Everglades and its place in American history. 

(My post about it: History Lesson: Florida Everglades)

As I said in a previous my 5 Days of Living History Blog Hop post "Seeing History": 

It's one thing to read about an historical event in a book, and quite another to see the place where it happened, or view a re-enactment.  You can see the words on the page, but when you see the place, the photographs, the artwork, or the artifacts... it's a different perspective. Even if it's not something that ties into your current history study, it's fun to be able to say, "Remember when we were on vacation and we stopped at ------? That's where this event happened!"  Pull up the pictures on your computer (or out of your scrapbook, if you're a more faithful scrapbooker than I am!) for the reminder.

How do you keep the fun factor in your field trips? Leave a comment and let me know! Stop by for a cup of coffee and more discussion about field trips during the 5 Days Blog Hop, and be sure to visit the other Schoolhouse Crew members and their 5 Days topics. Just click on the banner below to return to our Blog Hop Home!

©2006-2013 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

Field Trips on the Fly {5 Days of Field Trips}

After talking so much about planning a successful field trip and how to hunt down great field trip destinations, it might seem a little odd to promote doing field trips on the fly, but sometimes impromptu field trips turn out to be some of the best. These kinds of "teachable moment" field trips can be especially good for young children because so many everyday experiences can be turned into hands-on learning experiences. Here are some ideas for turning the "everyday" or "on the way" opportunities into a field trip.

For young children, many of the daily errands and experiences we adults take for granted are completely new and inspire questions and curiosity. One of the perks of homeschooling is having our kids with us, so they can get those real world experiences with us, but we can still make it a fun learning adventure when we take a little extra time or notice that something is sparking their interest. For instance, you don't need to sign up for the guided tour of the grocery store in order to make it a field trip. Just take some extra time when shopping with with your kids to answer their questions, discuss food labels, look at where the fruits and vegetables in the produce section come from, and encourage kids to talk to the manager of the meat or seafood department if they happen to be around. The same approach can turn a trip to the mall, the landfill, a bakery, I've mentioned our shopping at Wegmans and how every visit through the store is like a field trip. They have a huge cheese department, and just reading the information cards about the different varieties of cheese is educational. They also have a larger than average International Foods aisle, which has provided us with some interesting ideas, including an international soda tasting activity.

Stop by your local farmers market for shopping and field trip combined. Provided you aren't keeping the vendors from tending to other customers, they are usually friendly and willing to answer questions about their products, and you may even find out about other field trip opportunities - maybe the vendor selling local honey would do a tour of the apiary, or the local coffee roaster would allow your group to visit his shop to learn about how coffee is roasted and blended.

Trips to the local park or nature area can usually be done on the spur of the moment, allowing you to do something fun and different when you need a break from routine, but also allowing for an educational experience. When studying ecosystems one year for science, we went into our own backyard to get some ideas of what different ecosystems are like; we stopped by the seashore dunes area on a weekend trip to the beach; and we took a short trip over to the state forest for a walk in the woods. None of these trips required any advance planning, but they provided some fun and some hands-on learning. Really, any time you go for a walk with your kids, it can be a field trip. Look at the plants and animal life you see on the way. It can range from untended wilderness to farmers' crops to neat flowerbeds, and from wild birds to livestock to butterflies. Or take note of the different types of architecture seen in the buildings of a neighborhood, or the types of businesses.

Be open to stops along the way when you are vacationing as well. If you have some extremely Type A personalities in the family, who need a carefully planned schedule and timetable, this may be a huge challenge and you may even decide it's not worth it. Building some downtime into your vacation schedule may solve the problem. And remember that just because you make a side trip to the state park or museum that you see along the way doesn't mean you need to spend all day there. Take advantage of the free places you notice, and then if you can only fit in a short stop, you won't have to feel guilty about "not getting your money's worth". Our family's impromptu field trips while on vacation include the now famous visit to the Zamboni plant, and numerous visits to state and local parks seen along the way. You don't have to turn the side trip or unscheduled stop into a half day of worksheets and classroom though - take some pictures, pick up some brochures if they're available, and just enjoy the experience. Later on, when you're studying ecosystems in science, or the history of the railroad, you will have a great opportunity to remember the time you explored the beach dunes or the city park with the steam locomotive on display.

Erin at For Him and My Family gave some great ideas for field trips for very young students, and many of them involve very little planning. Check out her list of Easy Field Trips for Homeschooling Families of Young Children.

Have you ever had a great, but unplanned field trip? Leave a comment and let me know! Stop by for a cup of coffee and more discussion about field trips during the 5 Days Blog Hop, and be sure to visit the other Schoolhouse Crew members and their 5 Days topics. Just click on the banner below to return to our Blog Hop Home!

©2006-2013 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

Field Trip Destinations {5 Days of Field Trips}

Yesterday we talked about planning field trips - now we need some ideas as to where we can go! There are all kinds of great places to go for field trips and tours. I started putting together a list but this is only a sampling of the kinds of trips that are possible.

Inspiration can come from your curriculum, your kids' interests, a vacation destination, or just an opportunity that comes up. Your history curriculum may provide some of the most obvious ideas, especially if you have nearby museums and historical sites. With science, zoos and aquariums are a must-see when studying zoology, but other topics might require you to be a little more creative. You may want to take opportunities to visit art galleries or hear a musical performance to enhance your study of the fine arts.

Okay, here's my list of ideas to get you started!

• Outdoorsy field trips - Local parks, state parks, and national parks offer all kinds of field trips opportunities ranging from simple walks to wilderness adventures. Hiking trails, interpretative centers, and nature centers can work for just your family or for a larger group. Check the websites for special events you can take part in, self-guided tours and trails, or to bring an organized group for wilderness camps or guided tours with a ranger or naturalist.
• Historical field trips - When you're studying history that involves your local area, make visits to your local historic sites, monuments, and living history parks a part of your curriculum. National Parks in both the USA and Canada include lots of 'built-in' history lessons, and many of America's National Parks have a Junior Ranger badge program for kids. To earn a Junior Ranger badge usually requires picking up an activity guide at the Park's headquarters and then completing a variety of activities. Battlefields, historic buildings, lighthouses, and other places may be good choices.
• Sports field trips - Take your crew bowling, skating, or hiking. See if the bowling alley or skating rink will give you a short 'behind the scenes' tour of the facility before letting your group play. Playing racket sports, mini-golf, or going to a batting range might offer the same opportunity to learn about the background of the sport. Many pro sports arenas offer tours, and the minor league clubs are often even more accommodating. 
• Science field trips - Once again, the parks system offers a lot of possibilities through nature centers and programs like the Junior Ranger badge program. Other places to consider include science centers, planetariums, aquariums, zoos, fish hatcheries, and botanical gardens. Visit your area 4-H or state fair and look at the exhibits. If there's no planetarium in your area, there may be a stargazers or astronomy club that you can work with. Check with your local parks and rec group to find out. There is a club that hosts stargazing nights at a local nature center, and these enthusiasts are happy to show visitors how to identify the features of the night sky and let you look through their telescopes.
• Fine arts field trips - look for special programs geared to children and school groups at theaters, ballet companies, and symphony orchestras. Visit an art museum or gallery. Visit one of the many paint-your-own pottery studios and let the kids try their hand. Look for a local glass-blowing studio, or any other local artisans that will demonstrate and explain their specialty to a group.
• Local businesses of all kinds may offer really cool field trips and tours. It's common for grocery stores and restaurants to offer tours for school groups. Some other places to check include: greenhouse or nursery; apiary; pet store; newspaper printing facility, TV or radio station; bakery; fire station; airport; train station; landfill and recycling centers; working farms or dairies; and factories of all kinds. Due to safety or health concerns, there may be restrictions on what can be offered at some of these sites, but don't assume they can't or won't do a tour. 

 

We stopped by the Wegmans grocery store that opened up in our area and it's a field trip just walking through! And they offer kids cooking classes, and at the time they were hoping to be able to offer tours of the store. Many groceries in our area offer those tours to school groups.

 Our family once stopped by the Zamboni plant on a visit to my husband's hometown and just asked if they did tours. They don't do tours, but the manager I talked to gave us an excellent impromptu lesson on the history and science of ice resurfacing. All because I took a chance and asked. (See all the pictures and description of our tour: Zamboni Field Trip)

   
Our trip to the greenhouse many years ago. We toured around Thanksgiving, when the crop was poinsettias.

Not sure if a place offers tours? Just call and ask! You really never know. Start with the people you know and the businesses they are working in or hobbies they have and ask around. Some of the field trips we've done have been the result of asking someone we happen to know, or just making a call to a place we took an interest in. My husband manages a greenhouse and the tours he's given our homeschool group have been very popular. Having acquaintances that work at places like the TV station, fire station, at a farm or for a minor league baseball team have opened up opportunities for field trips.

Search online for ideas too. Websites such as Field Trip Factory and Factory Tours USA provide listings of places that have an established interest in offering field trips and tours of factories. You can also search the Educational field trips listing at Homeschool.com. Check out the post F is for Field Trips at My Joy-Filled Life for more field trip ideas.

What are some of your best ideas for field trip destinations? I'm sure I left something obvious off my list! Leave a comment and let me know! Stop by for a cup of coffee and more discussion about field trips during the 5 Days Blog Hop, and be sure to visit the other Schoolhouse Crew members and their 5 Days topics. Just click on the banner below to return to our Blog Hop Home!

©2006-2013 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

Field Trip Planning {5 Days of Field Trips}

Memorable field trips are one of the very best ways to make learning exciting and creative, and - well... memorable! Homeschooling provides lots of flexibility and the opportunities to go on field trips, sometimes just on the spur of the moment with just our family, and sometimes planned well in advance and together with a larger group. I've talked to some homeschool moms who would love to go on field trips more often, but aren't sure where to go or how to plan. Often that's been me! This week I've taken on the challenge of blogging about field trips, and as I gather ideas and tips to pass along from our experience with field trips, I think I am getting motivated to get some field trips on our calendar for the upcoming school year.

To start the week, I want to be very practical and share some tips for planning. Because I am not a planner by nature, some of these I've learned the hard way, and many I wish I'd learned earlier! One thing my kids have always liked about field trips is that we do most of them together with other homeschoolers, so they get to see and do these fun things with friends. And some field trips are just more "do-able" with a group. Generally speaking, that means somebody is probably going to have to organize the trip. If you're like me, and that doesn't necessarily come naturally, you might wish somebody else would do the planning. I can come up with some fun ideas, but when it comes to the follow-through, I struggle a bit. Here are a few things to keep in mind to make your job easier when planning for a group.

• Know your destination. Seems obvious, doesn't it? Of course, you know where you want to go on this field trip, but especially if it's someplace you haven't been before, you will want to find out in advance what you can expect. Will it be better to bring a group or go with just your own kids? For tours of business operations, often it's necessary to have a group of a certain size in order for them to do the tour. Sometimes going as part of a group, especially an educational group, means a significant savings for places like zoos or museums.
• Find out if they do anything specific for homeschool groups. It's getting more common for museums and zoos and historic sites to offer special homeschool days. In our area, Historic St Mary's City and the Maryland Science Center are just two of the destinations that have days or weeks specifically geared to homeschoolers and homeschool groups.
• Know your limits. I'm not talking about your personal limits of what you're willing to take on, although I'll address that too! I'm talking about the boundaries of the place you're visiting. Our homeschool group has toured a TV news studio and a newspaper production plant and both had limits as to how large the group could be. They could only accommodate a certain number of people on the tour - say 25 at a time. They also did not want strollers or backpacks. In addition, the TV news studio said no children under ten years old, and I'm pretty sure the newspaper didn't want kids under six or eight years old.While it's fine to ask about the reasons for these kinds of restrictions or to have them clarified, it is not okay to disregard the rules. In the examples I mentioned, the rules were primarily for safety reasons. 
• Advertise clearly to your group. Get all that information out to your homeschool group, and whatever the limits or expectations are, state them up front. Date and time, cost, minimum or maximum number of people, any age restrictions etc. If you're planning for your group, try to anticipate what the questions will be and answer them up front. 
• Know your limits. Save yourself headaches and stress by sticking to a simple sign-up system. This will save your sanity if you need to limit the number of people, or if you need to collect money and pay for your group, or if you're arranging carpooling or other transportation. Let's say you can only take 25 people through the news studio - start accepting sign-ups on a certain date and be clear that it will be the first 25 people, period. You can put people on a waiting list in case there are cancellations, but if the limit is 25, don't take 27 people. If the news studio has said "no strollers, no children under 10" then I recommend telling people that again as they sign up and asking the children's ages. For a field trip that has a cost attached, I found out (again, sort of the hard way) that it's necessary to get payment up front, in full.

The news studio trip was one of our group's favorite field trips, but the first time we went was a headache for me in some ways. One of those "learn the hard way" things. They could only take 25 people, but we had at least double that number that were interested, so I called and asked if we could bring a second and a third group on consecutive days. Since that was fine with the studio, I accepted sign-ups for three days and signed myself up for the first day. At least I was smart enough to have one mom on each of the other two days be the "captain" for their tour. The day I went with my two oldest boys, there were two other families that were signed up to go but for whatever reason they did not show up. On the plus side, the three of us got a very individualized tour! But on the negative side, we missed out on some fun because we didn't have a group to interact with, and on the other days the news anchors actually mentioned the group and the camera panned them during the noon news broadcast. That didn't happen for us. So in hindsight, what I should have done was planned my trip and said "sorry" to anybody after I had 25 signed up and offered to give them the contact information for the studio so they could set up their own group of 25. Just a couple of years ago, we returned to the studio for a personal tour (See my post, Yesterday's News), since we're acquainted with an employee there. There have been a lot of updates since we first went, and because of the popularity of that first field trip, I will probably be arranging to do this tour again for the upcoming school year. But on my terms! LOL

Harrison and Spencer on the morning show set in 2004 or so.

Landon and Kennady bring you the News in 2011

We have taken advantage of the Homeschool Days at Historic St Mary's City in Maryland a few times over the years. These kinds of events are especially easy to plan because the staff at St Mary's City did all the hard work. We just had to register and get there. (See: History Lesson: St Mary's City)

A couple of times we've gone on field trips with our homeschool group where we've had a bus for transportation. These trips were organized by other homeschool moms - I know my limits! If you have a well-organized homeschool group and can stick to your guns for getting participants to pay up front, this can really open up opportunities! In 2007, I took Harrison and Spencer on a bus trip to Philadelphia to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute as well as some of the historic downtown area. We wouldn't have been able to make that memorable trip if that wonderful homeschool mom hadn't planned it. And she did a fantastic job! (See: Philadelphia Freedom: Part One; Part Two; and Part Three)

They had more fun than this picture would indicate!

Do you have some helpful tips for planning field trips? Leave a comment and let me know! Stop by for a cup of coffee and more discussion about field trips during the 5 Days Blog Hop, and be sure to visit the other Schoolhouse Crew members and their 5 Days topics. Just click on the banner below to return to our Blog Hop Home!

©2006-2013 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/