Homeschooling, much like public schooling often has to be done on a budget. As homeschoolers, our budget is often pretty small. However, a small budget doesn’t have to stop our kids from enjoying fun and educational field trips! Here are some homeschool field trips that you can take for free!
You won’t believe the number of field trips that you can take, for free, right in your own town. Some of these, you may have never even thought of before now.
Free Educational Field Trips
Your Local Library
The local library is a great place to start! Often times, they host storytimes or learning experiences for kids of all ages. Of course, there are the books. I know I can get lost in the stacks for hours and so can my kids. You can even play games like Silent Book Scavenger hunts, where you have to find books about a certain theme, as quietly as you can and put them in your tote bag to be checked out! Your local library may also have resources and tickets to other local attractions. You can even check out books about field trips like, Field Trip Fiasco or Iris and Walter and The Field Trip.
Your Local Grocery Store or Bakery
If you give your local stores a call, most of them will let you come in and see how the store works, on a day to day basis. This is a great learning experience, as kids get to see how a grocery store fills their shelves or how your local bakery makes the morning donuts! Just don’t forget your aprons! When you go home, recreate your own store or bakery!
City Hall and The Public Works
Give your local city hall a call and see if you can schedule a time for your homeschoolers to visit some of the vital jobs that keep your city running. Often times, the city will let you check out public sanitation, the police and fire departments, as well as local office jobs, like the city clerk. You can even volunteer at the local food shelf and learn how it works. Afterwards, you can practice setting up meetings and budgets.
Nature Centers and State Parks:
Nature Centers are an awesome resource for homeschoolers and are fantastic field trips that you can take for free! They often have learning exhibits set up in the visitor center and at times, even have group classes scheduled, where you can learn about your local flora and fauna for free. It is also a great place to work on outdoor skills like hiking, bird spotting, foraging and more!
Have you been on any fun field trips for free? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
