Finding Fun, Free Family Trips, Close to Home
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Road Trip! Family-Friendly Destinations That Won't Break Your Budget
One of the best parts of homeschooling is that you can have school wherever you want, including outside. Here's a list of fun (and free or inexpensive) places that you can take your "classroom." The idea here is not to fill the outing full of graphic organizers, checklists and facts to learn -- I've included some ideas that you can use on the field trip that add to the fun factor, not detract from it.
Here's our list of this year's get-away spots (in no particular order, but with consult from my kids). You'll notice that some of them were not far away -- only in the backyard! Sometimes it's just about looking at the things you do in a different way.
Updated: 09-02-2011
Kim M. Bennett
Here's our list of this year's get-away spots (in no particular order, but with consult from my kids). You'll notice that some of them were not far away -- only in the backyard! Sometimes it's just about looking at the things you do in a different way.
Updated: 09-02-2011
Kim M. Bennett
Contents at a Glance
Are We There Yet?
Family-friendly Outings on a Budget
We have a big family. Our four children span a 23-year age range, from our 7-year-old to our 29-year-old. The oldest has five of her own, ages one through nine. So we have had a lot of opportunities to practice going places with kids of all ages, over the years.
The family (or subsets of our family!) have gone on some big trips over the the years:
- a road trip down the Eastern Seaboard, from Connecticut to South Carolina, by way of Virginia;
- a week-long snorkeling vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii;
- Christmas in Belize, complete with rainforest hiking;
-a tour of Southern California, including a trip to the train museum in Sacramento, wine-tasting in Napa Valley, mountain climbing in Yosemite, hiking at Mono Lake, beachcombing at Point Reyes (and a less-than-memorable night in Fresno);
-a week swimming with the dolphins on Folley Island, SC;
- many vacations to the summer home on Damariscotta Lake, in Maine;
-pub-hopping in Scotland...
Obviously, these events are a "happening," and can't occur more than once a year. But we love going places, because we learn so much and have so much fun when we go. So here is an article about the kinds of family trips that we have found to be memorable, fun, and economical. All of them require little or no preparation, are free or very low cost, and present lots of opportunities for building them into a homeschool curriculum, if you are a homeschooler. For each, I have included links to some materials that we have used to extend the activities into our homeschool learning.
Here is a very helpful video showing how to pack a backpack for a day hike.
A Sandy Beach...
Ocean Beach, New London, Connecticut
Although any sandy beach will do for us, our go-to beach these days is Ocean Beach, New London, CT. We have "our" spot, which is nearby a stone pile that is a great place to investigate tidal pools and shore life. You will see several species of gull, jellyfish, hermit and blue crabs, and lots of sunburned people. Our favorite time to go is late in August, after public school has started but while the ocean water is its warmest. We see a few college students at that time, but the beach is nearly empty. Bring buckets for sea life observation, a net, snacks and sunblock.Check out this web site for help identifying those treasures you find on your trip:
Seashell Identification
The Sand-Dollar
Beach Glass Collecting
For fun check out these mermaid tales after your trip.
For the really adventurous, try snorkeling. My favorite all-time spot for taking little kids or beginner snorkelers is Hanauma Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. Check it out.
Read about one of the most famous snorkelers and divers in the world -- Jacques Cousteau.
A Family Cook-out (at YOUR House!)
Independence Day, 2010
Aside from the obvious history connections, holiday-inspired cook-outs are a great way to connect a lot of subjects in a fun-filled family event. Before the event, we make lots of lists, from cleaning projects that need to be done to food purchases, to people to invite. Then we have to break up the preparation into a series of steps, which is good thinking for kids. There's set up and food preparation to consider, and how to be a good host (e.g., serve others first, like Abraham and Lot dividing up the grazing land). Events like this provide lots of opportunity for personal narrative writing. We take lots of pictures on the digital camera, then choose ones and narrate back what happened in the photo.Here is a link to Cozi, which is a web site with lots of family organization tools and articles, from planning a family vacation, to making a grocery list, to documenting your family events in an online journal. We share the family journal on Facebook, so all our friends and family can see what we're up to, and I also downloaded Cozi's screensaver, which creates a changing photo gallery of all the photos on your computer -- my grandchildren love to just sit and watch the photos and ask what they show. Check out the Cozi app, too, which will send your journal and other Cozi lists to your Smartphone.
Your Own Backyard
Our Garden in Hartford
There's so much to do just by walking outside, no matter where you live. Family strolls are good for the body, mind and spirit of all the members of the family (including your doggie who's been cooped up inside all day!). Don't have a set agenda, and don't go far. Just look closely at everything as you go.Here is a link to my lens on Observation, if you would like something special to do outside. Also check out this site, for more on nature study.
Where are My Readers From?
The Kitchen
A Spring Garden Salad
Cooking is a wonderful homeschool "field trip," for many reasons: 1) you have to do it anyway, so it's not an "add-on"; 2) your kids will have to know how to do it someday; 3) it can cover so many subjects in one meal prep: nutrition, measurement, fractions, multiplication and division, the food pyramid, 1:1 correspondence, food production... As a classroom teacher, I tried to have cooking days several times a year -- the students loved it. If you don't already include cooking as part of your homeschool curriculum, consider it.Family Fun Magazine (published by Disney) is a wonderful magazine chock full of ideas for fun family time, including a standing section on cooking with kids. Subscribe, or check out their online magazine links.
A Community Celebration
Hearts of Gold Family Day, Simpson-Waverly Elementary School, Hartford
Every town has a community calendar. Many of the events are free, or low cost. If you want to watch your favorite neighbor end up in a dunking booth, or eat cotton candy and play bean bag toss games, or just see everyone from your town all in one place, check out your local community calendar listings for events to attend. Community calendars are a great way to structure your social studies instruction -- you will see historical events, tours, family days, music events, church-sponsored activities, community services and many, many other things that will help you teach what a community is.For more information about Hearts of Gold, a community organization started by and started for folks in the Hartford community, click the link to go to their website.
A Local Parade
West Indian Day Parade, Hartford, Connecticut
Being a part of a musical family means that your car might veer off course if the sound of snares and bass drum waft over the air while you're out driving. I think my husband has about 2000 photos (maybe an exaggeration) of kids drumming. Hartford has a vibrant West Indian community, with people from St. Lucia, Trinidad, Aruba, St. Kitt's, and many other lands, as well as from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The West Indian Day Parade, sponsored by the West Indian Social Club comes to Hartford every fall, and it's a chance to see marchers in traditional parade dress from these Caribbean islands. We also just love the excitement of marching bands, in general. Good opportunity for studying the flags of the Caribbean Islands, as the vendors are usually selling them at the parade venue. Life On the Water...
Your Local Library
Hartford Public Library, Hartford, Connecticut
For those long summer days when it's too hot to play outside, there is cool fun happening at your local public library. Get a library card for each member of the family, to teach your kids responsibility. My mom used to limit us to how many books we could carry (but I think she used the baby stroller to help us out, in the end). Get a pile of books and dive in. Most libraries have online reservations and renewals now, which makes it easy to find specific books you want to read. In the summer, check out your library's Summer Reading Program, which will include Story Time hours, fun craft events, incentives to keep kids reading all summer, and special workshops. Your library may also serve free lunches to all children who visit (no library card necessary). For older kids, there are computer sign-ups.Our public library system, Hartford Public Library, has a homepage, which lists special library events, including summer reading program (that's right -- there are events all year round!).
A Place With A View
The Morning Glory Cafe, Old Lyme, Connecticut
Our advice? If you don't have a digital camera, get one and keep it with you wherever you go. You never know when you will discover a rich experience that you can weave into your studies.
Check out the story of the Patana family, who established the Morning Glory Cafe.
An Extreme Weather Event
Summer Hail, Winter Snow
We certainly had some wild weather here in Connecticut over the past year, and I'm sure you did where you live, too. The weather provided lots of opportunity to talk about energy in the Earth's systems, the water cycle, and the physics of storms and storm clouds. You can't really plan for it, but be ready to take advantage of it, should the opportunity arise.We captured the hailstorm on video -- check it out, for fun. It was very exciting for us.
The winter storms led to some needed construction projects -- that will be a whole separate study for us! Time to talk about simple machines...
A Special Ceremony
Weddings, weddings and more weddings...
We attended a few weddings this year. Weddings and other ceremonial events offer an opportunity to study the origins of many customs and rituals we have in our culture. We can also compare to other cultures. For example...Why does the bride wear white to a wedding? Here in the United States, people wear black at funerals, and white at weddings. But in China, white is associated with funerals, and red with weddings!
Have you ever wondered why you can look at a cake and immediately know it's a wedding cake? Why do we make wedding cakes the way we do?
In some African-American families, people say that a couple "jumped the broom" when they are telling that they got married (in fact, the wedding where I took this cake photo included a brief "broom-jumping" ceremony). Where does this expression come from?
Do you know the origin of that famous song that means the bride is walking down the aisle?
Where did the idea of a wedding ring come from?
There are many, many interesting social studies connections in a special ceremony. For more information on wedding customs, click on the link.
A Slice of Time
Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, Connecticut
What is the natural history of the place you call home? Chances are there is a museum or other community center that houses interesting artifacts and the story of your location.We took a fall field trip to Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Dinosaur State Park boasts one of the best-preserved set of dinosaur tracks in the Northeast. The museum houses a trackway for public viewing, as well as educational exhibits showing what scientists were able to learn about the creatures that lived here long ago, by comparing them to animals that exist today.
This Park also has a hands-on center for studying fossils, rocks and minerals, a garden illustrating the native plants typical of the area today, and an arboretum featuring trees that were living during the time of the dinosaurs, including dawn-redwood. Don't miss the casting area, where your child can make a plaster cast of one of the dinosaur tracks (you provide the plaster and materials, the museum provides staff to help), and an area where your child can pan for gold (both are seasonal -- check their website for details). The nature trails for the park are open year-round (see the photo at the top of this page for an image of one of the boardwalk trails through the marsh on the park grounds.
A Drive to Nowhere in Particular, or Somewhere Special
Cloud Bow, I-91, Wethersfield, Connecticut
Sometimes we just go for a drive. We have a loose agenda of places we might go, but often we just go. We like scavenger hunts for car trips -- they really keep down the "are we there yets," are fun for everyone, keep the driver awake and alert, and can stretch or compress to fit whatever time is available. A family favorite has been a state license plate scavenger hunt -- all you need is a print-out of the 50 states, and a pencil, and you're ready to go. Better yet, use a blank copy of the US map, so the kids practice locating the state on the map, then have them color in each state as they see the plate.Here is a clever site for other ideas for things to do while driving with your family, called Mom's Mini Van.
NOTE: The bright image in the photo, above, is NOT the sun. The sun was actually behind the hillside, to the right. The image is the reflection of the sun on the clouds, making it look exactly like there were two suns. An actual bright "bow" of light extended either direction from this reflection, and was visible to the eye, but didn't capture on film at dusk.
A Hike in the Woods
Fenton-Ruby Park and Wildlife Preserve, Willington, Connecticut
No matter where you live, you are probably within a hop, skip and jump from either a town preserve or state forest. The National Parks system is a wonderful way to weave natural history, science and history all together in one trip. Frequently, the websites for these parks and forests even have suggested activities and downloadable teacher resources that can really make it easy to pull a field trip into your curriculum.Here are some links you might find helpful:
The United States National Park Service has a rich website, which features a wizard to help you find a national park close to where you live. There are also pages with links to historical sites in the National Park System, as well as pages with well-developed curriculum and lesson materials for use on your park field trip.
Closer to home, your own state's government website will have links to the State Parks where you live. The Department of Environmental Protection
in Connecticut has a website that lets you link to the homepages of the state parks, and also lets you find one close to your location by using a wizard based on a map of the state.
The photo, above, was taken at the Fenton-Ruby Park and Wildlife Preserve, a parcel of land that was entrusted to the Town of Willington by private landowners. It include well-marked trails maintained by the town, with the help of local Scouts, an active beaver lodge and dam, the remains of the home of one of the town's original settlers, and trail maps marked with significant geological landmarks. The trail is useful for any studies of geology, biomes, Colonial history and local plants.
An Arboretum
Elizabeth Park, Hartford, Connecticut
Whenever I go to an arboretum, I think of Alice in Wonderland -- there is something stately and magical about the lines, the flowers, the architecture, that makes me feel like I'm in England instead of Connecticut.This arboretum we visited, Elizabeth Park, is actually an historic park in Hartford, which has a facility for rent that is frequently used for wedding receptions. There is a greenhouse, a koi pond, paved bike and foot paths, benches and hiking trails. There is the famous archway (above) and a gazebo which has a roof made of greenery. There are collections of plants (the shade garden, the wildflower garden, e.g.), but Elizabeth Park, like many arboreta, is known for a certain collection: namely its roses. Because there are so many varieties, the typical rose blooming season extends earlier and later than you might see in your garden.
Some people go to Elizabeth Park to collect the rose petals that have dropped after blooming. We took lots of pictures, and left the plants alone.
If you want to study museums, adding an arboretum to your places to visit is a twist to the topic of collectibles.
An Apple Orchard
Lyman Orchards, Middlefield, Connecticut
Who can resist a trip to the apple orchard on a bright fall day? To me, it is one of the highlights of the fall. Even though we went late, there were many varieties to pick, and our son had to taste-test every one.Your local apple orchard probably sells more than just apples. Check out its website to see what is in season. Most orchards are open year-round, selling holiday items and stored apples during the winter, then maple syrup in the late winter to early spring. Lyman Orchards has a restaurant, workshops for kids and adults, a store, and online shopping. There is also a golf course. In October, there is a corn maze, hayrides, and other seasonal festivities.
A Garden Center
Broken Arrow Nursery, Hamden, Connecticut
I LOOOOOVE gardening. So I am raising all my kids in the garden (that's my oldest son in the photo -- he's actually WORKING at the garden center). In the fall, at peak planting times. many nurseries hold open-houses so you can see things in their fall color. This nursery, Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, has an open-house in the spring, when the mountain-laurels bloom. They serve coffee and refreshments in the check-out house, give "gator" rides to people buying plants dug from way in the back, and open up the whole nursery for some nice autumn strolling. You might even get a chance to put "dibs" on your Christmas tree during your walk. We like to see the butterflies and birds that are attracted to all the interesting plant life in a nursery. A Zoo
Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Who doesn't love a trip to the zoo? If you live near a major urban area, you probably live close to a larger zoo. In Connecticut, there are several smaller zoos close by our home, including the Beardsley Zoo, Roger Williams Park and Zoo, in Providence, Rhode Island, and the Butterfly Zone at the Bronx Zoo in New York, New York.Besides the obvious science connections to animals and habitats, a zoo trip can be connected to geography, data and statistics, writing and many other subjects. Bring your camera, sunblock, some snacks and drinks, and wear comfy shoes. Get ready for fun!
To find a zoo or aquarium in your area, go to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums website.
More on Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo ...
A Street Festival
Third Thursday, Willimantic, CT
For more information on the famous "Frog Wars" of Colonial Willimantic, see The Frog Bridge, Willimantic, Connecticut.
To learn more about Colonial Connecticut, view Colonial Connecticut, a PowerPoint created by Lisa Bonnano of Eastern Connecticut State University, in Willimantic.
For information on the early mill town history of Willimantic, with links to lesson plans and other resources on the mills, past and present, see the website of the Windham Textile and History Museum.
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JoyfulReviewer
Dec 1, 2011 @ 1:57 pm | delete
- Very nice field trip ideas ... can create wonderful family memories too. Congratulations on having one of the top 35 homeschooling lenses.
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Joie Nov 13, 2011 @ 5:56 pm | delete
- Ah, the memories - wonderful field trips no matter where we were! :)
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Hedremp
Nov 12, 2011 @ 11:22 am | delete
- there are some great ideas here - I am going to link it with my Homeschooling on the Go page of my website www.educationfun1.com
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Eating on the Run
There are so many questions that you field when you take children on an outing: "Are we there yet?" "Do I HAVE to sit in the middle?" "Will you tell her to please stop?" The one that can make or break an outing, however, is, "What are we gonna eat?"
How do you feed the masses when YOU go out for an family day?
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Notice
All content (c) 2011, Kim M. Bennett
Road Trip 2010-11! Fun, Free and Close to Home by Kim M. Bennett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.northsideconsulting.org.
Road Trip 2010-11! Fun, Free and Close to Home by Kim M. Bennett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.northsideconsulting.org.
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