Field Trips

[Erudite]

One of the things that I've never done very well on is taking my kids on "field trips" during the summer. It's something that I just don't think of (unless you count the library), but I would love a good list of places to go with the kids that could be fun. I'm specifically looking for educational aspects, but wrapped up in something fun. I'd love too for there to be some kind of educational preparation involved so that when we go to the place, they've been prepped for it and are excited about it! So if you have any ideas, great or small, please share! Even the small ideas can come in handy for those who just want to fill an hour or 2.

Thanks for the help!! Please just post Field trip ideas or questions about a field trip idea in this thread. If you have questions or comments about the whole idea, please post them under the "new board" thread.

[Erudite]

I'll start and give an idea on what I hope will be helpful to all:

Location: This is the Place State Park
Cost: $8 per adult, $6 per kid
Website: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Before we go, we could read from the Monuments page on the website to give kids the story of this place. We could actually make pioneer costumes and wear them that day. Since this is a place without the technology of our day, we could have some "technology" free days and play pioneer children kinds of games.

FYI for those who have kids under school age, you'll want to take a kid backpack or a stroller with big wheels, because the smaller wheeled strollers don't do so well on the dirt roads. And be sure to wear sunblock.

[Erudite]

Here's another fun one. TR wants to go this year...he's a train enthusiast, if you didn't know.

Location: S&S Railroad, outside of Farmington, Utah
Cost: depends on what you decide to do
Website: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

To prepare, little kids would like books like The Little Engine that Could. You could (lol) walk around with your hands on your kids' waist, saying "choo choo"! Yes, I'm kidding. Older kids could read tall tales about John Henry ([Only registered and activated users can see links. ]) and draw pictures to go with the story.

[5ft Diva]

You're way more organized than I am, Erudite. Thanks for the fun ideas.

[Dia Minha]

I have done this before. Our favorite was our "unit" on the Great Salt Lake. We checked out several books and studied several different topics such as local birds, plants, and other wildlife. One book had several different expriments dealing with salt water and we did those too. Then we spent the day visiting several different locations out by the Great Salt Lake. We went to the boat docks and the big rock and then spent the remainder of the day out on Antelope Island.

We also have done the Living Aquarium. For this we read different books on water animals and then spent a couple hours at the aquirium. The kids really got a kick out of petting the sting rays and because they had read about them ahead of time they showed a lot more interest in what they were doing.

We did a dinasaur unit one week and after reading an assortment of fact and fiction library books, spent the day at Ogden's Eccles Dinasaur Park. My kids love this place.

One we are planning on this year, because we are getting the Aviary Pass RAR shared with us on her Cheap Familiy Fun thread, is the Avairy. I plan on doing a unit on birds and then finishing it off with a trip or two to the avairy.

This year we are headed up to the Seattle and Portland area and I'm already doing research on different things we can read up on and visit while we are there, including: ocean life, beach life, the space needle, the local Seattle bridge troll, and of course I'm excited to take them to see the Seattle temple, because I actually got to go to the open house when it opened almost 30 years ago.

Oh yea and locally there is the train graveyard (Not sure of the real name) and the fire museum. I'm sure I will be able to find a good assortment of train and fire books.

Sorry about all the spelling errors. My baby is getting fussy and I just wanted to get this all out, or I might not get back to it.

Dia

[Erudite]

Too cool! Thanks Dia!! I love these ideas. Keep them coming!