I think every homeschool mom plans to include field trips into her children’s learning times. With every plan to travel comes a need of figuring what to pack for a field trip. Things to pack include lunches, supplies, and extra resources.
Food
Of course, depending on how long your field trip is for you might not need to pack a thing. If it’s just an afternoon or a morning, really, you don’t need food. You might want to pack along some water. Our current favourite water bottles are the Contigo fit bottles. We’ve tried a number of water bottles over the years and these ones don’t develop mold issues AND they don’t leak!
But a day-long trip… you need some food. Some places don’t have a food court, others do and generally are a bit pricey. My lad and I are simple eaters when it comes to going out. This makes it super easy for us to pack a sandwich, a bag of chips or some fruit, maybe a granola bar, and our drink. Often we’ll pack a muffin along for the road home.
For years we used these tupperware containers for our sandwiches, and they are nice. I like them. BUT sometimes you need to kinda squish your sandwich in… and well.. that’s not so great. Our current favourites my hubby found someplace and they are a lot like these ones, except they are slightly more rectangular than square. Fits our bread better.
Supplies
There are some things you need on almost every field trip.
A way to take notes. I love my tablet for this, my son likes to pop a notepad into his pocket.
A way to commemorate your visit. I either use my phone or grab up my point and shoot camera. My son was gifted a nice camera much like this one from his uncle that he uses. He’s taken some stellar images with it.
Extra Resources
Most field trips won’t require any special resources beyond the willingness of your student to participate. Some won’t even require a notepad! Others though, will encourage exploration, either as part of a group or on your own.
For instance, having a pocket microscope would be excellent when on a forest study, trail walk, or any botany, biology or zoology trip. If you carry a smartphone you might want to bump up your pocket microscope into this small microscope.
You might need a map, a geometry set, specific crafting materials, critical thinking tools, or even nice clothes to take in professional arts events. Consider the event that you want to attend and take along what you need to help your students make the most of their opportunities.
How about you? What is important for you when you pack for a field trip?
Some things to think on. Being in Texas, water is always a necessity to carry, no matter how long the field trip is.
I can imagine that water would be a must.