-by Mimi Rothschild
With winter weather and the time pressures of getting ready for the holidays, homeschoolers may be spending less time out and about. We can still give our kids the benefits of field trips, though. Later in this post, you’ll find a list of just some of the many wonderful museums you can visit online.
Get the most from your field trips by following a few simple steps:
• Visit the site yourself first. This way, you can see what background your students will need in order to get the most from the online visit, and you can choose an appropriate objective for the visit.
• Choose a learning objective for each of your children. Older students can write reports, while younger ones can do a virtual scavenger hunt, sending you a link to a page you asked them to find. Many sites also have games or quizzes designed for kids, and these can be excellent objectives.
• Follow up. Just visiting is fun, but taking that knowledge and applying it to other lessons is the way to make the learning stick. Have students write, draw, retell their learning to other family members, or in other ways use the things they’ve learned.
Favorite places to visit:
• The Cave of Lascaux is a beautiful website, allowing us to visit a place few people can see in the physical world. The artworks made there by early humans show that they, like their sovereign Creator, were made with a desire to create. Enjoy a Virtual Visit to the cave, learn its history, and finish up with online quizzes and puzzles.
• Visit The Virtual Instrument Museum to see, hear, and learn about a dazzling array of instruments made from all kinds of different materials. You can enjoy exploring the museum in a free-form way, but it’s also a great opportunity to practice geography by finding the homes of all the instruments on a map as you explore, or to work on critical thinking skills by sorting the exhibits.
• The National Museum of the American Indian has lots of wonderful exhibits. One is about the history of Native American women’s clothing. Another is the special online resource about Native American Codetalkers. Click on the “Education” button and then the “Print Resources” button to find a variety of PDF files to print out, including posters.
• It isn’t only museums that make good virtual field trips. Check out the Virtual Cave for an excellent science lesson. There are plenty of amazing photographs, and lots of information as well.
• The Exploratorium is probably the best science museum for kids around, and they have so many great resources that you’ll need to make more than one visit. Take time for free exploration, or build field trips into lots of your science lessons.
• A cyber field trip on the Grimms Fairy Tales can include reading the classic fairy tales as well as some history and geography. National Geographic has done a good job on this website, with stories to read and listen to, plus background information and creepy graphics that add to the fun. The treasure chest on the left side of the home page hides the contents list, including kids’ activities.
The web is a wonderful thing, and it changes every day. If your favorite virtual field trip destinations disappear over time, you can find new ones by searching for “virtual museum” or for your favorite real-world museums – chances are they have online exhibits.
Leave us a comment telling us about your favorites!
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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.
-by Mimi Rothschild
Are you traveling away from home soon? Homeschooling families have (yet another) advantage over public school families in that they have the flexibility to travel without having to miss school. Still, you will probably have to make some adjustments.
Here are some ways to approach schooling during the holidays:
• Adjust your routine. Many families find that getting all the basic “book work” done in the morning and leaving the afternoon free for sightseeing and visiting works best. Lessons in the hotel room or guest room, on a regular schedule, can be reassuring for young children and help keep them from getting overexcited. On the other hand, if you’re fitting into the schedules of people you’re visiting, there’s nothing wrong with having lessons in the evenings or at other convenient times. Don’t make your children feel that they’re missing out on the fun. Even if your routine is completely changed, though, consider keeping something like 15 minutes of reading every evening or something similar, to give a little bit of structure to the kids’ days and make it easier to get back into the swing of things when you return to schooling.
• Consider how you plan to travel. Some kids can read in the car and some get carsick if they try. Airports can be a fine place to do math lessons, especially if you have your laptop along, but the combined excitement and boredom of air travel can make it hard for kids to concentrate. If you don’t yet know how your particular children will respond to the travel method you’ve chosen, plan to lower your expectations for them while traveling.
• Take some time off. Sometimes this is truly the best plan. The schoolwork will still be there when you get back to it. Appreciate the opportunities that travel offers to make some unscheduled discoveries, and know that you can make the time up at another time of year if you feel you need to.