Well, when life gets busy, or you just cleaned the kitchen and want it to stay that way, it's easy to forget this concept and focus more on keeping things clean or preventing madness with a big mess.

While on a playdate earlier today, I was talking with a dear friend about this concept. While we were talking, my younger son (just turned 4) took two cups of ice water -- both more than half-full -- and started experimenting. He started to pour one cup into the other and we both watched as water and ice started to slowly flow everywhere -- on the table, the chair, the floor, etc. His only response was a slow, soft, "Uh-oh," as he continued to pour the cup and watch the result. We couldn't help but chuckle as his reaction didn't cause him to stop. He just kept doing it, ha! In that moment (and many others recently), I've tried to make a conscious effort to just let him (and his brother) do what he's doing and see what happens. It's all in the name of science, right?! Ha!


All of this came about after seeing an inspirational video that's been floating around the internet lately. I saw it a month or two ago and it's been on my mind ever since. It was taken from a speech by Neil deGrasse Tyson about how kids are born scientist -- if we let them be, they'll explore...


Being a homeschool family, I feel that this video speaks VOLUMES and should be a reminder to us all to let kids be a kids and just let them explore the world around them. They learn so much by doing so!

Whether it's by taking a nature walk and letting kids play in the dirt while observing the animals around them and seeing what happens in the local creek, taking a toy apart to see what's inside, or making a mess in the kitchen and playing with ingredients...we need to step back and let them explore...

Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World

My Nature Journal~Kids Nature Log/Nature Draw and Write Journal: Draw And Write Nature Journal For Children

Little Backyard Explorer Insect Bug Viewer Collecting Kit 

There are many reasons we all choose to homeschool. For some, it's because of religion. For others, it's because of vaccine laws -- especially here in California. The list goes on and on. One of the original reasons we considered homeschooling is because of the flexibility. If we want to go explore, we can. We're never tied down by a school's schedule. With that comes the opportunity to go on a wide variety of "field trips!" I put that in quotations, because if you think about it, anything outside the home could be considered a field trip, ha. Either way, we can take our learning on the road and go deeper than reading a book and actually see/touch/feel it. When we do this, I try to tie in other aspects of school after we get home -- especially writing.



Because we homeschool through a Charter, we occasionally have to turn in work samples. These work samples are ideally writing samples for each subjects. Sure, you can turn in a photo of your student doing something, but to me, it's easier to just turn in something my son wrote. I typically try to use samples from things he learned while out on a field trip. Aside from the fact that it can show the unique things he's learning, knowing he's going to turn this in encourages him to put a lot of effort into doing a great job. With being a beginner writer, I love this! If there's anything I can do to encourage writing and make it fun, I'm all about it!

So between the excuse of creating a work sample, and trying to tie in other aspects of school to a field trip, I created a worksheet specifically for field trips. In the past, there have been times when I just had my son write a couple sentences in his journal (composition book), or I made a themed worksheet based on the trip (see here). This time, I decided to make a generic field trip journal printable for him to use that includes an area to draw a picture. As he has begun to show more interest in drawing, I want to be sure to include that in his journal entires. I love seeing his artwork!

Since we plan to use it tomorrow, there are no photos of my son working on it, but if you'd like to join in and use it with your students, click on the image below and it will take you to my Teachers Pay Teachers page...

Being a homeschool family, we try to soak up as many field trips as possible! After all, that's one of the many perks of living this lifestyle! The ability to drop the books and do some hands-on learning is the best! Wonderful memories are made and I can't even begin to describe how much more my son soaks up from a little trip vs. reading a paragraph in a history book! Plus, our trips usually result in a few days of continual questions and conversations about what we saw -- I love it!


Yesterday was our latest trip and it was to none other than the new King Tut exhibit at the California Science Center! I think my husband was looking forward to it more than the kids and even cleared his schedule so that he could join us, ha! We lucked out with being able to get significantly discounted tickets by going with our homeschool group, which was an added bonus. The tickets included both an IMAX movie and the entrance into the special exhibit. It was such a fun experience! Several of the items on display were marked as being the first time out of Egypt -- how cool is that?!

I always find it so fascinating to see artifacts from long ago. It gives you such a different perspective on whatever you're learning about and makes it that much more exciting to study! It makes me think of when my husband and I moved to Germany early on in our marriage -- seeing the cannonballs in the walls of various downtown buildings and seeing ruins from war made me want to dig in and study about those times in history. Today's field trip had the same effect. Even better than that, it did the same for my 1st grader, too! Ever since we've been home, he can't stop talking about it. There have been countless questions (some repeats, ha) and conversations about different topics relating to what we saw. We even had to pull up a film on Netflix about it all, ha! I love it.