Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal Review

If you've been around here you know that we love Apologia Educational Ministries. We have used them for science ever since we started homeschooling. We recently got the chance to review a brand new product from them called the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal.  What it is... The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal can be used in a variety of ways. As homeschoolers , field trips are a huge part of our year. This helps to reiterate what we have learned. It is a way to learn new things and to put your hands on history, science and even math once in a while. This journal gives you a way to record all you do each year and to explore options you might not have thought about as a field trip.  The book itself is full of pages for you to document your adventures. To start off with it has a checklist /guide for you as the parent to prepare for a field trip. It talks about discussing your field trip location before you get there. Give your child goals for the trip of things that you want them to learn and take away from the visit.  It also discusses virtual field trips. We haven't done a whole lot of those but I am looking at doing more. I think it's a great way to "visit" far off places you might never make it to. It also gives your students a checklist for them to make sure they are ready for their trip. 

 The book lists a variety of field trip ideas to help you plan places to go. I know I have some trouble at times thinking of free/inexpensive trips to take. Oh there's plenty of places to go that you have to budget for. Those "off the beaten path" trips are a little harder for me to think of. Thankfully there's a list in the book to help give you ideas!

 The next pages you'll find are places for you to document where you've been. Places in your state or places in the country that you've visited can easily be tracked and placed on these pages.

You can track the date and the location. I am going to have him color the states as we have visited attractions there. I think that'll be a neat way to see how you travel across the country. We have been to several states in the South but my/our goal is to visit even more outside of the South. It'll be interesting to see how many states we can get colored in.

The next set of pages are for you to document each trip you take. This could be a group field trip or one you take with just your family. Each page allows you to document the following :

• Date of trip
• Books read to prepare for trip
• Story of your day
• Map of location
• Emergency contact and more!

There are pages for your photo of the trip as well or your child can draw what they remember. 

Other pages in the journal include your child's special spot. It is one of their favorite places and there's a page for all four seasons. It allows them to record the changes they see throughout the year and it's fun to see how each season affects their spot. 

How we used it... We are using this to record all of our field trips for the year. (or until we fill the book). We have recorded the trips we have taken this year and he has new trips while he was visiting with Grandparents. As we get ready for a trip we make sure we research the spot before hand and write down what we want to learn before we go. If it is a history sight, we spend time reading about it or researching what took place there before we go. 

We have filled in our trips to other states and tried remembering everywhere we have visited. We take the book along with us on our new field trips and write down as we go through the trips. 

What we think... I honestly love this journal! I love the idea of writing down the adventures we take. So many times we snap photos of our adventure with our phone or digital camera and I'm bad about not printing them out. I shudder to think what would happen if I lost my computer or disk I have them saved on. This gives me a reason to print out the pictures so that he has a keepsake to take with him. Here's a shot of the pages we did for his recent visit to a museum with his grandparents. 

His favorite thing he saw was the knights in armor. We are currently printing off some of the pictures he took so he can add them to the pages. 

I would advise you to take the journal along with you on your trip. Your child can write down different aspects of the trip while you're visiting the area. This helps you remember the awesome things they saw right then. I help him write and take down what he says on some of the information as he's a typical boy and hates to write. (we are working on that :))

This is another wonderful product from Apologia and I highly recommend you considering it as you try to incorporate more field trips. As usual with the Apologia curriculum you'll find a password in the book that will take you to a list of awesome field trip ideas they have put together for you. 

Be sure to click the link below to read more reviews of the journal! 

Weekly Review - Field Trips, Games and Candy Corn...

**Be sure to enter the giveaway I have going on now. It's open until Sunday!**

I'm linking up this week with Homegrown Learners, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Our 4 Kiddos.

Well this week was fun :). It has been more hands on learning than book learning this week. And that's okay! We have done some book stuff like wrapping up units with our tests. It gives us a good place to start next week.

This week we had field trips, game building and co-op/park day too. The co-op day is today so that's a great way to end our week.

We tried out some candy corn science this week. I got the really cute printable below from this awesome site. She had some great experiments with that crazy candy. Do you like candy corn? I know my husband doesn't but I can do a little of it. Seems it's one of those things that either you love it or you hate it. So which is it for you?

We carved pumpkins this week too. Sadly, we have to wait till right before Halloween to do this here in the South. If you do it too early  you end up with a rotten pumpkin before Halloween even gets here. Here's our carvings. Boo Bear was super excited because this was his first year to carve it all by himself.

As you can see I'm not near as creative as my hubby. He does these things free hand and I am just blown away every year. His pumpkins are always awesome. I think Boo Bear also did awesome on his pumpkin. I was very impressed.

Our field trip this week was to a local pumpkin patch/corn maze. We had a blast! It wasn't too hot but it was still quite warm in the sun. We got to ride a hayride and feed the cows. Or throw the cow candy at them as some of the kids did. Those big giant faces and long slimy tongues coming at you can be quite scary. :)

We went through the corn maze, rode a huge slide, heard stories and got to have a great time out in the outdoors with our amazing homeschool group.

Finally, I got creative. Remember last week I mentioned needing a mom hobby? Something I could just kind of hide away and do and enjoy? Well I think I might have found one.

Last week I broke out the sewing machine and made a purse. I had a blast and I made another one this week. I'm hoping I can keep practicing and make gifts for Christmas. That would be awesome right? So here it is...

Oh and I think I  mentioned games in the title, right? Yep. Well I volunteered to head up the Trunk or Treat for our church this year. It's tomorrow. They haven't done one like this before so we have no idea how many kids will show up. When I say I volunteered, I mean I also volunteered my husband to do his building thing. Because you know he loves building right? And he's awesome at it! Here's a few of the games he built for the event.

It's sure to be a blast!!! (hopefully) So I gotta run make more games and get ready for co-op day. How was your week? Let me know in the comments below so I can come visit you too!

Favorite Field Trips In Florida

Going on field trips is part of homeschooling, public schooling and just everyday life with kiddos. As homeschoolers, we love going on our field trips in the middle of the year when most other children and families are at school. ;) I'm just being an open book for a minute. Is that alright? Going when most other families are back in school or work means we have a pretty open reign of the exhibits or places we visit. I mean who likes to wait in line, right?

So here's a list of some of our favorite field trips to add to your must-see list:

1. Dinosaur World - If you have a dinosaur lover in your family, this is the place to be. Be sure to check out the fossil dig and take home a couple of real fossils while you're there. Enjoy a picnic at the large picnic area with playground after checking out all the life-size dinos. If you're heading out in the hotter days, be sure to take bug spray with you as the trail is in the wooded areas.

Meeting the dinosaurs!

Nana visiting with us. 

 2. MOSI - Science your favorite subject? Come get hands on with this awesome museum. We love visiting all the exhibits and the children's area is amazing. Everything is hands on and you can watch the IMAX while you're there. Large exhibits change throughout the year and offer awesome things like Mythbuster and chocolate!!

Bouncing off the wall... literally.

3. Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park - Learn all about Florida's animals in this amazing park. Meet manatees up close and personal or check out the amazing Florida black bear. See the animals that call Florida home all in one location. The best part? We had a 20 minute boat ride to the park that was simply awesome.

4. Parks and Historical Sights -Florida is chock full of parks and excitement outdoors. From beaches to hiking trails, you can find everything outdoors you could think of. Check out the fort at Ft. Desoto while you're swimming at the beach or discover Crystal River and its archaeological sights. There's always something new to discover.

5. Theme Parks - Yep. We even visit these for educational benefits at times. Seaworld, Busch Gardens, and even Universal can be educational. Learn about conservation efforts, animals around the world and how to make those crazy makeups in the movies.

These are just a few of our favorite field trips around Florida. What are your favorite trips where you live? How often do you do a field trip?

Wordless Wednesday Linky

This past weekend we took a trip. Just me and the kiddo while daddy was at work. We desperately needed a field trip to get our minds off things going on. Did we have fun? You bet!!! Here's some shots of our trip at the Science Museum!

Be sure to link up your WW posts!