Who doesn’t love field trips? Getting outside of the classroom (so in our case, the house!) to explore, learn, and grow through hands-on activities with friends is a highlight of school for us. But as a homeschooling mom who isn’t great at dreaming up, planning, and executing excursions on my own, I am especially thankful for our homeschool group.
We have packed in a lot of adventures already this fall. Sometimes we all pile into the church van which is always fun. The kids feel a bit like they are riding in a school bus, and it is somewhat akin to playing the game of sardines, especially when you consider there are typically 5 or more car seats involved! Here are a few highlights from the semester.
September
On a hot Tuesday in September, we caravanned over to Willow River State Park and Nature Center in Hudson. After hiking around a bit, we had a geocaching lesson with one of the park naturalists. She taught us how to use handheld GPS devices and led us on an excursion where the kids successfully found two caches! We enjoyed a picnic lunch together and then hiked to Willow Falls. The waterfall was beautiful and the mist refreshing on a hot day!
October
In October, we packed into the church van and drove south to Alma, WI to visit Castlerock Museum. What an impressive place! We saw arms and armor from as early as ancient Greece to the early modern period and even got to try on chain mail!
November
November brought us downtown for a tour of Westconsin Credit Union. It’s fun for our kids to see church friends in their work environment. Danielle H. and another employee led us on a tour through all the departments with scavenger hunts in hand. Some of our favorite parts were getting to operate the pneumatic tubes at the drive-up windows and playing coin bingo!
December
We gathered together in December for a woodworking lesson with Tavis, where each child built their own birdhouse – just in time to use as Christmas gifts! Skills like hammering, measuring, and tracing were learned by some and practiced by all.
Last but not least, we snuck in an extra December lesson on the human body while Matt was in town. He introduced us to Organella (ask one of the kids about her!) and taught us about what our organs do. We also got to make lungs using paper cut-outs, straws, and sandwich bags! Matt tied it all together by sharing 1 Corinthians 12:27. We are each part of the body of Christ and have an important role to play, just like each organ in our body has an important job to do!
On behalf of all the families who participate in the homeschool group, we are thankful for all of these learning opportunities and especially for all of you who helped to make them happen!