Why does CHEC support and encourage Field Trips? Because it’s an awesome way to learn!
Field trips allow each participant to pick up what is appropriate for his or her level of development, and they stimulate thought about various facets of something, hands-on experiences that can’t be revealed through books, videos, or television specials. Homeschooled students on field trips experience a subject through multi-sensory learning.
Field trips have many functions. They create awareness about a subject, introduce or wrap a unit, bring to life and reinforce lessons recently learned. Of course, they provide a point of relevance by showing how the subject is used in the real world and usually the experience gives rise to even more questions. So, another popular reason for field trips is to enhance concepts and motivate students to want to learn more. All of these purposes/results have one thing in common: field trips are wonderful tools to increase the interest and understanding of a subject to students.
Field trips can be as simple as a trip to the local grocery or as complex as a cross-country trip to California to visit the Pacific Ocean. In between there are zoos, museums, factories, ballet, drama, botanical gardens, court houses, and political events. CHEC wants to support its members with opportunity for these kinds of learning.