Apologia's Field Trip Journal - {TOS Review}

We love field trips. In fact one of the main reasons we school year round is that we can fit in field trips whenever the weather is perfect. Apologia Educational Ministries have recently introduced their new Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal.

The new field trip journal is full of ideas to make the most of field trips that can happened anywhere. The trips can be as close as the end of your street, all the way across the country or half way across the world.

A few years ago when we first started homeschooling we joined a coop but the weekly schedule just wasn't for us. So when we moved to our new hometown we were pleased to find quite a few families in our church that home school. We decided to start a field trip coop. Over the last few months we have been to the State Capital, an alpaca rescue, fed emus, a miniature horse breeder, fossil hunting, plays, rock climbing, and so much more. Some of these field trips were with the group and some just us.

The notebook itself is designed like a fun notebook. It's spiral bound so it's easy to turn and helps all the pages be accessible. Captain loved the feel of the pages and the design, he tried to claim it as his own. However, we decided that it would be fun to have more of a family type journal.

The journal starts off with a table of contents that shows the different sections in the book. The first section is;

Preparing for a Field Trip 

This section looks like a check list. It gives ideas in date order for example 'The week before', 'The night before', 'On the way', and 'At the field trip'. It contains great reminders especially if you are new to field trips.

Field Trip Ideas

The next section is put together in groups. The two facing pages contain ideas for all sorts of field trips. They are split into topics which make it really easy to figure out the type of trip you need. For example if you are studying biology you may want to visit a hospital, enroll in a first aid class, or (for older kids) witness an autopsy. There is of course the link to Apologia's extra information page with password encryption (available when you purchase the book) this will take you too a link where you can enter your zip code and put in a mile radius and find new places to visit. When I entered our zip code it came up with a fishery that I knew was there, but had completely forgotten it was on our field trip wish list.

Places I have explored in my State

These pages have a place to put a postcard/photo of your state and then notepaper to list all of the local field trips you have been on. It's laid out in a way that you could keep updating the list.

Places I have explored in the United States

Obviously this notebook is designed for people that live in the US. Maybe in the future there would be a need for an international one. This lay out is the same as the State page but designed to help you keep track of field trips further afield.

Places I have explored in the World

Well if these pages don't want to make you a world traveler nothing will. It's a fun way to look at other places you may be studying. You could also use it for a 'bucket list' instead you could list all the places in the world you would like to go in the future.

After these initial sections there are the 'Field Trip' pages.

We haven't been on many exciting new field trips while doing this review as we have a big road trip and Disney vacation coming up. However, we have visited our favorite haunts like our local zoo and fossil hunting.

We take a lot of photos when we go on a field trip and the kids really wanted to add more to the book, so that's my only negative - more spaces for photos please!

This book has huge potential. Check out how others used it by clicking on the link below.



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