Virtual Field Trips

Virtual field trips are becoming more popular for good reason. They are a great way for your kids to tour exotic locations safely and inexpensively!

I was thrilled when I first heard about these online educational field trips.  What a great way to see other countries and cultures on a budget.  So, I started searching on the internet for field trips to the places we wanted to go.  What I found was there are several ways to design a virtual field trip. Unfortunately, what I found didn't fit with the idea I had envisioned to use with my kids who are right brain learners.

I found several sites that had trips, but they were laden with objectives, tons of reading, endless rabbit trails of links that were hard to follow, and a few pictures scattered here and there.  Sure they had some good discussion questions and a few project ideas, but other than that I didn't see much difference in what they had to offer over my kids' encyclopedia software.

I wanted video.  For some reason I always equated a virtual field trip with "virtual reality" – an experience involving sight and sound...but not a lot of reading. With two right brain/visual kids, video was more up their alley than a bunch of reading. (Even though they LOVE to read.)

That's when I set off to make my kids their own personal "field trip" links to videos on the internet that showed different aspects of countries from the geography and landscape to culture and music.

What I found was that after viewing a few minutes of video, they were excited to research and learn more about the country and culture through books.  It helped to "pique" their interest.

The popularity of YouTube and other video sharing sites has given the public an enormous database of resources to pull from when searching for information.  Unfortunately, not all of it is worthwhile or appropriate for kids virtual field trips, so how do you pick and choose?

I have spent countless hours scouring the internet for free, educational, good quality videos that can enhance your child's study of a country or region.  I have compiled these into a list complete with running time, summary, and any other necessary information.

These virtual field trips are a great supplement to Sonlight Core 5!

The downloadable e-book format is a great feature.  This will allow you to click on the links directly in the book instead of typing in all the web addresses manually from printed copy.

The best part about these virtual field trips is right now they are all free! Yes, that's right, FREE! All I ask it that you continue to visit Homeschool-By-Design, share the link with your friends, and visit our shopping page if you ever shop online.

Other trips will be listed here as they become available.

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