Math:  Homeschooling Field Trip

Today we discuss math homeschool field trips.  And speaking of

field trips, homeschoolers have a distinct advantage.  Your mom is the

driver, so you can play music and have snacks en route!  Yes, indeed,

with home schooling, as a family you have far more freedom.

Now, let's come up with a unique idea for a field trip.  On this topic of

math, you could go a variety of ways:

1. Explore fractions
2. Practice adding/subtraction
3. Explore geometry and angles
4. Look at architecture - estimate the height
5. Trip to the grocery - practise budgeting 
6. Trip to the ballpark - Calculate a batter's batting average
7. Make up a word problem & have student solve

If you do a trip to the grocery store, you can have your child bring along
a calculator, and handle the money at the checkout.  Then, he (or she)
would learn about money, and decimals (adding together cost of items).

Math and Averages

You can make it an excursion involving figuring averages, as well.  For
example, just have your daughter or son buy ten (10) items, add them
all up on a calculator, & then divide by ten to find out average cost he
or she spent.

Another problem could be the following:

8 x 11 inch piece of paper is needed.  Have your child list down the
price on a bunch of items in the cart .  Then, have him take each
price (which is in Decimal form) and CONVERT it to a fraction.

So, if for instance, an item costs $1.35 it translates to a fraction as
1 and 35/100 right?  This is equivalent to 35/100, or 7/20 when
it is divided by 5 (LCD, lowest common denominator).

This is a bit more advanced, and the student gets to learn about
LCD.  Yet it's a useful thing to know.

Math Homeschool:  Let's Head to The Baseball Park

With this particular homeschooling field trip, you have your student
practice figuring averages.  Thus, the student can pick out a certain
baseball player to chart for the afternoon.   Of course, you will need
to supply your student with paper for this.

He (or she) does the stats on the player - i.e., for each "at bat", list down
whether the ballplayer gets an out, a hit, or a walk.

Then, figure the batting avg. by utilizing the form at:
    http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-a-Batting-Average
   http://hornetbaseball.tripod.com/calculator.html

*An alternative homeschooling field trip idea is the local bowling
alley - And a student could keep everyone's score, and then figure
out each person's average per frame of bowling - because there
are ten frames, just add up the 10 frames, and divide by 10.

Math Homeschool and Landmark Buildings

For this one mom, you need to do your homework.  You'll have to
ascertain ahead of time,  a landmark building you all can visit which
the proprietor or tour guide knows the dimensions of.

Once you know the height and width of the building, then you can
task your student to do a geometry related problem.

You know, figuring the length by width, & get the "area" of the building.

Simply have your child bring a tablet along, to make notes with.

These types of problems are generally done in sixth or seventh
grade, and I refer you to a math forum with some good related
information on the topic:

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57801.html

For more on home schooling, you can come see us at our
HealthyKids website.