Unusual Home School Field Trip Destinations

A home school field trip is a perfect opportunity to plan homeschooling activities based on your child’s talents or interests. Once you’ve learned how to plan your trip, you are free to go wherever and do whatever you want! As home schooling parents, we already know the joys of planning curriculum around a child’s learning styles and interests. A home school field trip is the perfect opportunity to follow the same principles while your children see what's going on in the world.

Our Home School Field Trip To ComicCon!

I recently was able to take our children on a very unusual home school field trip to a comic convention (or Comic Con). I heard about the convention while surfing online for activities to do in our area. This was the seventh year of the convention, but our first time attending one. I was able to get all logistical information from the convention website. Planning was easy and tickets to the event weren’t a problem. The convention is family friendly so all children under 10 got in free!

I had never been to a comic convention, but I’d seen them on TV. ;) I knew there would be many people dressed in costume, celebrities signing autographs and panel discussions. The opportunities would be endless to learn about various aspects of the video game/comic book industry. With my son heavily immersed in gaming, I just felt we couldn’t pass this chance up. This home school field trip would be the highlight of our year for sure!

I made final preparations and informed the children about our outing. My main goal for attending the convention as one of our homeschooling field trips was to introduce our son to the video gaming/comic book world. He has a love for gaming whether it be educational or purely for entertainment. I wanted to direct that passion towards the more constructive means of being a gaming creator, artist or musician.

With those goals in mind, I made sure to seek out artists and creators for our son to meet. The relaxed atmosphere of the convention was perfect for spending a little time talking with the people behind the scenes. Everyone we spoke to made themselves available to us and didn’t mind at all if we asked them how they got started in the business. For me, that alone pays the price of admission.

Meeting The Masters

We saw one local artist, Abdón J Romero, creating his masterpiece right there at the convention! I don’t know how he was able to concentrate with all the hoopla going on in the aisles close to him, but his piece was beautiful! We stopped to talk with him and learned he has his own studio, Romero Hidalgo Artists’ Studios, and teaches classical and realist painting to children! For those children who LOVE to draw or doodle in their spare time, this meeting with a master of the paintbrush would have been the highlight of the convention.

A home school field trip is usually for the children, but at the convention I was even able to indulge myself. Alex Kingston, former star of ER and current star on BBC America's Doctor Who, made an appearance at the convention! Her schedule included posing for paid photo ops as well as sitting down with convention attendees. It was at one such sit-down event that I was able to take this shot of our daughter with Alex! I talked with her a bit and she chatted with my daughter about the show. My daughter watched the show as well and was just as pleased as I was to meet the actress. Those are memories we will cherish forever.

Fun With Costumes

While we were gaining valuable information, we also had time to have fun. After all, field trips are supposed to be memorable too. We ran into so many people who were dressed up in perfectly matched costumes to the real characters in the games our son plays. We took a few with his favorites.

There were other fun events planned like a wrestling match with people in costume. You could see your favorite gaming or comic hero battling a villian you love to hate right in front of your eyes! Our daughter got a real kick out of seeing how real people can wrestle and appear to be causing much pain while still staying safe. Since this event was for families too, everything was done tastefully and in order.

My sons’ favorite fun part of the convention was playing games he’s always wanted to try on systems he doesn’t have. There were gaming rooms set up for anyone to just sit down, pull up a controller and play the afternoon away! A company that specializes in setting up play areas such as these came in and ran the room with efficiency. No one had hard feelings of not being able to play, there were enough stations set up to handle the large amount of people in attendance and those playing the games were extremely civil and courteous. Our four children were able to sit at one station and enjoy playing with each other with no need to cut their gaming time short. I really appreciated being able to see them working together so wonderfully to achieve common goals.

All in all we loved our time at the convention! Education and laughs were had by all! As a lovely parting gift, we got to see another Mama with her babies (just like we were at the convention)!