Apologia Field Trip Journal {Schoolhouse Crew Review}

Field Trips are something that most children enjoy. In getting out on the field, children are often completely engaged in their topic of study. Multiple senses being awakened increase every learning experience . Field Trips trump learning through a book or video because you just can’t substitute the real thing. In realizing the importance of these experiences, I’ve been planning many field trips to supplement our schooling. Our trips mainly revolve around personal interest and age appropriate educational experiences that I feel my son and daughter should witness first hand.

I wasn’t sure the specific way I wanted to compile all of our field trip information until I received to review the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal from Apologia Educational Ministries through The Schoolhouse Crew Review Team. This resource has completely eliminated an overwhelming amount of possible record keeping substitutes for my family.

About the Journal: The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a guide, record keeper, adventure recorder, and memory holder. This journal offers so much not to just a student but to a teacher as well. Within it’s pages one will find field trip suggestions, preparation check list, and a plethora of themed pages to record every trip encounter. In addition to the journal itself, there is a link to a special website found within the book that leads to further content to enhance your field trip experiences. An example of the digital content includes printable maps, guides, links to well known field trip locations, and so forth. Note that many of the links lead to third party websites. Parent should always use caution and wisdom when allowing a child to pursue any content on the Internet.

The journal starts out with a guide in how to plan and prepare for a a Field Trip for both teacher and student followed by two pages full of trip ideas. The trip ideas remind one that trips can occur anywhere! The categories of trips are many and list several suggestion for each! The list of categories are Plants, Animals, Earth, Space/Aviation, Human Body, History & Govt, Municipal, Business, Culture, Others. For example, under the Animals category suggestions are to visit a farm, zoo, aquarium, get a pet, and so on.

There are several pages of Places I’ve Explored. These pages are near the front of the book and leave space to jot down locations visited in the state you’re from, the USA, and in the world (if applicable). These pages serve as a good guide as to what will follow.

There are ten Field Trip pages. At the start of this section, there are suggestion in how to go about making a record of your adventure. Each trip is allowed two pages in which to be covered. On these pages, there’s a space for one to write down where you visited, the time, a map, emergency contact plan, I want to see or do, my photo or drawing, books I’ve read for this trip, story of my day, and ends with Something I never want to forget prompt.

This journal also has a place to record ones Special Spots throughout the season and Thoughts & Drawing As I See It. These sections allow for creativity, imagination, investigation, and observation through documentation. Students are encouraged to draw, record weather statistics during changes of the season, and the share the significance of specific things in the world that are important to them.

The journal is spiral bound. The front and back cover is glossy and easy to wipe off if it gets dirty. The pages within have a medium weight thickness. The images throughout are of high quality and fit the discovery and journal theme quite well.

How We Are Using This Journal: 

My seven year old daughter has claimed this journal as her own and is using it as a trip log and memory book. She told me she loves how it looks compared to just using a blank notebook and that the questions help her to know what she should be sharing about her field trip adventures.

We recently visited a train park hosted by the Pacific NW Live Steamers . It was our first opportunity to walk my daughter through sharing her trip experience. We did a little bit of research before going and made plans accordingly per the suggestions found in the journal. We made an emergency plan just in case we got separated, found out a little bit of history, and enjoyed the overall experience first-hand. We took photos and plan on adhering them to the journal pages for this trip.

I feel that since introducing this journal to my daughter that she’s been more interested in writing. She’s gotten quite excited and more descriptive in sharing the happenings of her day. We are already planning more Field Trips to go on this Summer per the suggestions given in the book on the website link found in the book. We will most certainly will be brining the journal along with us.

There’s nothing I dislike about this journal but I do wish they added a few extra pages for photo collages and a place to write about what’s going on in each. Overall, I love that this journal has the capability of being a source of inspiration & encourages creativity while exploring the world around us. I completely recommend it to those of all ages.

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