Field Trip to Texas Ballet Theater's Swan Lake

https://texasballettheater.org/#

An amazing field trip.  

If you get a chance to see a professional ballet performance, it's incredible.  

My college kids have been to Texas Ballet Theater about fifteen times (can't remember the exact number).  They have even seen the Bolshoi Ballet.  The 5th grader has been twice to Texas Ballet Theater.  He described his first trip to see a professional ballet at Texas Ballet Theater as "the best day of his life."

All three of my younger kids have spent years taking ballet classes and all three have performed in the same ballet company, which focuses on bringing ballet to people who otherwise are unable to see ballet - like a nursing home/memory care facility or community festivals.  I count this as volunteer work for them as well.

Two of our girls have taken ballet and other dance classes at the college level also.

I highly recommend a professional ballet performance, opera or even a symphony performance as an excellent homeschool field trip.  

Here is a link explaining what to expect when you attend a professional ballet: https://texasballettheater.org/the-ballet-experience/

Field Trip: Fort Worth Zoo

Link to the Fort Worth Zoo's Website

Tickets are about $22 adult, $18 for children.  There's a half-price Wednesday, but it was extremely crowded.  Since most of the public schools are finishing their STAAR testing and taking field trips, half of the parking lot was actually school buses.  This was not a good time to visit the zoo.  We bought membership, because we are studying Life Science next January and I plan to take the 6th grader several times over the winter to see the animals.  A zoo membership would compliment our biology year.

A large section of the zoo is currently under construction.  The best parts of the zoo, in our opinion, was the Predators/Cats and the African Savannah.  

Here's some pictures:

Field Trip to Founders' Plaza and Grapevine Botanical Garden

 We did two outdoor field trips in Grapevine, Texas, this week.  We went to Founders' Plaza Observation Area and we walked the Grapevine Botanical Gardens at Heritage Park.

Founders' Plaza at DFW Airport is a free parking lot with observation area overlooking the airport runways:  https://www.dfwairport.com/explore/plan/foundersplaza/.  You can watch the aircraft fly overhead and land on the runways.  You can also watch the aircraft take off from the runways.  Founder's Plaza sits at a higher elevation than the airport and you can see for miles.  You're able to hear the airport control tower through speakers at the observation area.  There are a few built-in telescopes around the plaza for spotting the planes.

This was more fun that I thought it would be.  We spent about an hour here watching the planes land and take off.  We combined the plane-watching with the app Flightradar24, which is a live flight tracker.  We could see where the aircraft were coming from and what type of aircraft it was in real time.

Grapevine Botanical Gardens at Heritage Park is also free.  Parking is free.  A large playground shares a fence-line with the botanical gardens with a gate leading from the gardens to the playground.  Paved trails wind through the gardens.  Here's some pictures:

Field Trip: Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

 Here's a link: https://kimbellart.org/

As always, this is an excellent homeschool field trip.  The Kimball is free with the exception of the special exhibits.  The hours are listed on its website.  

The museum has two main galleries on the second floor with paintings and sculptures organized by historical time period.  One gallery has artwork from ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt all the way to the 17th century.  The second gallery has 18th through 20th century artwork, including several Monets, Cezannes and a Picasso.  

The museum also has a small bookshop and a cafe.  

Admission is free.  Parking is free.  The museum has its own parking lot.

Across the street, sharing the same parking lot, is the Modern Art Museum.

Our fifth grader very much enjoyed this field trip.

Field Trip to Fort Worth Aviation Museum

https://fortworthaviationmuseum.com/

This was an excellent field trip.  If you buy tickets online, it's cheaper than in person.  It's $9 for an adult ticket and $4 for children.  There's a small inside portion with a flight simulator game, a cockpit your child can sit in, an ejection seat and lots of displays and model aircraft.  Outside the building is where all of the aircraft displayed.  The website has a list of what aircraft the museum has on display.  There's an F-14 Tomcat, a small tank, a number of helicopters (including a troop carrier that you can go inside), vintage propeller airplanes, a Harrier, etc.  The museum has over 30 aircraft on display.

This was a very enjoyable field trip, especially since we took a group of boys.  They were running from aircraft to aircraft and the adults had a hard time keeping up with them.

Awesome Field Trip: DFW Car and Toy Museum

https://dfwcarandtoymuseum.com/

This was truly one of the greatest boy field trips of all time.

It's free.

It's the largest car museum in Texas.

Cars...cars...cars...  My two sons would NOT leave.  We were there for over three hours.  There are couches and places to stop and rest all over the facility (because there is no way I can stare at cars for three hours like my sons can).

The staff is super nice and they'll answer questions about the cars.  If you have kids obsessed with cars, just GO.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Field Trip 10/10: Log Cabin Village

 We took a field trip today to Log Cabin Village in downtown Fort Worth.

https://www.logcabinvillage.org/

This is a great, simple field trip if you go during the day before traffic kicks in.  It's just a few blocks from the Fort Worth Zoo.  You can check out a free digital pass for up to four people if you have a Fort Worth library card.  Otherwise, there's an entrance fee, but it's not too expensive (like $6-7 a person).

The gift shop has a lot of very inexpensive wooden toys, embroidery kits, crafts, etc.  I bought the 9 year-old a ceramic bird whistle.  You fill it with water, blow into it and it sounds like a bird singing.

This field trip went very well with Sonlight D (US History 1).