Homeschooling Outside The Home In The SF Bay Area

Homeschoolers Rarely Stay Home

Possibly the biggest myth about homeschooling is that you stay at home to do it. I have to admit that those few days that we are at home all day are days that I cherish. They are slow and easy and I can multitask and get all the housework and cooking done without scurrying. But there are not many of those days. Especially when your children are young.

There were years, before my kids reached high school age and began apprenticeships and evening clubs and activities, that we would pack up each morning and be gone for most of the day.

What could homeschoolers possibly find to do when all the other children in the world are sitting at desks, raising their hands, and looking longingly out the small windows of their classrooms at the big, exciting world outside?

Well….in our area of the country, the San Francisco Bay Area, there are so many more choices for homeschoolers out and about than you could possibly ever get to.

Where Do You Find All These Things To Do?

BAHFT Yahoo Group

In the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a yahoo group called BAHFT (Bay Area Homeschoolers Field Trips). It is free to join and you will end up with a constant supply of new ‘outside the home’ opportunities to choose from.

This is a group that allows members to post anything that might be interesting to homeschoolers. Some moms use the group to wrangle up groups of families for (home)school tours at farms or museums or businesses. Some moms create large, ongoing weekly park meetups. This group is all inclusive, so you will find activities and meetups that fit your outlook on life as well as many you might not want to expose your children to.

But the beauty of it is that anyone who homeschools can suggest an activity or create an event so you will likely find a lot that fits your family like square dances at local Christian homeschool Co-Ops or any of the opportunities I listed below…

Places To Visit As A Homeschooler In The San Francisco Bay Area

Apple Farms

Homeschool tour at the Gizdich Apple Farm in Watsonville to pick apples, learn how the farm gets the apples to the store, learn about cider making, and, as you might have guessed, sing songs about Johnny Appleseed and his Godly mission.

Hot Air Balloon Festival

This one is in Ripon (a bit of a drive) and starts at dawn. That made it a family adventure that included a stop at the Hub’s favorite store on the way back home: . Even though you have to get up early, it is a fantastic experience for kids! … and there is nothing like sunrise over the California Central Valley.

Palace of the Legion of Honor

This is a museum that is a work of art which contains a stupendous art collection, perched on a hill near the ocean in Golden Gate park. (OK, I have been coming here since I was knee-high to a grasshopper but it really is a great place to visit!) If you go in the morning and are lucky enough to visit on a day with no school tours, it is like you have the museum all to yourself. We took the kids there one morning with sketch pads and pencils to draw the great paintings and statues (something you must ask permission for when you enter the museum). My kids, being gregarious homeschoolers, befriended the museum staff and one of the guards gave them a behind the scenes tour of the back area where the museum prepares new traveling art exhibits for display. This is a fantastic place to visit as the museum is dedicated to the Legion of Honor, those who died fighting in World War I, so it can be a history lesson as well.

Other Museums That Are Great For Homeschoolers

• Chabot Observatory
• The Marine Mammal Center

• Adventure Playground in Berkeley
• Elephant Seal Reserve
• Exploratorium
• Tech Museum
• Intel Corporate Museum Tour
• Computer History Museum
• NASA Moffet Field Museum
• US Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model Museum

Homeschool Days

These are days and times that companies set aside for homeschoolers. Generally the pricing is very low as the times set aside for homeschoolers are times these businesses wouldn’t usually have customers. Sometimes these homeschool times are not even advertised. You just have to know about them by word of mouth.

• Trampoline @ Sky High Sports (weekly)
• Ice Skating @ Sharks Ice in San Jose (monthly)
• Farm Days at Hidden Villa (annual)

Discounted or Free Performances

• Nutcracker Ballet
• Shakespeare on the Farm
• You Sing It Messiah

Homeschool Classes

There are lots and lots of these in the SF Bay area, but our favorite are Mr. Mac’s Rocket Science classes.

Rock-It Science

His business is a warehouse located in the midst of big Silicon Valley tech companies who donate their extra bits of equipment, and even their left over liquid nitrogen to Mr. Mac who has created fantastic science projects for kids in a giant room painted like Tolkein’s worlds (the office is Rivendale and there is a tower and a full sized catapault in the classroom area). Each science activity/lesson is built around a story of Jack and Jill trying to defeat Evil Mr. Fred. The story, complete with whiteboard illustrations, comes first and then the kids get to use their science activity to help the children by building what they might need to escape and defeat Mr. Fred.

You can watch some of these lessons online, but there is nothing like watching the children live the adventure and learn the science in person!

Libraries That Are Free To All

In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are a number of libraries that you can get a free library card from even if you are not a resident.

Santa Clara City Library

This library loves homeschoolers and has wonderfully large tables where many homeschooling families come to let the older kids do their lessons and let the younger ones wander the picture books. They also have a collection of GA Henty books. And in the summer they have a reading program that is flexible and designed to allow every child to complete… and the child who completes the reading program gets to go in a room filled with books on rolling carts and pick one to keep for their own. We love this library, can you tell?

Libraries in our area also have a Discover&Go program that allows you to get free and discounted tickets to various local museums.

And so, you see that homeschoolers are rarely at home and in the SF Bay Area there are so many, many choices and opportunities you would never get bored here.

Tomorrow I will talk about what it is like to be a homeschool mom and how to survive with your sense of humor and love of your children intact, so don’t forget to drop back by!

Now, what are some of your favorite “out and about” activities or classes?

Don’t forget to spend some time reading all the wonderful ideas from the great moms in the Blog Hop below!