We started collecting magnets from our home school field trips several years ago.  Big D made this board for us out of an old piece of scrap metal that he had just laying around in the garage.  It used to be white and hang in our school room.  Now we don’t have a school room anymore, and the board is some kind of psychedelic mix of red and blue, and it hangs in a little hallway entering into Dirty Harry’s room.

Despite the alterations to the board’s appearance and location, we have a had a fun time with this collection over the years.  Whenever we go somewhere that has a gift shop, the kids look forward to choosing the magnet that will grace our board.  It’s a fairly inexpensive way to commemorate the trip, and storage isn’t a problem either, like it might be if we had chosen to collect…oh, say posters or snow globes or even shot glasses.

We’ve procured some of them from local trips…

…but mostly we’ve picked them up at places we visit when we travel.  Like most good, dutiful homeschoolers, we try to mix business with pleasure and learn from the places we tour.

Like Chicago…

And Kansas City…

and Alabama…

It’s even better when we can visit family and score a field trip or two while visiting with them.

Like in Charleston, SC…

Or in North Carolina…

Or Georgia…

Every time I look at that magnet I remember that I almost died trying to hike all those wretched stairs.  See how pleasant a magnet board can be?  Helping you to recall near-death experiences?

And then, of course, there was the mother-of-all-field trips…

Don’t laugh.  Parts of Animal Kingdom and Epcot Center are very educational.  At least that’s what I keep trying to tell Big D in my attempts to talk him into taking us there again soon.

I encourage you to start your own field trip magnet board.  Or if you don’t have wall space for a psychedelic painted piece of metal, then just use your handy-dandy refrigerator.  It is a fun way to look back upon your on-the-road educational experiences!