I feel like most days you can create an 'excursion day' even if your not going out. I've yet to homeschool older children, as mine are all still young, but even if we have the 'stay at home' days, pretend play is great for creating that excursion feeling! Not sure how older kids would react to this, but younger children often seem to really love and live it as if it were real. We often pretend cafe or restaurant, to start with the kids write out a menu, this usually involves going through the fridge and cupboards to find out what we have in stock to create a workable food and drinks menu. After they've written the menu they set out the tables, the fun part then begins. They take it in turns to come up to the waitress (aka, me) and order their food. We often include the prices and they pay with real money. This is one example of having an excursions when a real excursion out isn't possible. However when travelling, every day feels like an outing! A trip to Thompson Springs near Kununurra West Australia, was the perfect place to go on a 42 degree day. Honestly having 4 kids in a small caravan, on a 42+ degrees day and that's in the shade, is never going to work when it comes to doing traditional school. So it's always best to set out in search of water and incorporate learning into fun.
A friendly goanna came for a cool down in the springs also. The kids enjoyed watching him swim so proficiently. They threw in some blueberries and were amazed at how fast and deep the goanna dived into the water for them. An awesome learning experience right there.
Ah I will cherish these gorgeous simple assignments. I'm so thankful for digital photos, paper copies don't last that long in our house but at least I'll have photos to remember them by.