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Homeschool field trips that count as school days

A trip to a museum, a farm or a courthouse can be the lesson of the month. Whether it counts on paper depends on what your state counts, and on what you write down.

A field trip counts where your state's law leaves the content of a school day to you, and the day counts in our records name no kinds of learning that do or don't count. In Peabody's state law pages, 14 states count days and 6 count hours. Mark the day, log the time and the subjects, and keep a page of what was learned. Peabody's free field-trip log does all three at once.

Checked October 31, 2026.

By Peabody editors.

This is a plain-words summary, not legal advice. Laws change: check your state's current law and its education department before you act.

Does a field trip count as a school day?

In a state that counts days and leaves the day to you, a day of learning out of the house is a day you taught. Indiana's record, for example: "The Department says you decide which days your school will be in session and how long to teach each day."

The states that count days, as our records read them: Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont.

And in a state that counts hours?

Log the time and the subjects it touched. The states that count hours: Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Washington, Wisconsin.

Read your state's line closely. Missouri's record: "The parent must offer at least 1,000 hours of instruction, at least 600 of them in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, science or related academic courses suited to the child's age and ability. At least 400 of those 600 hours must be at the regular home school location. This does not apply to a pupil sixteen or older." Hours on a trip are hours away from home, so keep them marked as trip hours.

What makes a trip a lesson on paper?

  • The date, the place and how long it took.
  • The subjects it touched: a science museum is science; a historic house is history and reading the signs.
  • One thing your child can tell, draw or write afterwards: a page in the notebook, a photo with a caption, a narration.
  • Where your state wants a portfolio, that page is a work sample.

Where can we go?

Museums, parks and libraries run programs for homeschoolers. The field-trip list and the public field-trip Top 9 list public ones we opened, each dated.

Log a trip

The field-trip log takes the place, the date, the minutes, the subjects and a note. One trip becomes hour entries in the hours log, the time split evenly across the subjects, each marked as a trip, and one page in the portfolio, where photos can be added. Mark the day in attendance too, where your state counts days. It all stays in this browser.

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