Educational Travel

We enjoy coordinating economical trips for homeschooling families. With group discounts for travel, hotel, and admission tickets, we're working to make US and international trips more affordable. For more information, please follow the links below.

Current Trips

Future Trips

Past Trips

Fundraising Projects

Travel FAQs

Current Trips

Disney World

September 25-October 2, 2010

Interested in going to Disney World? Join us as we explore theme parks, splash in water parks, play virtual reality games at Disney Quest, participate in special educational and behind-the-scenes programs, taste food from around the world, and more - all at wonderful discounts! To make the deal even sweeter, Disney will probably offer free dining again during our trip. See our Disney World area for more information.

Washington DC

October 21-25, 2010

Registration is now open for our 5th trip to Washington DC! We're planning to tour the various memorials and monuments, White House, Old Post Office Pavilion and Tower, Arlington Cemetery, US Capitol, Library of Congress, Ford's Theater, Union Station, and more. We'll also have the opportunity to visit Smithsonian museums such as: Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, Museum of American History, Museum of the American Indian, and others of your choice. See our Washington DC trip page for more information.

Barrier Island Environmental Education Program

November 1-3, 2010

Join us for a 3-day field trip to the Barrier Island Environmental Education campus. We've reserved the whole campus for homeschooling families, and students in grades K-12 (and parents) will learn hands-on lessons in biology, ecology, conservation, astronomy, botany and much more! Lodging, meals, and recreation will also be provided. Visit our Barrier Island trip page for more information and to register.

More trips will be added as they are organized. Subscribe to our Traveling Homeschoolers mailing list for email updates.

Future Trips

Possible future trips are listed below. More information about these and other trips will be posted as it becomes available.

Canada & Alaska

China

Italy

Past Trips

Read our trip reports and view our photos from previous trips here.

2006

Washington DC - 2006

Disney World - 2006

USS Yorktown, Charleston - 2006

2007

Disney World - 2007

USS Yorktown, Charleston - 2007

2008

Disney World - 2008

Washington DC - 2008 (two trips)

2009

New York City - 2009

Disney World - 2009

Washington DC - 2009

2010

New York City - 2010 (will post trip report soon!)

Fundraising for Trips

We participate in fundraising projects to raise money for our trips. These projects include Google website ads, Box Tops for Education, and an affiliation with Amazon.com. (Our website's Google ads have been the biggest fundraiser so far - members don't have to purchase anything from the ads, we get a percentage of ad profits from members just clicking on them.) All of the money generated from these programs goes toward reducing the cost of our trips.

Sometimes our funds cover the cost of getting advanced time tickets to sites so we don't have to wait in line once we arrive, any price increases that occur from the time I make reservations for a site to the time that I actually pay for our group, unexpected expenses that come after my families have paid their final balances for a trip, or cover empty seats on a bus trip where the bus is almost full and we don't want to cancel.

Sometimes they cover my travel costs if the trip isn't a vacation for my family (if I'm organizing the trip only for the benefit of others, and my family isn't going). Sometimes it covers the cost of deposits that I have to pay months in advance of a trip (before I start collecting deposits from families). In one way or another, all of the proceeds from Google ads, Amazon purchases, and from Box Tops go toward making the trips more affordable for homeschooling families.

Most of the time, all families on my trips benefit from our fundraising. On some trips, however, I may limit funds to those who have participated in our fundraising projects. So if you send in Box Tops, make sure you include your name and email address so I can keep track of who is donating. (You can tape your Box Tops on this collection sheet, if it makes it easier for you and your children to keep track of them. Don't glue them, though, or they'll fall off by the time they get to me.) Please send them to: Carolina Homeschooler, PO Box 1421, Lancaster SC 29721. If you purchase through our Amazon link, please email me with the name of your items/books so I can keep track of who has contributed.

Although I can't track who clicks on our Google ads, it's by far the best fundraising tool we have. 95% or more of our fundraising money has come from these ads (no purchase is required - just clicking on the ads helps us). Families who participate in any of our fundraising projects will be eligible to use these funds.

Please email me if you have any questions or suggestions for fundraising projects. We welcome any help we can get!

NOTE: Many people ask me if I will save the value of the Box Tops they send to use for just their family on an upcoming trip. Keeping track of the Box Tops in that way would result in a lot of extra work for me, but I'll do it if a family requests it. Keep in mind, however, that any family who makes this request will not be eligible for any of our other fundraising money. The vast majority of our funds are generated from Google Ads (not Box Tops), so if I save the value of the Box Tops for just your family's use and it doesn't go into the general fundraising "pool", you won't receive as much financial help as other families on the trip. It's up to you.

Suggestions and Ideas

Share your ideas and suggestions for future trips through email or on our message boards. Join our Traveling Homeschoolers mailing list for email updates about all of our trips.