Homeschool Days: Trip to Gaver Farms
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My munchkin has an affinity for pumpkins, so a trip to a farm and pumpkin patch was high on our agenda.
We journeyed to Gaver Farms in Mount Airy, Maryland, for their field trip day for parents and their homeschooled kids.
When fall rolls in, it's instantly pumpkin and apple season! It's time for pumpkin spice cakes, cookies and lattes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple cider, and all the other delicious things we make with pumpkin and apples. It's also time to visit the pumpkin patch to pick your own pumpkin.
After about an hour's drive, we pulled up to a large beautiful open barn structure, with a big parking lot right in front of it. The barn structure was the farm marketplace.
To the right of it was the ticket booth. Since we were visiting on a homeschool day, the tickets were $8 per person; it's usually $12.50 per person on weekdays, $17.50 per person on weekends in September, and $19.75 on weekends in October. As we purchased tickets, we also bought food to feed the farm animals (that was about $3 per cup). Then we were off!
We entered just in time to hop on the hayride that was headed to the pumpkin patch. These come on an hourly schedule but vary depending on the day. This was a fun little ride through the fields to the pumpkin patch.
There were so many pumpkins! It was my first time at a pumpkin patch, so I was equally in awe as my little guy. We picked our pumpkins, wrote our names on them, and left them in a cart that would be taken back to the entrance for pickup when we leave.
Now came the fun part. Gaver Farms has a whole festival set up with over 60 attractions! There were so many fun activities to do, and the best part: they had something for kids of all ages. There were slides for infants and toddlers, and there were giant slides for bigger kids, corn mazes, a mini colorful maze for kids, and more! Needless to say, there were tons of photo ops around the farm and festival.
We only managed to get through roughly half of the toddler friendly activities. Actually, maybe less! We stayed until lunchtime, but this is more of a full day ordeal to get the full experience.
My 3 year old enjoyed playing in the corn kernels in the corn silo, in the sand pit, running through the rainbow maze, playing on the slides, crawling through tubes, bouncing on balls, and sitting on the massive tractors and toy horse. The highlight of his day, however, was feeding the goats! It was his second time seeing a goat, but his first time being so up close and personal with them, and he absolutely enjoyed it. Honestly, he was teasing them a bit with the food, but thankfully they don't bite!
We spent so much time with the goats without realizing there was a whole section with more animals. Quite a bummer realizing that as we headed out.
This farm is the perfect place for families to spend the day. It's clean, well maintained, with toilets throughout, and very spacious. There were many vehicles in the parking lot, but the inside didn't feel crowded at all. There are benches around so you can take a break, sit and watch the kids play, and there were also areas with picnic tables and benches to have lunch at. If you didn't pack lunch, they sold food on site (and there are also a few fast food places about 10mins away).
Near the exit, there were stations for washing hands. This was positioned near the market place. Inside, there were pumpkins, squash, apples, corn and straw for sale, along with tons of Halloween and fall decor, baked goods, local honey, preserves, and more.
Once we exited, we found our pumpkins and headed to our vehicle. It was such a lovely morning and we weren't ready to leave, but since my little guy was so excited about everything, he couldn't settle down to eat lunch.
Will we be back? DEFINITELY! And we'll explore even more on our next visit!
