Can we talk about Field Trips?

Hands-on learning is the very best kind of learning, and field trips can be a very good idea to support hands-on learning.

As I consider beginning a discussion of field trips, issues that come to mind are:

• financial considerations;
• location;
• age and mobility/obedience of the kids

Financial considerations
Field trips can cost money, so if there is no money to spend you need to understand that field trips do not need to cost money! Or they might cost as little as the gas to drive your car. Ways to make a field trip free include:

• packing a lunch;
• everyone taking a water bottle;
• taking a gallon of extra water (or more) if appropriate and necessary.

Or none of the above if it is a short field trip! Examples of free field trips I have taken my children on include:

• visiting a local nature center;
• visiting a local farm to see baby goats;
• visiting another neighbor to see their chickens;
• taking a nature walk at a local park;
• visiting the local air port to watch planes land and take off;
• visiting the fire station when they hold an open house;
• visiting free museums and free zoo in the Washington, DC area (where I live);
• visiting local courtroom and sitting through a trial;
• visiting city council meeting;
• visiting train station and watching for trains.

 Moderate expense field trips would include things like:

• take the kids ice skating;
  
• go to a movie matinee;
• go bowling;
• take a ride on the local subway (just to ride the train!);
• take trips to historical sites that have small fee

 More expensive trips might be:

• Go to a glass blowing factory tour; make a glass ornament;
  
• visit museums that charge a fee, like a Children's Museum, Building Museum, Aquarium or Zoo;
• Go to a ceramics shop where you can make a ceramic item;
• Go on a "date" to a local coffee shop or restaurant

We've gone on many field trips through the years. Sometimes the parent (me) can get exasperated when the focus of the field trip (light house and marine museum) are not what the child is interested in (wading in local flooding).

In the early years, I was always looking for learning opportunities. Visiting Nana and Pop Pop in Florida, we visited Ft. Christmas. I was intrigued. My girls were bored to tears.

 We visited a Cabbage Patch Doll Factory.

 Two of my kids went to Space Camp

But some of our best field trips, I did not attend. My girls participated in a co-op, and the group visited Harper's Ferry, West Virginia (which I did attend)

New York City

and even Europe. Talk about expensive! The kidlet had to work to pay for that one!

But some of the best field trips were just plain free. When your kid just needs a break, sometimes it is just more productive to get out of the house and experience nature.

So look at your year. Maybe plan one Friday a month to set aside as a field trip day. Adjust this idea as you need to for your budget and for what is available in your area, but consider a schedule like this:

• September: zoo
• October: orchard/farm to pick apples and/or pumpkins
• November: Visit an area of early American interest (thinking of Thanksgiving). I might go to my local Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, MD
• December: attend a showing of The Nutcracker, or visit a living nativity or some special activity that has been scheduled for Christmas;
• January: Go ice skating;
• February: go to the local natural history museum or building museum;
• March: go on a nature walk and look for signs of spring;
• April: visit a location where you can observe cherry blossoms
• May: Go to nature center and take a hike. Observe three new bird species and learn about them.
• June: Go to a local park with a lake. Consider renting a canoe or paying for a ride on a pontoon boat.
• July: pick strawberries (June?) or blueberries at local farm. 
• August: go to county fair

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