Field Trips

Vintage Homeschool Moms

Field Trips! Episode 374

Just the idea of field trips makes me smile – I remember them from the time when I was a student. What about you? My kids also remembered going on field trips with fond memories. Field trips help to spark a child’s curiosity and interest and can even help with career decisions. I wonder how many little ones going to a Firehouse or a Police Station became firefighters or police or sheriffs? What about visiting a bakery and deciding to become a baker, or visiting a courthouse and wanting to be a lawyer? This is one of the reasons that “take your child to work,” took off. Many times kids didn’t really understand what their parent’s jobs entailed.

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Visiting different places expands a child’s world. It gives them different experiences. It is better than reading about the place in a book, but often can be followed up with a book as a way to learn more. Field trips give children real-world learning and the tools to learn more by this experience. Whether it is a trip to an organic garden or one that is used to combat world hunger. Visits to the theatre, a museum, a grocery store, or a supply house, or even a place “to do something.” We went to a place that made wood pens, and the children each got to create their own pens (there was a cost for this). We also went to ceramic stores and the kids experienced making a pot. After visiting a theatre we parents decided to set up a play for the homeschoolers that centered around a Thanksgiving theme.

We’ve visited different ethnic restaurants as a family, such as a Greek Restaurant after seeing the sponge boats in Tarpon Springs. We visited a French and an Indian Restaurant and ate authentic foods. More common are Italian or Spanish restaurants which have become part of our culture.

The Impact of the adults:

As homeschool parents, we can use field trips as a tool to further the learning process. We can have the children create reports, document with pictures and create picture books. We can use forms to have the children to prepare ahead of time and then after we go. I have to be careful not to make everything school! But, it comes naturally for me! And, why limit learning to a book, movie or even audios when you can experience it first hand.

Kids can see under the water at aquariums, they can look at science labs (we did this at a lab tied to a college doing marine research), the children can look under high powered microscopes or telescopes at planetariums. They can touch historical artifacts or experience things gone by (Thomas Edison’s winter home is in my town and his science lab is still intact.) Henry Ford’s home (next door to Edison’s) also has been turned into a museum. The children learned about the gardens around these homes often brought over from faraway places. The time is well spent on field trips. And it helps support many different academic concepts such as critical thinking.

Socialization:

Kids who visit different places must learn how to get along, act well in public and be attentive when adults are talking or teaching. They also can also enjoy times to be with friends. I taught my children to walk with hands behind their backs, in front clasped or in their pockets, until they were given permission to touch anything. This was to set them up to understand that touching might not be allowed.

Multi-Modalities

Field trips are on opportunity to experience different modalities – not only are they hearing, smelling and seeing, perhaps they can touch, experience and interact. They are learning with all of their senses which helps them to retain the content.

Expanding In Knowledge:

Field trips bring the world into the home and what they learn can be studied more at home. It allows the children to become enthusiastic about a topic they perhaps thought little about. After seeing an aquarium my children wanted one of their own. These can be expensive so a clear bowl and minows caught in a pond were good enough for a first step. Later my children saved and eventually had a nice sized aquarium for years.

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