"Field trips"

[Amy loves Bud]

I'm curious about what most folks here do in the area of field trips. I'm not talking about organized outings with your homeschool group, but more about general outings that would be considered educational - museums, performances, etc.

How often do you do these sorts of things?
Do you require preparation/follow-up or just go and enjoy and then have a lively conversation about it afterwards?

Just wondering about these things today. :001_smile:

[Ellie]

We used to do them weekly. Thursday was our field trip day, and we left the house every week to do *something.*

Sometimes it had to do with something we were learning about. Sometimes it was to work on a Camp Fire badge. Sometimes it was something I had read about in the newspaper that looked interesting (such as a suspension foot bridge in downtown San Diego). There were several places we went regularly--the tide pools at Point Loma, or the aquarium in La Jolla.

Sometimes I came across something that needed a group, or that we could to by our onesies but if we had a group we could have a docent. For those, I called friends whose dc I liked :-) to get the exact number of children/bodies needed (the smallest number possible).

Sometimes we went to a far-away mall and had an Orange Julius :-)

Once we did a really long field trip as a family and went to all 21 California missions. My advice on that one: Don't do it!!

[Jenny in Atl]

We do a bunch in the fall and spring. The Atl Zoo, High Museum, Carlos Museum at Emory Univ, Chattahoochee Nature Center, Atlanta History Center, and so on. We also take in live performances through-out the year in the areas of dance, drama, and live music. There are also a number of traveling attractions that come through, like a living Native American Exhibit and Special events at our local History center. Travel wise, we go up to Chattanooga, and over to spots in Al, SC. I would love to get down to Disney's Animal Kingdom for my youngest, the animal lover. Her sister has been so I need to make good on my promise soon.

[RebeccaC]

Our last field trip was suppose to be to President Grant's house near Galena and then into Galena to see the historic walk through houses. What happened tho was a once in a life time event. While on the way to Grant's house we passed through this itty bitty town of maybe 10 houses. On the edge of town was an ancient feed mill store that looked like it had been in a earthquake. It was leaning to one side. The mill looked like it had been built in the early 1900s, tin cielings.... ect... As we were looking in the windows of the mill we noticed an early train depot behind it. So we walked over to look at it. A farmer on an ancient tractor came over to see what we were doing. He was about 70 lean, tan and chewing something that he kept spitting out. We thought we were going to be chased off but he was lonely and wanting a break. It turns out that his grandfather started the town in the early 1900 after hitting it big in silver out west.

So the farmer gave us a tour since he owned it all :D There was a bank that had been closed up after 1929 because it failed and it was just as it had been back then minus the vault. The mill was to be torn down the next week. There was all kinds of out buildings including all kinds of farming equipment from the 1900 to the last item purchased in 59. He was a train buff so he had all kinds of info and photos of the train line in the area. Plus railroad equipment. He owned the warehouses that the railroad had used up until the depression. So we saw all the equipment used by the local farmers to load or unload the train cars.

He showed dh all his old cars which were being used to store feed, ect.... He and my dh really hit it off. This gentleman had cars and trucks from the 40 on just setting there. There was a 50s pickup he was restoring so he show the boys the engine and how it worked.

He then taught my boys and dh how to bail hay with his 50s tractor bailer thingy. Anyway this farmer had never married he was the last in his family and building after building was just left like a time capsule. We had a tour of a private museum.

At the end of the day he asked dh and I where the boys went to school. Needless to say dh and my boys bonded with this old man. He asked dh at the end of the day where the boys went to school. We told him that we home school and he said, "Well"..... paused and let go a stream of whatever it was he was chewing and said, "I thought so they're smarter than any of the boys their age around here. Keep it up." Which made dh's chest nearly bust :D

Our best field trips have been ones that could not have been planned :auto: This was one of the very best.

My boys and dh also spent the night on a sub with their BSA troop. My boys and dh got tours that the other scouts did not because they bonded with the sub guys who were also empress by our hsing. Dh and the boys are keeping touch by e-mail with the some of the men on the subs.

If we get the money the next field trip will be an overnighter on a tall ship on Lake Michigan. We like field trips that are hands on living history types :)

[elegantlion]

Ours was a journey to the backyard today, journaled on my blog.

We don't have a car during the day and our field trips have been limited. Can you see my fingernails bitten to the quick over that whole situation.

Anyway, God is good, and we are planning an extended field trip. We are selling our house this year and taking a few years to travel by RV, while my dh works around the country. I'm sick and tired of putting off fun field trips because of working to pay for a house. (rant, rant, rant.) Dh and I have wanted to do this for years. We want to do it while ds can still appreciate the awe and wonder of this country. We found a great group of families doing the same thing and hope to head out before fall. :auto:

[Musical Belle]

We have had to cut down on our field trips now that ds is in 4th grade -- our curriculum takes so much of our day -- but once the weather gets nice, we tend to just throw "desk work" out the window in favor of the zoo, Botanical Gardens, or other outdoor activity.

Most of our area attractions offer homeschool workshops, so we try to do two or three of those a semester. The kids have done science at the museum and the Botanical Gardens and art at the art museum. Of course, we also like to just strike out on our own!

We try to take educational trips during summer, fall, or spring breaks. We really enjoyed all the Abraham Lincoln sites in Springfield, IL, and Washington D.C., is just one big field trip to me! Chicago has the most awesome museums, so we try to go once a year.

The downside to all this, though, is that inevitably one of the kids will turn to me with that pathetic look and say, "But Mom! This is vacation!" :001_rolleyes:

[battlemaiden]

I'm a strong believer in Oceanography (the beach), the scientific study of local flora and fauna (Parks and hiking), Consumer math (shopping errands), and of course the occasional music appreciation class (concerts in the park).

:D

We still get to the zoo once a month, and when we lived in DC we visited a Smithsonian every other week. We also took advantage of three plays/operas during the three years we lived there. But I had two babies there and between pregnancy and newborns we were limited.

Much of our field trips these days are baby dependent. I can't go to all the concerts and plays and symphonies I would like because of the little ones. Ideally I would send the older ones to various performing arts productions with my dh, but...um...well...that's not really reasonable for a variety of reasons. ;)

Jo

[gandpsmommy]

We are pretty spontaneous, but thoughtful people. The field trips just kind of flow with the rest of our lives. We do things that interest us, but often they do fit nicely with what we are studying.

In December, we visited a botanical conservatory that was featuring an exhibit about ancient civilizations and famous architectural wonders from ancient times. It fit in nicely with our history studies, but we sort of discovered this after already deciding to go. We were simply looking for a fun day trip, and it was a happy coincidence.

I had been wanting to take the children to hear a symphony orchestra, so when I found out that the symphony orchestra in the city nearest us was having a Mozart festival one weekend in January, we decided to go to one of the evening concerts. Mozart is one of the composers we were studying in our classical music studies, so it fit in well.

I also found out in January that there was a very special exhibit at the museum of art in the nearest city which feautred some of Monet's paintings and works of artists who had been influenced in some way by Monet and his impressionism. I had been wanting to take the children to this art museum and I love Monet. It was a unique opportunity because this particular exhibit was only going to be shown in one other museum, in Paris, France. So, even though we hadn't studied Monet or impressionism in art, we took advantage of the wonderful opportunity.

We have also gone hiking to see caves and waterfalls somewhat nearby, and we purchased a membership to the local interactive children's museum. Last year we had a membership at the science museum in the city.

Later this spring we plan to return to the botanical conservatory for a Butterfly exhibit, just because we want to see all the butterflies and maybe buy the little butterfly kit to raise and release our own. It will complement our science studies, since we did a unit on butterflies and moths earlier this year. And, I want to see all the beautiful Chihuly glass pieces they have in their collection.

We go to the zoo in the summer, but we'll probably get a membership this year because ds loves animals and I know he will want to go more than once this year.

Within the next year I would love to take the kids back to the symphony, perhaps to an opera, to the theater to see a play, and back to the art museum to see more of their permanent collection. I also just found out about a geology museum that I think ds would love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I do try to lay a bit of a foundation for the experience to prepare the kids, if we know in advance that we will be doing something new. But I have found that my dc are most receptive to expounding on the experience afterwards.

For example, when we went to the symphony we had listened to some of Mozart's works, talked about what the concert would entail and what kind of special behavior was required (being very quiet and still, particularly emphasized with the 4yo). We were privileged to hear a very talented soprano perform one of the Queen of the Night arias from the Magic Flute. We were all enthralled by the majestic way in which she used her voice as an instrument, and we went around the house imitating (weakly, I'm afraid) her performance for weeks.

Now, if I had tried to make the kids listen to the Magic Flute before the performance, it would probably have been a miserable experience without much receptivity or meaningfulness. But after the concert, we read a picture book retelling of the story and listened to the accompanying cd together over the course of a week. And we were all waiting with much anticipation to hear the particular aria we had heard at the concert.

Similarly, when we went to the art museum I prepared the kids by reading some relevant books with them in the week beforehand (e.g. Visiting the Art Museum, and a few story books featuring some of Monet's paintings). After the visit, I had some non-fiction library books ready which went into much more detail about Monet's life, career, and art. Dd eagerly read several of these to us over the following week for reading time in school.

I'm sorry this post became so long, but I hoped it has helped in some way. It's certainly fun for me to recount our adventures!

[Eliana]

Our favorite field trips are to Seattle Shakespeare Company performances. They do 4 plays a year, and we see each one as many times as possible.

We try to go to as many of the Seattle Chamber Music Society concerts as we can. They have a Winter Interlude in January and over a month of concerts in July.

We go to the various Shakespeare in the park productions in the summer, and the various Renaissance and/or Medieval Fairs.

We try to get to as many of the free first Thursdays at the Seattle Art Museum as we can - and to get to special exhibitions as often as possible (there will be an Impressionist exhibit this summer!!)

The UW Observatory is open to the public 2 Wednesday nights a month.
There is usually a brief talk or activity offered (sometimes aimed at kids, sometimes aimed at experts...)

My son wants to get back to the Boeing Museum of Flight asap.. it is one of his favorite field trips!

The zoo and aquarium here in Seattle are also kid favorite.

NW Trek is amazing, but it's far enough away that we don't get there often.

That's what I can think of right now...

I expect no formal preparation or follow-up... sometimes we might talk about something before we go, or go somewhere to connect it to what we've been studying, but mostly we just enjoy it and talk about it afterwards...

[Mamagistra]

Chattahoochee Nature Center

Chattahoochee? :lol::lol::lol:

(jk) ;)

[Amy loves Bud]

I'm a strong believer in Oceanography
Jo

Man, would I love to do some oceanography field trips. Lucky. :)

[Mamagistra]

when we lived in DC we visited a Smithsonian every other week

Wow. Now that would be cool! :001_smile:

[Amy loves Bud]

Thank you all. You've been helpful! :thumbup1:

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

Thank you all. You've been helpful! :thumbup1:

Ok, after resisting for quite some time -- the full extent of my self-control and maybe one more minute beyond -- I have to say that when I saw the subject line in quotes I thought perhaps the subject was more along the line of, say, "parent-teacher 'conferences'" than it was actual field trips where you leave the house and such.

And I'm slinking away now, confessed if not absolved.

:leaving:

[gandpsmommy]

Ok, after resisting for quite some time -- the full extent of my self-control and maybe one more minute beyond -- I have to say that when I saw the subject line in quotes I thought perhaps the subject was more along the line of, say, "parent-teacher 'conferences'" than it was actual field trips where you leave the house and such.

And I'm slinking away now, confessed if not absolved.

:leaving:
That's too funny! I'm all for parent teacher "conferences" with the father of my pupils on a regular basis!

[dangermom]

We've done a lot of field trips to match our studies, but one thing I really love is the field trips put on by the local college. All year they have a series of cultural performances, and you can buy child tickets for the evening performances -- 5 tickets for $25. They also have field trip performances in the mornings, and tickets are $3 each. So we have done some of each this year, and it's been great. We've seen Celtic music, kung-fu monks, ballet, all sorts of good stuff.

[battlemaiden]

After posting I went to lay down and read. I chuckled when I came across this statement,

"Children should not be culturally indoctrinated by well-meaning but heavy-handed parents any more than by insensitive classroom teachers. Homeschoolers need to take care not to overwhelm their children with elaborate 'meaningful experiences,' for didacticism can be as antithetical to education in a museum or zoo as in the classroom. After all, the purpose of exposure is to encourage growth, and certainly not to inoculate against the expansion and development of interests."

I like that.

Btw, we do sometimes prep for our field trips. If we are going to a museum we will pre-study an artist or painting. It seems to give my kids "ownership" when they experience the real thing. We study battles before going to the battlefields, etc...

We did study oceanography before moving to Hawaii. Now we just joke about our days at the beach and our study of "oceanography". :D

Fieldtrip to visit Battlemaiden, Sebastian, Mrs. Mungo, and the rest of the WTWahines! :grouphug:

Jo

[Mrs Mungo]

After posting I went to lay down and read. I chuckled when I came across this statement,

"Children should not be culturally indoctrinated by well-meaning but heavy-handed parents any more than by insensitive classroom teachers. Homeschoolers need to take care not to overwhelm their children with elaborate 'meaningful experiences,' for didacticism can be as antithetical to education in a museum or zoo as in the classroom. After all, the purpose of exposure is to encourage growth, and certainly not to inoculate against the expansion and development of interests."

I like that.

Btw, we do sometimes prep for our field trips. If we are going to a museum we will pre-study an artist or painting. It seems to give my kids "ownership" when they experience the real thing. We study battles before going to the battlefields, etc...

We did study oceanography before moving to Hawaii. Now we just joke about our days at the beach and our study of "oceanography". :D

Fieldtrip to visit Battlemaiden, Sebastian, Mrs. Mungo, and the rest of the WTWahines! :grouphug:

Jo

Indeed! We actually did a really cool tide pool unit study and were amazed at all the creatures we actually found! We even saw a sea slug, it was weird looking.