In addition to reading a chapter book to your child, finding a park day, and baking a double batch of cookies or pizza (for some math fun), a great way to start your homeschooling year is by participating in a field trip with other homeschoolers! You’ll have both socialization and education worries checked off in a flash, and your children will also be off to a happy new school year!
Looking for field trip ideas?
Visit my Field Trip board at Pinterest. The Pinterest pages are updated regularly!
Tips for field trip harmony and success:
- Be kind to your organizer! Someone has to organize the trip and make the arrangements. Follow their requests for payment, signing up deadlines, and anything else that’s needed. There’s a high burnout rate for field trip organizers, and if it happens to yours, you’ll miss them! No complaints about the date (just don’t go if it doesn’t work out), no complaints about anything else. And, if you say you’ll be there, let illness be your only excuse. Offering to organize a trip might also be appreciated!
- Be kind to your hosts. Thank them at the beginning and the end of the tour, and follow their rules – these are rules designed to keep their property safe as well as your children safe.
- Respectful behavior is important on a field trip to avoid damaging a facility or spoiling the visit for the others. It’s important for groups to comply, or they (and other groups!) may not be welcome in the future. If that is too difficult for your child, or if your parenting style is that you don’t believe in telling children what to do, a group field trip is probably not for you. On a field trip, it will typically be expected that parents will sometimes have to ask their children to stop a noisy or disruptive behavior – or discover that someone else will do it for them. If this is a dealbreaker for you, skip the group field trips and meet up at park day. You might also find that it works better for your family to go to special places alone.
And finally, if for whatever reason you don’t love field trips, remember it’s just one idea that some families enjoy. Nothing is required when you homeschool, so do what works for your family!
You might also like: Finding a California Park Day!
Karen Taylor’s always homeschooled son attended a local community college after graduating from homeschooling. He transferred to UC Berkeley as a junior, and received a PhD in neuroscience from UCSF. She shares homeschooling comments and links on Facebook, Pinterest, and this blog.
