A field trip can be a wonderful way to enhance the education of home schooled children.
Home schooling is the new educational movement across the country. More and more families are choosing to educate their children in the home rather than going the traditional route, and they are finding that, like everything, although there are a few drawbacks to home schooling, the benefits far outweigh any negatives.
One of the many benefits of home schooling is the freedom
families have to take field trips. Field trips can be anything
from a visit to the local zoo or museum to an overnight
vacation to a historic town or national monument. Unlike
families whose children are in traditional school, home
schooling families have the freedom to go on overnight trips
during the school week, or visit places that others would
normally have to reserve for weekends. Plus, since home
schooled students usually have a shorter school day than their
traditional school counterparts, they can do things during
school hours and avoid traffic and crowds. If you or your home
school group has a desire to plan home school field trips,
following are a few tips and suggestions to remember.
1. Plan ahead. Whether you are going to visit a museum, a
petting zoo, a theater production, an art gallery, or a
historic village, call ahead well in advance and ask about the
rules and regulations for field trips. Reserve your group’s
date and time slot, if necessary, and let the establishment
know about numbers and ages. Home school groups often have
babies in tow, so also find out if babies are welcome. Some
theaters or galleries may not welcome babies.
2. Organize transportation. Often a dozen mini-vans showing
up at a small parking lot can overwhelm all involved, and if
the event or establishment is in a downtown area, everyone can
quickly become separated due to parking difficulties. If
families can share transportation, they will find that there
is more parking available and fuel costs can be shared. Also,
make sure each driver has a detailed map with contact
information in case the group gets separated. A caravan of
cars following one another to an event can be fun, but if
someone gets separated, the people in their car may miss out
entirely.
3. Discuss behavior. Before going on a field trip, the
leader of the home school group should discuss proper behavior
with the other parents and children. Issues such as talking
during a play or concert, walking as opposed to running,
staying together, keeping voices low, appropriate dress, etc.
should be discussed in detail.
4. Discuss what to bring. Encourage members of the home
school field trip group to bring cameras, if applicable,
notebooks for notes and sketches, and a sack lunch or money to
buy food. Make sure everyone is on the same page with this as
it would be awkward if most of the group plans to stop for
fast-food while some members show up with no money.
5. Plan a follow-up. The purpose of a home school field
trip is to enhance the educational experience. While field
trips can be a lot of fun, learning is the primary goal. Plan
for the group to meet immediately following the field trip or
soon thereafter. Perhaps plan a group discussion, question and
answer pages, or encourage the students to write reports or do
projects on what they learned. And as with everything in home
schooling, parents should document everything: dates,
locations, times, etc., as these will contribute to the
portfolios or report cards at the end of the school year.