Summer Field Trips

[RahRah]

For those continuing HS through summer, and even those not, how often do you do summer field trips? More than other times of the year? Do you tie them to what you're learning, or do a variety of things that are fun and educational? Do you count the time on a field trip toward your total for the year?

 

My summer calendar is shaping up to look like almost too much, but I'll keep the things on the calendar and be flexible since it may be just right (depends really on the weather for a lot of things).

 

Right now I have:

 

Summer Science Series @ our library - once a week, 1-hour science program for ages 5-9

 

Summer music series -local company maintains a public garden and hosts small concerts throughout the summer every two weeks - each one is a different genre of music, so we'll hear bluegrass, rock, classical, etc.

 

We'll do the county fair - which in our area includes a lot of animal barns and shows....since we're doing animals and habitats over the summer, I think it's something to consider 'educational' too

 

I'd like to visit a farm, the zoo, botanical gardens, aquarium and some caves - different animals, habitats, etc.

 

I have a visit to the fish & wildlife museum on the schedule too, along with a trip to a butterfly house.

 

And next weekend we're going to do a float trip, down one of the rivers in our state - stop along the way to explore, look at the native plants & animals and maybe do some fishing (well DS and DH do the fishing)....again a good mix for animals and habitats.

 

What are your plans?

[Ellie]

For those continuing HS through summer, and even those not, how often do you do summer field trips? More than other times of the year? Do you tie them to what you're learning, or do a variety of things that are fun and educational? Do you count the time on a field trip toward your total for the year?

 

We left our house every Thursday, year round, for a field trip. :-)

 

Sometimes our field trips had something to do with what we were learning, sometimes not. Sometimes it was to work on a Camp Fire badge. Sometimes it was something I had read in the paper that was happening in the community. We had memberships at the San Diego Zoo, so sometimes we went there for the day. Sometimes we just went to a mall not close to our home and had lunch and watched the other shoppers ("social studies," lol). Everything is educational as well as fun.

 

If I'd had to keep track of days or hours, you bet I'd have counted the field trips. Public schools count them; why shouldn't we?

Edited June 10, 2010 by Ellie

[Aoife]

Every summer we go to visit my grandma in Cincinnati and go to the Museum center there which is super interactive and awesome!

 

I also go up to PGH frequently since my parents live there and I have a carnegie museum membership. This summer the kids will be doing some classes there.

 

My mom also told me about some kind of animal safari place in OH that we might check out.

 

We also want to take the kids to several of our state parks to play, do picnics and maybe camp out.

[2_girls_mommy]

We will have more time for outings now that school work is light. We attend a library summer program once a week (plays and music, etc.) We have a zoo pass too, and ours has a summer storytime and reading program once a week. So we attend that and then visit a few exhibits each visit and the spraypark to cool off after. We go camping at least once, and try to hike and see wildlife while there. We also volunteer at a food pantry one day a week for a month. We wouldn't have time for all of this during the year!

 

No, most of it doesn't tie into our learning schedule. If I found something that did, I would work it in.