RobinM Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I remember having a few field trip days in public school as well as days when we played games and didn't really do any real school work. I'm curious, how many field trip days do you have per year? Do public schools set aside so many days per year for field trips or 'game days'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovemyblessings Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Due to lack of funding, planning, or whatever- our public schools no longer have any field trips at all. As a family, I would say we will be doing 3 per month this year, as far as actual structured learning. But there will be many unplanned outings where we learn great stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinM Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 I know the schools in our state are struggling too. So sad that field trips are being cut... I remember looking forward to those days so much! Thanks for the input. I was thinking 1 or 2 days per month of informal learning, whether it be a field trip, community service etc... I just wanted to see if there were any rules regarding how many were allowed etc.. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I can remember just two when I was in school. :glare: When we were hsing, we left the house every Thursday for a field trip. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koerarmoca Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Well I call our Library days field trips and those are weekly lol. We otherwise try to go into the city once a month for zoo, museums, events etc. It all depends on the budget that month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 We used to try to do a field trip once a month when I home educated. Calvin and Hobbes' school do a couple of school trips per year, plus one sports day (in addition to regular PE). Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 We are going to a local dairy in August for a tour and we go to the zoo when ever we can. We did not do many last year; but this year, I would like to get one in a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I try to do about one per month. Sometimes it ends up being DH who takes the older to on an overnight trip to a zoo, aquarium, science center, or whatever. In school, DS had 2 or 3 field trips in K and only 1 field trip in first grade (there no field trips the 2nd semester of that year after we pulled out). It was up to teacher to decide whether to take a field trip. Field trips are a bit of a pain because you have to deal with permission slips, gathering money for the trip, arranging a bus or carpools, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 It varies but we try to do a decent amount of field trips. We really enjoy that kind of thing. We do anywhere from 1-4 a month, sometimes more. Sometimes on our own, sometimes with our homeschool group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Most of the public schools in our area have been foregoing field trips for the past few years because they do not have money in the budget to pay for the buses and drivers. During the elementary and early middle school years we did field trips most Fridays. As work gets more involved, however, we take fewer trips. This past school year (seventh), I'd guess offhand that we probably averaged about 2 a month. We've never done a lot of projects; field trips have always been the fun in our school! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 As a kid growing up in public school, I, like others, got 1-2 per year. We do field trips quite often... probably on average one a week - some weeks none, other weeks one, others two or three. But it helps that we live in DC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 We used to do several a month but now my car has broken down we are not making it out very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhaddon Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Local schools have two and they are very close to school. This is in lower age levels. Then for the 6th grade they have a weekend where they get a day out of school at the end of the year. THey have a field day and it seems like anytime they have a half day that is the day they schedual a convo. They have at least 6 convos that I know of. This is for our school district (worked in it a few years ago) I'm not sure if they changed it or not because our master gardeners program was going to do a class with the students and my friend that is a teacher told us they are not allowed to devote any time at all to field trips, visitors, or any educational program until ISTEP is over in the spring. This is for third graders up, but still. Wow. We have at least two field trips a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 In my husband's school district there is one field trip in 4th grade to a California mission and Camp K.E.E.P. in 6th grade for schools that raise their own money. That's it for grades K-6. In our home school we typically go on 9-10 field trips a year. Probably half of those are day long trips (out of town). We used to go on more when the children were younger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 We take a field trip every Wednesday. When my big kids were small we were constantly going to the zoo, the park, the art museum, the botanical gardens, etc. I would worry about shortchanging my current little ones if all we did was stay home to do school with the big kids. I think our local schools just take 2-3 field trips per year in elementary, but they have quite a few parties/field days/assemblies. When I was in elementary we had a field trip at least every month: aquariums, the symphony, art museums, science museums, plays, week long science camps, etc. I was in a self-enclosed class for gifted children with special funding, though, so I think I had an unusual amount of field trip enrichment as a child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I actually went back and counted the field trip days that I included in our school day count. A total of 14! Now, that included 5 of our days in DC so it was a bit higher than normal, but it is still far more than the 2 - yes, 2 - that our local PS teachers are allowed. In addition to DC we did things like an Ecologist-for-the-Day program, 2 concert symphony days, a day on the Yorktown aircraft carrier, the 150th anniversary of Ft. Sumpter in Charleston, the art museum, the state museum, and a day of science classes. All were productive yet fun days, and the boys surely learned more than by sitting at our table. I really feel for the PS teachers - many of the fieldtrips we do are free/very low cost, yet they are flat out not allowed to take time away from class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoVanGogh Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 In our school district, public school children go on 1-2 field trips a year during K-6. Children in the gifted/talented program normally have one extra field trip to see a theater production. We are field trip junkies. :D We went on 39 field trips in 2010 and 48 in 2009. (We school by calender year.) We do plan our vacations around educational experiences, so that includes several week long vacations where we went to a new museum or zoo every day. I don't count multiple trips to the same place in one year twice. (Ex: We have zoo and arboretum memberships, but I only count that as one field trip even if we go 10 times during the year.) We do live in a major metro area and I keep up with local events, art gallery exhibits, etc. I know free or discounted days to every attraction in the area, so that helps keep cost down. When we first started homeschooling I read a book that talked about 'community based homeschooling.' The author talked about taking advantage of all the wonderful things your community offers and giving our children broad experiences. It just really hit a nerve with me. I have decided to apply that to our homeschool journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinM Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 Thanks for all of the responses everyone! It is so helpful to hear from all of you. This is only our second year homeschooling...the first year we really only did a half year so I was just getting my feet wet. So, how do you all record field trip days in your log books? It is okay to count field trip days as actual school days? I can see us doing 2-3 per month. I even thought about having the kids visit a nursing home once a month to visit with the residents or do crafts with them etc... Could that be counted as a school day? Thank you again! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Zero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 We school year-round with breaks. We do educational family field outings often with trips to zoos, museums, political rallies, etc. We attend theater productions in Portland. We did a 2-week east coast road trip in April (DC, Mt. Vernon, Gettysburg, Philly, Newport, Plymoth, Boston). We took a vacation week to Disneyland in May. I take my dc to meet our local political reps. Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler's assistant gave us a private tour of the US Capitol. We stood on the floor of the House Of Representatives. That was the highlight of our year. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 My plan is to do at least one a month, hopefully two or three. I have flexibility on Fridays and I am trying to set up a four day week schedule so that I can plan for trips, special projects or even catch-up days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 At least once a month, usually twice. Plus library and bookstore trips. When I worked in PS there was usually only funding for one trip per grade level per year. The cost for busses was/is insane! Occasionally they get grants for special trips- like all 4th and 5th graders go to Symphony Day. Special Ed kids also get more due to grants. If, by chance, a school is within a short walking distance sometimes kids get extra. We have one school very near the art musuem (about 3-4 blocks), so I think they take a trip each year. And another school usually visits a TV station (one block over). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamatohaleybug Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 As many as we want to! :auto: One of the biggest joys of homeschooling!! :D As for public schools around here, 2 or 3. One big one (an event 30 miles away) and one small one (to the local park), usually. Sometimes an extra thrown in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Not counting special things we'll do while on vacation this coming year, we're averaging five field trips a month. One is to the monthly homeschool days program at the science center; since that's a trip for us, I also plan us going to something else that day in the city of the science center to make the drive worth it (ie. zoo, children's museum, history museum, botanical gardens, etc.) - so we actually get a two-fer on that day a month. The others are once a week things I find to do that are more local to us - be it a program at the local museum, a visit to the capitol, or a play, we do something each week that's local and a field trip. I don't count going to the library as a field trip....and this year I have only once a month on the calendar for library since we have a lot of other things planned and I need fewer books from the library this year than I did last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Wow, you guys are good. I think we did 5 for the year. That doesn't count library/park trips; that was actual field trips - like to a farm, museum, botanical garden, etc. We couldn't afford to do multiple trips per month, both gas & admission costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoVanGogh Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 We couldn't afford to do multiple trips per month, both gas & admission costs. Many museums have free or half-price days. Many art galleries here are free for their regular collection, but extra $ for special exhibits. If you just want to get in to see a museum, skip the special exhibit. Also, science museums, zoos and botanical gardens offer reciprocal memberships - membership at one location allows you free or discounted entry into 100s of others around the nation. I also arrange field trips for our homeschool group, as I can generally get a discount if we have a group of 10 or more. Search the paper for coupons. Likewise, if you live in an urban or tourist area, pick up those freebie magazines that are often at the airport, hotels and restaurants. They are generally full of coupons. If you newspaper puts out a "weekend guide" or "community planner" section, get in the habit of looking through it for ideas, special offers, etc. Hint: Visit a museum's website and look to see if they have a section on "education." Many do and any info on planning group tours and/or discounts will be listed under there. Can't help with gas prices... :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomToJediKnights Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 I don't know what our local PS does. We have at least 1-3 a month. We have season passes to the children's theater, so that's a monthly visit. We also have passes to the zoo and rotate that out with museums and other places (fire dept, police dept, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Last year we did about 5 planned field trips. This year, I would like to get a membership to the Natural History Museum to help our nature studies along, so we will be doing more field trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomToJediKnights Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 We couldn't afford to do multiple trips per month, both gas & admission costs. Our museum has free admission on Tues afternoon. The children's musuem (lots of science activities) has 1/2 price admission one day a week. I'd love to get a season pass to the children's museum, but I missed it before it sold out on Groupon. We got season passes to the zoo through Groupon. It was $30 for the whole family for a year, that's 1/2 the normal cost!! I'm hoping they offer it again this year. We split a season pass with another HS family for the children's theater. It worked great since we both only have two kids. There were enough tickets for both of our families to see every show. I think the cost per ticket was about $2. If I had bought them day of the show, it would be closer to $20 for me to take my kids!! Passes really save you money! We are also doing free bowling this summer, but I don't call that a field trip. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Many museums have free or half-price days. Many art galleries here are free for their regular collection, but extra $ for special exhibits. If you just want to get in to see a museum, skip the special exhibit. Also, science museums, zoos and botanical gardens offer reciprocal memberships - membership at one location allows you free or discounted entry into 100s of others around the nation. I also arrange field trips for our homeschool group, as I can generally get a discount if we have a group of 10 or more. Search the paper for coupons. Likewise, if you live in an urban or tourist area, pick up those freebie magazines that are often at the airport, hotels and restaurants. They are generally full of coupons. If you newspaper puts out a "weekend guide" or "community planner" section, get in the habit of looking through it for ideas, special offers, etc. Hint: Visit a museum's website and look to see if they have a section on "education." Many do and any info on planning group tours and/or discounts will be listed under there. Can't help with gas prices... :tongue_smilie: :iagree: One of the reasons why we can do as many field trips each year is that we have a science center membership ($65 for the year) which has reciprocal privleges at the ASTC science centers; a children's museum membership ($125 for the year) which has reciprocal privleges at ACM children's museums. Many of the other museums we go to (history, anthropology, art, etc.) are donation admissions, which I'll make a small donation when we go. The zoos have special discount days - sometimes free days, the botanical gardens have free days, and lots of other venues offer discount admissions - you just have to keep an eye out for the coupons and/or special days listed on their calendars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Last year was our first year hsing and we did at least eight field trips with groups of other hs'ers. That doesn't include the zoo, the park and the library wwhich we do all the time nor family excursions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 In my husband's school district there is one field trip in 4th grade to a California mission and Camp K.E.E.P. in 6th grade for schools that raise their own money. That's it for grades K-6. One year, when we were living in San Diego, I thought it would be wonderful to visit all 21 California missions...in a week...well, actually, it was just 18, as we were able to go to San Diego, Capistrano, and San Luis Rey before we left home. NEVER DO THAT!!! It was the field trip from heck. What was I thinking??:blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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