Washington DC American Girl Field Trip Co-op

[Rockhopper]

I am organizing a 2-year American Girl Field Trip co-op/curriculum. We will use the American Girl books/girls to study US history chronologically, beginning this fall. The book readings will be the launch point for other, cross-curricular study, and most importantly, field trips. The field trips will primarily focus on the downtown area, although some will move out into the greater DC area.

My middle daughter and I participated in a similar group a few years ago and it was a wonderful experience. For that group, we had weekly field trips -- every Thursday.

We got to see and do some amazing stuff! For instance, we visited the American Indian museum while studying Kaya. We did a scavenger hunt through the Revolutionary War section of the American History museum while studying Felicity. There were trips to the National Gallery to study contemporaneous paintings and furniture. We did a trip to Dr. William Beanes’ house in Upper Marlboro – he was the imprisoned American Francis Scott Key was visiting when he was inspired to write The Star Spangled Banner. We did a docent-led hike in Rock Creek Park learning how escaping slaves used the stars to guide them on the Underground Railroad.

However, I'm not up for quite that many field trips this time around! And the former group, specially organized, doesn’t exist anymore, and the woman leading it had decades of contacts and resources in museum education that I simply don’t have. So I'm planning on 2 field trips per month, and using some sort of online forum to stay in touch in between.

Target age group is 3^rd to 5^th graders. Siblings would be allowed to come on field trips, of course, but there would be the expectation that the field trip and curriculum content would be primarily directed to the target ages, and that siblings would be able to either participate appropriately or not be disruptive. Participants would be expected to read the appropriate American Girl book to get the most out of the field trips.

At this point, I’m expecting to do the organizing and planning, but I’d love to share the work if other parents are interested. I’m hopeful not to charge any “co-op fees” but parents would need to pay for or provide required reading books (American Girl, plus maybe a few others), transportation to and from field trips, any field trip costs (minimal, since most will be at Smithsonian museums) and any miscellaneous optional expenses (snacks, etc).

I think 4 to 10 girls (or boys!) at the target age range would be ideal. Although we won’t begin until the fall, I’d like to start recruiting participants now, so that we could have the summer to get everyone ready.

If you are interested, please contact me! And if you know someone who might be interested, please send them this information. Because I don’t want the group to get too large, and because I won’t be there for a few more weeks, I don’t necessarily want to start sending out to groups or list-servs yet – I’ll do that if this more word-of-mouth approach doesn’t get any response.

Thanks!

 

[Farrar]

You don't want to share on any of the DC groups? I mean, they're really small.

It sounds like fun. When my kids were in 4th grade, we did a year of American history and did a million field trips around here.

[2_girls_mommy]

I would so do it if I was anywhere near you! We did an AG co-op class when my oldest was 2nd grade. She was an advanced reader, so was the youngest in the class. We enjoyed it so much.