Field Trips: Keep it Simple

My kids used to complain that we couldn’t go anywhere without

a)      Learning about our destination before our visit.

b)      Learning about our destination on the way to our visit.

c)       Learning about our destination while on our visit.

d)      Learning about our destination after our visit.

OR…

e)      ALL THE ABOVE!

As a homeschool mom I see opportunities to learn anywhere and everywhere.  In fact, it’s become an ongoing joke for my kids to tell everyone they meet that they couldn’t even enjoy a trip to Disney World without me managing to turn it into school.

In my zealousness to make the most of our travels, I nearly killed my children’s natural love of learning. The damage I was inflicting became evident on two separate outings, the first to Yorktown National Battlefield.

As was our normal custom when visiting National Park Sites, if there was a Jr. Ranger Program offered, the kids would participate. After all, how could they miss out on such a wonderful educational opportunity?

The kids begged not to take part in the program, but I was unrelenting.  The outcome was not pretty. By the end of our tour my husband and I were fighting while the kids were nearly in tears. What should have been a fun, relaxing day was anything but.

It was then that my husband put his foot down and said “No more Jr. Ranger programs, ever!”

I must admit that even after that terrible outing, my thick skull still had not comprehended exactly what I was doing to my children until the next incident.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  The kids and I were strolling along the Boardwalk on Virginia Beach when my boys became fascinated with a tiny building among the hotels that had anchors and old boat parts decorating the perimeter of the property.  It was a shipwreck museum and looked like a cool place indeed.

The kids were murmuring among themselves lamenting the fact that they wouldn’t be able to go inside. “Why not,” I asked. “It’s open.”

“Not today mom, it’s Saturday!”

Now I can be a bit slow at times because I clearly could not see the problem. I assured them that we could go inside, and it sounded like a great idea to me.

“No mom! It’s Saturday, we can’t do school on Saturday! “

Finally a light bulb went on and I realized the error of my ways. In my eagerness to relate everything to school and to maximize the learning potential for every outing, I had managed to take the fun out of learning.

I had inadvertently done the very thing that I set out not to do!  Though I’d always considered myself a relaxed homeschooler, I was fooling myself.  It was clear that I had a long way to go.

It was time for some changes to be made.

We continued to take field trips but this time around we didn’t learn about them before, on the way to, during the outing or after our trip. It seems that I almost went from one extreme to the other, but I decided to keep it simple for a while not to expect anything from them.

The results were amazing. When my children no longer had a mom that would nag them and frustrate them, they began to learn on their own. They became interested again. Now instead of forcing them to learn what I thought was important, they were learning based upon their interests.

We’ll be taking a short trip soon and the kids have a list of museums, National Park Sites and natural attractions that they want to visit.  We’ll even learn a bit about some of them before our visit because now I’ve learned not to overdo it with the lessons. Too bad it took me so long.

What about you? Have you frustrated your children in your eagerness to create a love of learning in your household? What steps have you taken to remedy the situation?

Now that Tonya has learned the error of her ways, she and her family once again enjoy regular outings which you can read about at her blog, Live the Adventure.

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Tagged as: homeschooling errors, learning from mistakes, what not to do