Field trips, or cultural excursions, can be a great opportunity to bond with your child. But these kinds of trips can also be a great time to build social skills. But in order to improve your child’s social skills, you need other kids.
You can put together a group, a posse, of parents and kids to teach your children about history, science, and their world. Here’s how:
Step 1: Brainstorm ideas for the trip
You can do this on your own. Think about where you’d like to take your child and what experiences might be best with a small group of children.
Step 2: Decide what you want the group to be
Do you want to just have an informal group of parents that get together every few weeks? Do you want to create a formal nonprofit so that you can apply for grants to fund the trips? Do you want a small group of just three families or something larger with a dozen families? Think about what you hope to accomplish, and what’s going to be best for your child.
Step 3: Approach like-minded parents
Think about the parents in your child’s life. Who do you get along with? Who do you think would have a similar goal to yours? Talk to different parents without committing to anything and see what reactions you get. When you find a few who seem like they can take your idea seriously, pitch the idea to them.
Step 4: Take the lead and work out the logistics
This step is kind of self-explanatory. Once you have a group of parents, you can have a face-to-face meeting or set up your first trip over email. You’ll need a date and time, location, method of transportation, and more. See my Cultural Excursion Checklist for more ideas of what you may need.
Step 5: Be friendly and send out reminders
Make sure you have every parent’s email address. If your group is big enough, you may want to set up a Facebook group where you can post updates. Send out friendly reminders, especially if you’ve delegated some responsibilities.
Step 6: Take your trip
Try not to stress the day of. Have fun! Try to balance spending time with your child and learning with leading the entire group.
If you follow these six steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating your own field trip posse. For more information on why parental involvement is important and how you can do it, check out 5 Ways Parents Can Get Involved in Elementary School.
(Photo Credit: Juergen Hartl on Flickr Commons)
Jasmine H. Wade 