The Field Trip

One of the (many) wonderful perks of being able to work at home with the boys is ‘The Field Trip.’

The spur-of-the-moment trip to the nature center. The let’s-go-research-that jaunt to the zoo. The I-don’t-know-let’s-find-out venture to the museum.

We have the flexibility and ability to head out to experience a bear up close just to see if what we read about bears is true.

We can go to the museum to see how lock systems work or to learn how to use power tools.

We can abandon any schedule we have to chase knowledge down and get answers to those amazing questions that pop up out of reading a book, playing a game or talking about how a drill works.

No permission slips need to be signed. We just get in the van, and go.

Today, we went on an unplanned trip to The Nature Center to hike, observe and play. The day was just too nice to spend indoors.

The boys had an amazing adventure in the hour we were there. They climbed trees, pretended to be lumberjacks and found secret trails to secret hideouts.

We heard woodpeckers and found cool spiders.

They climbed up wooden stairs and pointed out oddly shaped trees.

When we left, the boys were smiling and happy. They were refreshed and had exercised both mind and body.

What did they learn?

I honestly don’t know…yet.

I know what we talked about and I know they asked a lot of questions about trees, spiders, woodpeckers, sticks, leaves, sunlight, streams, grass…and on and on.

I know that we met an old man who told them a joke that they laughed at even though I’m not sure they ‘got it’. They got that it was a joke though.

Q: Why did Father Duck get a new job?

A: There were too many bills.

I know that they used their imaginations playing with sticks, piling leaves and pretending logs were couches and chairs.

I know that sometime in the next week or so, either spontaneously or in answer to our dinner question “What did you learn today?”, Joe or Jake will talk about something they heard or saw on this trip.

They’ll ask a question and we’ll be off again on another field trip.

Learning on the go
Watching sparkling eyes and smiles
The best trips aren’t planned