First Homeschool Field Trip

Yesterday was our first field trip in our homeschool trial period. There were some really great parts, and some not so great parts. We left the house by 8:30am without any major melt-downs or yelling (woo-hoo, that's an amazing accomplishment in itself!) and arrived at our destination by 9:15am. We discovered right away that the beach didn't open until noon, but that worked out well -- it just meant that we had to do school work before the fun stuff!

The kids got a quick lesson about the 4th of July, and then we moved into our intended study subject for the day - science! We were supposed to be pretending that we were scientists, and our job was to "observe and record" (a step in the scientific method) the beautiful scenery around us. Birds were chirping, bull frogs were croaking, there was a perfect gentle breeze, the sun was shining, the lake was beautiful, it smelled of grass, trees, and campfires... perfect, right? Well, the kids were drowning out all the beauty with their whining and crying. "I don't know how to spell this word"; "I want to swim right now"; "This isn't any fun at all" -- it was pathetic. (Sigh)

We did our best with them, but honestly, it was rough. After several major meltdowns, the three big kids successfully accomplished taking some scientific notes about the world around them, and we re-gathered for snack and story time (I decided to start The Chronicles of Narnia!). Of course there continued to be lots of whining and complaining "he got two pretzel sticks, but I only got one", but I think they did listen to some of the story...After a couple games of "Mother May I?" and some tree climbing, we realized that people were at the beach, so Dave and the big kids changed into their suits and headed off to swim.

(Photography by Belle)


(Photography by Russell)

Ellie, William, and I stayed at our original spot for awhile, and then took a walk to the playground. Ellie had a great time playing on the equipment and swinging, while William slept the morning away in the Ergo baby carrier!


The little kids and I then called the troops in from the beach for lunch, and we all sat down for a restful lunch on our picnic blanket. At this point the kids were all amazing -- truly, amazing! There was no whining, crying, complaining, nada! But then our peaceful lunch was interrupted by some very rude people who thought it was okay to move in a group of about 25 people to a picnic table less than 10 feet from where we were sitting... my attitude took a nose dive at that point (William had been laying on a blanket about to fall asleep until these noisy people invaded our peaceful space...). I tried to make the best of the situation -- the big kids gathered "unusual" things from nature that we wouldn't be able to find around our home, and Belle and Russell did their skip counting for me. I then granted permission for them to head with Dave back to the beach.

Ellie, William and I stayed at our picnic spot for awhile longer. I was able to convince Ellie to lay down and close her eyes for a short time -- it was a moment I want to keep in my heart forever! Ellie laid on the blanket right next to me, sucking on her fingers with her eyes closed, opening them every now and then to peek at me, while I rubbed her back and held William - it was so peaceful (well, except for the loud, obnoxious people less than 10 feet away...). After Ellie decided that she'd had enough laying around we packed up our stuff and headed over to the beach. The big kids had made friends with other kids at the beach, so we sat and watched them play for awhile before calling it a day and heading home.

Would I feel comfortable enough to count this as a "school day" if we were in the middle of an actual school year? Absolutely -- we did history, science, writing, reading, math, and communication skills building (via making new friends). Although the day would have been MUCH better if I could have eliminated the whining; overall, I'd consider the day a success!