Planning for a Field Trip
In this article, you will find:
Coordinating
Coordinating a Field Trip with Other HomeschoolersField trips are usually more fun and meaningful if you involve other homeschoolers. This can be as simple as inviting one or two other homeschool families to come along or it might as formal as providing an invitation to a formal homeschool group. Whenever you involve other people, you need to be prepared to coordinate your trip with them.
The first step is to find out who else wants to attend. Unless it will be a very informal trip, you probably want to prepare an invitation that explains all the specifics of the trip. In your invitation, ask for a formal response by a specified date. If you need to purchase tickets or make other financial commitments for a field trip, I recommend that you ask people to provide the required monies with their responses. This helps ensure that you won't end up footing the bill for other folks unnecessarily.
The number of people that you will want to invite depends on several factors. First, do you need a group to be at least a certain size or less than a certain size to have access to special opportunities? Second, how much coordination are you willing to do? The larger a group gets, the more work you need to do. Third, is there a "natural" group that makes sense for the trip you are planning? For example, if you are planning a field trip to a theater for a matinee and backstage tour and you know several families that have a specific interest in the theater, that group would be a natural fit for your field trip.
If you will need help on your field trip, make sure you ask for volunteers in your invitation. If possible, get specific people to commit to specific tasks.
Also, if you need other adults to attend with you, make that clear on the invitation as well (specify whether other parents are required to attend or not). Most of the time, you will want a parent to attend from each family so that you aren't responsible for all the kids on the trip; plus, you might enjoy some adult company!
After your response date passes, create a list of everyone who will attend along with contact information including phone numbers and email addresses. If you need to purchase tickets or make reservations, do so.
Make sure that you communicate any changes to the plans as soon as possible. This is where email addresses come in handy because you can efficiently communicate even with a large group.