A Field Trip

I have never taken the kids on an “organized” field trip. We’ve done lots of things that qualify as field trips, mostly as a family but sometimes with a few friends. A friend of mine texted months ago that the Lafayette Homeschool Association Facebook page was planning a field trip to a local orchard – did we want to go? This is her first year to homeschool and she is all about socializing, so it didn’t surprise me that she asked. I thought it would probably be good to go on an organized field trip, so I told her to sign us up.

 

Since I was homeschooled way back in the 1990’s, homeschooling has changed a lot. Not just tech wise with the ability to take live classes online or with the massive amount of curriculum out there you have to wade through to decide on one simple math or spelling book. The whole idea of local homeschool groups has changed. For one, lots of homeschoolers are in co-ops. There is such a massive amount of information readily available about homeschooling (and every other subject) that parents don’t meet regularly to hash out ideas, offer support, or navigate new waters like homeschooling through high school. And, honestly, unless you’re on Facebook, you have no clue what is going on in the local “homeschool group”. And since I’m not on Facebook, I just take suggestions from friends and walk into them blindly.

 

When we arrived at the orchard, a hundred feelings I had not felt in over 25 years came flooding back. Most of them feelings my kids will never have as they were based on the idea that homeschooling was odd, strange and crazy and there was always a target on my back that demanded questions of why I wasn’t in school, did I live in a commune, and my parents had to be the most bizarre people that ever walked the planet earth. It was a really strange sensation to realize those feelings were buried deep within somewhere and brought me to a momentary halt. I had to remind myself I was not twelve years old anymore. Instead, I needed to figure out who was in charge and get my kids where they needed to be.

 

Which was another change that has come along with the whole changes in homeschooling and arise of the Facebook monster: no one is actually in charge. Oh, I figured out someone had organized it with the orchard but that someone had not actually come on the field trip. A few of the other random families knew each other (like we knew our friends), but the ten or so families that were there had nothing more in common than homeschooling and Facebook (or, in my case, a friend on Facebook). That left me a little bit upset. A field trip should have someone in charge who is organized, knows the answers to any questions, and points people in the right direction. Yet another reason I have – and will – never join Facebook.

 

Don’t get me wrong: the field trip was excellent. Since the unknown organizer of said event didn’t post much on Facebook outside of the time, place and cost; I thought it was just a day to have fun outdoors and pick apples. However, the owners of the orchard did a great job with giving the kids the history of their farm and orchard, a lesson on bees and their importance in the orchard, and another lesson on various kinds of apples and how they taste. We did pick apples, we tried lots of apples, and we had a good time. But I’m not sure I’ll rely on Facebook posts to decide my field trips in the future!

 

Listening to the lesson about bees.

 

The girls: Autumn, Emry and Ellyson