• Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner

Notice: Undefined index: bpxl_header_cart_icon in /home/letsjust/public_html/wp-content/themes/travelista/template-parts/header-1.php on line 16
facebook twitter instagram
Let's Just Travel
  • Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
Home  >  Education • Field Trips • Mexico  >  Paperless Field Trip
EducationField TripsMexico

Paperless Field Trip

Allison Sherman Posted onMay 5, 2016September 9, 2018 Comments are off 1929 Views

I was a parent chaperone on a field trip with Haley’s class when she was in first or second grade. They were studying penguins. I think every kid in America studies penguins; there must be a very strong penguin mob lobby. So these kids had been reading about penguins, drawing penguins, basically doing everything they could about penguins in the classroom and now they had a chance to see them up close at the zoo. In order to justify field trips I know teachers must state what educational goals will be met. I’m not sure what they were for this trip but I’ll never forget how all the kids got off the bus clutching this worksheet the teacher had created, designed to get the kids to read the informative plaque or observe the penguins or do something related to those educational goals. I was rather stressed helping the kids find the exact answers and we didn’t get a lot of time to just enjoy watching the penguins. We were too busy trying to find answers to our questions, find a pencil or a flat service to write on, or making sure the paper didn’t get lost or ripped. We were very distracted by this silly piece of paper, not the penguins. I do remember that the penguins were super stinky. But I’m pretty sure that was not one of the questions on the worksheet. That’s a pity, we could have rocked that answer.

monkey

So that field trip was a little disappointing. I didn’t see the “aha” connections that we hope to see when we put kids in the middle of something real that they had been learning on paper. I don’t fault the teacher at all. I’m sure she would have loved to have no curriculum linked to the journey but she had no choice.

But in our school we have a choice. And I’ve learned that our field trips don’t have objectives and they don’t have paper. And we are pretty realistic in our expectations. It’s never really a question whether the excursion was worth doing; it always has some value but it’s definitely not the objective-driven trip from public school.

Last week we went to a farm. It involved getting up early and doing the “Playa Shuffle”. That’s what we like to call the roaming around that always happens before trying to find some new place in Playa del Carmen. But today there wasn’t so much shuffle and the farm was only halfway to Playa del Carmen. So already it’s good. It was a warm day (duh) but at least there were no mosquitoes. More good.

We fed chickens, we gathered eggs, we held baby chickens and bunnies and pigs. We fed cows and sheep and Zoe milked a cow. We saw stinger-less bees and tasted honey directly from their hive. We chatted with other homeschoolers in English and Spanish and we had a little snack on the grass. It was a great day to do something a little different and the lack of educational goals looming over us was really quite nice. I’m not quite sure what the kids learned but if history is any indication of the future, someday they’ll just spontaneously mention something they learned a while back. It happens a lot.

As with all field trips, you win some and you lose some. Our loyal readers will remember Chichen Itza, where Haley was fascinated but Zoe was bored. That’s OK, I don’t expect the same things to interest both of them. At the farm it was the opposite. Zoe was at the front of the group with each new animal we went to, but Haley held back and just watched. My former self, Public School Mom, would have been a little stressed that Haley wasn’t enjoying this rare opportunity at a field trip. But Worldschool Mom knew that there would be plenty more field trips in our future and we didn’t have to make each one a Kodak moment. That kind of “no big deal” attitude might sound logical and expected but it doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s taken 18 months of homeschooling (which I had never done prior to this journey) to get to a more relaxed approach to education. But it’s a process and even 46 year old School Marms can learn new things. For example, some bees have no stingers. Who knew!?

Getting the farm-grown corn to feed the chickens
The chickens kept thinking my shoelaces were corn
Huevitos!
Baby chickens!
A smile from Haley, holding a baby bunny
But first, lemme take a selfie
Pigs. At this point I decided not to have pork for dinner that night
Cows. OK, no burgers either
Zoe miking a cow
A bee hive with stingerless bees
Tasting the honey
Not a fan of the honey
Tired teen after getting up early
Also tired from getting up early
Previous Article Pedasi Panama Public School Poem
Next Article Cenote Xcacal, Frida Kahlo and Chocolate Fondue

Related Posts

  • Reporting From Home Base

    February 19, 2020
  • Worldschooling Happy and Crappy

    December 11, 2019
  • A Weekend At Coco’s

    December 3, 2019
  • Worldschooling Game Changers

    November 27, 2019
  • Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mexico

    November 10, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 2

    October 13, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 1

    September 29, 2019
  • Life in PdC

    August 25, 2019
  • Mexico 2.0

    August 7, 2019
  • Random Tours in Europe

    August 2, 2019

Social Media

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2
facebook twitter

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2

Archives

  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
Order Dept, LLC © Copyright 2015