10 Tips to Planning Field Trips for Your Homeschool Group

If it’s your responsibility to plan your group’s park days and field trips, then you know how overwhelming that can be. But, if you’re new, you may not be sure how to go about planning for a group. But, with a little planning ahead of time, and prayer, the rest of the year will be a breeze or at least not a hurricane. Follow these tips for a smooth year, being sure to change them to suit the needs of your group.

1. Get your assistants together over the summer. Begin with prayer over the new school year and the activities. Then get out your calendar and layout ideas for where you’d like to go each month. Remember these are not set in stone, just your favorite ideas. Jot down a few alternates in case you do have to change a trip. Keep in mind what else will be going on in your group and write that down also. For example, you don’t want to plan your field trip to the zoo on the same day the Elementary Group is going on their field trip. Book as many vendors as you can over the summer. Then during the year, all you have to do is follow up with the vendor and confirm your trip about a month or two prior to the field trip. Be sure to find out from the vendor if they need an exact count of people attending, do you need to send the money in early or pay at the door, does it need to be one check or can each person pay?
2. Try to alternate expensive field trips with free or low-cost trips. Also as a side note: be sure to be at your activities and early! There is nothing worse than group leaders that never show up for their own stuff. It shows people that you care about what you’re doing and you care about them. Plus if a problem pops up, you’re there to deal with it early on.
3. If your homeschool group is divided into age groups (ex: preschool, elementary, middle school, high school), contact their coordinators to find out where and when they are planning their activities. If possible, you may want to consider doing some activities jointly. For example: if the middle school group is going to the zoo, then more than likely all the groups would like to go. Make it joint! Also, make sure that you don’t trip over each other’s dates!
4. Decide early on with your assistants each one’s responsibilities. Which one of you will take money for trips, who will put the information in the support group’s newsletter or email, who will plan the parties, etc? Don’t feel like you have to do everything yourself as a coordinator, let your helpers help.
5. Call your local parks during the summer to book shelters for park days. Our group is typically able to book for the whole year and since we’re considered educational (like a school), they don’t charge us!
6. Get with your support group leaders and find out about any changes that have been made that will affect you. For example reimbursement forms, the process of giving refunds to families, how to get your information out to your group’s membership, etc. Our group does a Coordinator Training Session where we go over information about our group, forms, policies, etc. It’s a great thing and I’ll post more about that soon.
7. Keep a notebook all year-long! This will not only help you but future coordinators as well. Jot down ideas for trips as they come to you. Keep notes on vendors that you contacted, their phone numbers and when you spoke with them and when you confirmed the trip. Keep a log of who has registered for trips and if they’ve paid. You may even want to keep attendance for park days and field trips. This will give you an idea of which trips were popular and which weren’t for future planning reference. Be sure to pass this notebook on to the next coordinator when you are ready to pass the torch! These notebooks are as good as gold!
8. It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas, Valentine’s, Easter or Graduation parties. Go ahead and start making plans for those now. You don’t have to plan every detail now, but at least pick a date and which parties you’re going to do and who will help you with them. Again be sure to check with the other coordinators to make sure you don’t’ plan the same dates!
9. At your group’s first meeting go ahead and give the parents a handout with dates and locations that you plan on going to. It’s ok if everything isn’t confirmed at this point, but try to have as much confirmed as possible. We put a disclaimer at the bottom of our handouts that read “All park days and field trips are subject to change. Please look for changes in your newsletter and email.” Also be sure to include contact information for you and your assistants. You may even want to give them your cell phone number. This is a huge help in case a parent gets lost on the way to a trip or is running late! The handout gives a parent a heads up on the year, so they can plan accordingly and it makes you and your homeschool group, look organized and professional.
10. Just remember, this will not create a perfect year. Just hopefully a smoother one. By planning as much as possible during the summer, it leaves you with more time for school during the year, and your family. And after all, isn’t that what homeschooling is about?