Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
What’s your favorite kind of ice cream? What’s your least favorite color? We learn a lot through questions, don’t we? Last time we talked about using questions to help your children prepare to learn on field trips. You can also use more questions to help your children debrief after a field trip.

A good time to debrief is on the drive home from a trip, or around the dinner table. It helps to use specific questions. Instead of asking Johnny to “tell Dad what he learned,” why not ask Johnny about his favorite part? That’s easier to answer. Have your students compare favorites and least favorites so they learn to reason logically. You might also ask your students about the most important thing they learned.

Homeschool graduate Heather Terwilliger remembers that one of her favorite field trips was when her mother planned a visit to a physics lab. Tell us, Heather, what made this trip so memorable?

Heather Terwilliger:
Well, we went to the Stanford linear accelerator which is down in the Bay area of California. I just remember being struck by the fact that there’s this two-mile-long building, one of the longest buildings in the world, and it takes two miles to break apart like the most minute particles in our universe. And the idea that something so small could be so important and take so much effort to discover, just really struck me and stayed with me.

Mike:
Well, Heather thanks for joining us today to inspire the moms listening with creative field trip ideas! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.