Simple
Family Field Trips
by Deborah Taylor-Hough
With
summer here and children home from school, many
parents are looking for creative ideas for enriching
and educational activities. Family field trips
are a simple, fun and relatively inexpensive
way of spending time together as a family. Here
are some ideas to get you started.
Manufacturing
Plant Tours
Many manufacturing plants offer free tours to
families or small groups, and any free samples
given out make great souvenirs when on vacation.
Call ahead to find out about tour availability.
Field
trips to local attractions
Field trips to zoos or aquariums can be expensive,
but purchasing an annual family pass pays for
itself in just a couple trips. Knowing you can
come back again and again frees your family
to enjoy themselves, without feeling the need
to hurry and see everything in one day to get
your money's worth.
Return
to the same site whenever you want a family
outing, and then buy a pass to a different educational
attraction next year.
Live
Performances
If your family enjoys attending live performances,
check for free concerts, plays and other cultural
events in local parks during the summer months.
You
can also contact college or community performance
groups (drama, ballet, orchestra, etc.) to see
if they'll allow you to watch them rehearse
for free.
Many
local theater groups need volunteer ushers for
their live performances. Volunteering in this
manner is an excellent way for the older members
of your family to gain free admission to a wide
variety of cultural events, plus it provides
a useful service to the local arts community.
Deborah
Taylor-Hough is a full-time mother of three,
free- lance writer, and author of the bestselling
book, "Frozen Assets: How to cook for a
day and eat for a month." She also edits
the Bright-Kids email newsletter. To subscribe
to this free resource for fun and easy educational
ideas for the bright kids in your life, mailto:join-bright-kids@ds.xc.org
Visit Debi online at: http://hometown.aol.com/dsimple/
