Field Trips {guest post}

"Field trip to Gold Bug Mine, Placerville, CA 2005"

If there is one thing I know for sure (besides the fact that my niece Emily Osborne is cooler than you) it is that I instilled a love of learning and adventure into my girls. I like to think that is something I have done well, besides all the other things I didn't do so well. So maybe there are two things I did well:

1. Letting them know I love them regardless
2. Showing them that girls should go into the unknown and figure things out. Follow your passions. Go into the world and explore. This is how you really learn.

You can call this "experimental learning" like teachers do (because we love jargon) or you could say learning by doing and experiencing. By touching, tasting, climbing, questioning, smelling, eating, talking, walking, and seeing. Young children naturally do this. They are hardwired with a curiosity that is the envy of every jaded adult. Seeing the world through a clear lens and asking questions. Children naturally want to ask questions and will continue asking until they get a satisfactory answer.

"Why is the sky blue?"

"Why is the ocean so big?"

"How do ducks float?"

They aren't scared of looking stupid or worrying that they should already know the answer so they don't ask. That's how adults think. So while you're children are young, that is the time to take them out into the world and cultivate that curiosity. Go on an adventure. Take a field trip.

How many of us loved field trips at school? That was every child's favorite thing about the school year, the field trip. Unfortunately, most schools have completely done away with field trips. I know the reality of budget cuts, liabilities, and involved parents. This is a tragedy because seeing the world and actually GOING PLACES teaches more than you can learn in a classroom or from one adult teacher. Thankfully, technology helps us take virtual field trips to any spot on the globe. However, that does not take the place of taking a child with an interest in trains to a train station, or a child who has an interest in stars to the planetarium.

Truly, how do you nurture a passion in a child unless you show them and let them experience a process, or a place, or a person? And you don't have to travel long distance or pay an exorbitant amounts of money to expose a child to something new. Open your eyes to the people and places around right you. Pull you child (and yourself) away from a screen, and get out in the world and explore. Your child will learn something new and gain knowledge and experience, and who knows? You might rekindle a passion for learning in the experience.

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This is my Aunt Annette, she is seriously the best.

She's a high school English teacher in CA & she's got a passion for everything.

Like tree's and this guy... haha we still love him. 

Check out her blog here & get inspired!

xo