Summer Field Trips

Field trip to the splash pad at the Gateway

As a child, my summer days were filled with adventures and playing with friends. Although there was an endless number of things for my sisters and me to do around our home and neighborhood, we still were plagued with the classic childhood summer boredom.We needed something new and exciting to peak our curiosity and to entertain us. In order to do this, my mom began planning weekly summer field trips to get us out of the house. She would invite family, friends, and neighbors to join us with their sack lunches to caravan to that week's destination and then to a picnic lunch. The field trips were a great way for us to get out of our house, to learn and explore new things, and for my mom to interact with other adults. Here are some tips for organizing your own summer field trips.

My sister at Timpanogos Cave

1.  Ask your children what activities they may be interested in doing this summer. Try to incorporate suggestions from each child in your planning. My mom would often have us write a list of field trips we would be interested in that fell under categories such as educational, fun, physical, etc.  If you need ideas of local activities check out my mom’s list (Utah County/Salt Lake Area) and the Care About Childcare Summer Activity Guides for all of Utah.
2.  Try to provide a good mix of activities. Have some educational trips and others that are purely fun. Try to not schedule similar activities back to back.
3. Check with local museums for special events that may be tailored towards children. For example, every year we attended the BYU Museum of Art’s annual Family Arts Festival, which always made the museum more interesting to us.
4. If there are specific families you would like to join you coordinate with them to see which day works best.
5.  Send your schedule out to other families to invite them to join when they can. Field trips were always more fun when we had friends or cousins there. And nothing is more exciting as a child then getting to ride in someone else’s car.
6. Don’t stress about making it every week. Provide enough details in the schedule that other families can get there without you.
7. If a child is not interested in a field trip, let them invite a friend to make it more fun.

Hopefully these tips will help you in coming months to have fun activities for your kids that get them out of their typical summer routine. Feel free to comment below with your own Summer Field trip ideas and tips!

My sisters and me at Seven Peaks Water Park