Finding Florida through field trips is a continuation of our Florida History Without a Textbook series. Part of finding out about our state means we get out and discover it. This has been tremendously fun as we discover new and exciting places to visit. Some of these trips the children have taken with others as I was unable to go and some we have gone together as a family! The exciting part is that there is always somewhere to go that we haven’t seen. My children are visual learners. They learn the best when they can see something or feel it. It sticks in their brain so much better. The memories that we are making are priceless.
I’ve divided our field trip calendar into 3 sections. Make A Difference Monday, Walk About Wednesday, and Field Trip Friday. I count the Mondays as service not history. Walk About Wednesdays is local to us which can usually mean that it’s something about Florida. A local park or museum. Something in our area certainly counts as learning about Florida since we live in Florida. Field Trip Friday can be a play or something non local so it may or may not be history related. This calendar guarantees something Florida history related at least once a week.
We’ve learned about alligators at Gatorland. Did you know Plant City is not named after the strawberry plant but actually Henry Plant who brought the railroad to Tampa? We didn’t either until we toured the Plant Museum. Our local botanical gardens showed us native Florida plants. We’ve visited our local professional football and baseball stadiums, one of our state colleges and walked among the treetops in a canopy walk at a state park. All of these experiences teach us new and exciting things about our great state. Learning at it’s finest.
