Over the past month I relearned a lesson I first learned as a classroom teacher: It never hurts to ask. When you’ve got a class of 25 kids, you realize pretty quickly that any extras, no matter how small, can get expensive quickly. Thankfully, you also realize that if they know your needs, many people are willing to step up and help out, both parents from your classroom and school and people in the community. For some reason, it’s been harder for me to ask for things for my own kids, but I’ve had some great experiences lately that reminded me of this lesson.
A few weeks ago we were reading Angelo, a book about a pigeon and a man who does restoration work on old buildings. One night in the shower (because I only remember ideas when I have no way to record them) I remembered that while searching Google Maps for a certain venue I had come across a group in the OKC metro that shows pigeons. Miraculously, I still remembered this later in the evening, so I looked them up and sent an email asking if they ever did tours and what you could do if you visited. It turned out that they aren’t open to the public right now as they are preparing to move to a new building, but the director offered to let me and my children come and gave us our own little tour. We even got to touch a real pigeon! Reading about pigeons was fine by itself, but getting to see them close up in real life took learning to another level and was an experience my son wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t asked.
Last week we traveled to the Pensacola Dam on Grand Lake to take a tour. When someone suggested I look into these tours I went to their website and saw that tours were given every day…between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I went ahead and asked, and lo and behold, the summer tours are always given, but they also will arrange tours during the rest of the year—if you ask. Ahem. So we went and had a wonderful tour and the kids got to learn about how a great deal of electricity is made in our part of the state.
Now that the year is starting to wind down it’s a great time to think about field trips as a way to wrap up what you’ve learned (and before the weather gets too hot). Of course the regular spots like the zoo and the Sam Noble Museum and the Science Museum are all great, but think about places off the beaten path that might be fun and educational. You might be surprised about what’s out there if you just take a few minutes to ask!