In Montessori’s original conception of her early casa schools in Italy, she wanted parents to play an integral role.  This is somewhat complicated today with lots of families having two parents working, so as I reflected on how to make this part of Montessori come to life, I thought I would try something a bit different for my practicum class’ field trip: A Family Field Trip.

The idea was simple. Schedule a trip on a Saturday.  Invite families. Bring my own family too.

I chose to go to SFU and attended the always fun Science Rendezvous on May 7th.  It’s a great event and as an added bonus is totally free – even the parking, so it was totally accessible.  I was wondering how many families would come.  Turns out, almost all.  We had nearly 60 people in attendance and 22/26 kids in the class.  Our group represented a significant chunk of attendees at an event that usually draws about 600-1000 people.

I added to the program of the day by arranging a tour of the Sierra Wireless Lab at SFU led by Professor Rodney Vaughan who kindly agreed to give up the better part of his own Saturday to host my class.  I also got to give a bit of a tour of SFU, my old stomping grounds, which focused on STEM.  My goal in that was to demonstrate how science is something that is happening in students’ own backyard.  It is not something that happens far away and also that they were under 10 years from being able to engage in that work themselves.  I suppose 10 years is still along time to an 11 year old, but ‘just beyond high school’ is not that far off.

Overall, the day was a success.  Parents got to chat with each other.  I shared some of my insights from a decade of advising families about university and it was useful: the families largely reported never having stepped foot on SFU’s campus before and wouldn’t have attended had it not been for the organized trip.

The only downside to the model is, of course, my own time (and that of my terrific spouse who attended on her birthday…).  I was really tired all week because I missed my weekend and my planning was behind schedule.

Now the question is: will I do it again.  The answer: probably – it was a great way to connect with parents, see the kids with their families for a longer period of time to gain insight about their home lives and get everyone excited about their class community and the great science that’s happening right at their doorsteps.  Even my spouse said she had a good time :).