can the grocery store be a field trip?

When you are raising young children, every time you leave your house – it’s an adventure.

They’re so curious about all the details of life. The trips that may be mundane to us are still full of wonder to them.

I’m always seeing advertisements and links to websites for homeschooling and classes and projects and activities.

I keep a notebook near the computer where I jot down leads and eventually research them to see if they’ll fit our family.

The most recent one I sat at our old desk and typed into my search engine of choice was fieldtripfactory.com.

It’s a website designed to connect educators with local businesses that offer field trips. I typed in my zip code and up popped three local choices of available field trips.

While I know we don’t live where a chocolate factory or a crayon factory would be an option, I was hoping for something kind of cool to float across my screen.

It didn’t.

My three choices were PetCo, Michael’s and Bi-Lo.

I picked Bi-Lo.  It’s a grocery store.

It was incredibly convenient and I figured this was kind of a test run for me and this website so why travel very far.

The date was scheduled online.  The confirmations were all sent through email.  I picked my times and recorded the date on my calendar without ever actually speaking to an alive-style human person.

Yes, I was skeptical.

Still, I loaded up my adventure-loving children into the car when my calendar said that I should.

I forced Riley to attend with us to increase our numbers. I rallied (convinced, cajoled) my friend to meet us at the appointed hour with her children and her visiting sister-in-law.

And thus our first field trip factory field trip commenced.

The manager met us at the service center. He introduced us to our guide for the day – Ms. Linda.

The kids, who were a little skeptical about touring a grocery store but who were thrilled to hang out with their friends, were easy to win over almost immediately.

Each kid was given a Bi-Lo t-shirt, a cool name sticker that proclaimed their jobs as food inspectors and a magnifying glass for their inspecting duties.

Our tour was based on the concept of nutrition and choosing healthy foods to fill our plates.

We walked through the produce section. The kids marveled at the mist designed to water and freshen the produce. We inspected the meat department, the behind the scenes where your groceries unload from the truck area, the dairy section and the deli – where we were all required to wear hair nets. Only Otto protested the headgear.

We probably spent an hour walking through various areas and answering questions and learning about nutrition.

Our last stop was the small eating area outside the deli. Our kind guide served us a giant fruit tray, which the kids had no problem devouring. The kids answered a few more wrap-up questions and then they all received a fun stash of supplies. Each child received a lightweight backpack, several handouts with mazes and puzzles printed on them and several pieces of fruit.

What I really started as an experiment – is this for real? Will this work? – turned out to be a great morning field trip.

It was fun to meet the workers at a grocery store we regularly frequent. The kids learned some good facts about nutrition and wise food choices. They also had a blast wearing their shirts and badges and trooping through a store with their magnifying lenses.

And all that extra free fruit helped feed those hungry kids lunch. (Actually, delicious smoothies were the end result later at home.)

Field trip factory seems to be a nationwide idea. And you don’t have to homeschool to sign up for an outing.

I’d love to know if any of you have ever used it before or if you do in the future.

I think that it would be a great resource for trips too, whether it’s vacation time or visiting the relatives time. You can just plan ahead, enter in the zip code for where you’re headed, and see what free and creative fun you can have while you’re there.

But until you try it for yourself, I’ll be happy to take the adventures and tell you all about them!