So, yesterday and today we decided to take Elsa out of school to help her with her home school jitters. She is naturally worried about being unable to make friends and so we took her to a local farm who were hosting a field trip for home schooled children in the area. At the farm she met a number of children of varying ages*. On the following day there was a beach trip to Mundesley with another family and their children.

The key motivator for Elsa on the Mundesley trip turned out to be a real winner: the night before I looked at a map of Mundesley, looked at the Wiki Page and hey presto about an hour later I had written some ‘Field Trip Questions’ suitable for an eight year old. There were questions about a (provided) map of the area, a list of buildings to find on the map and then take a photograph of to prove she could find them physically. There were also some research items which I had made sure she could find in her children’s dictionary and even a question that required some colouring-in.

In total there were ’20 points’ available for 100% correct completion of the questions and a scale of rewards based upon the number of points gained. The whole points for rewards thing was a real winner and very popular. I will at some point upload the sample quiz but I must say that for selected activities, providing points in this way (which can be saved and traded in for certain rewards) was a really good idea.

*Right there is an answer to the social concerns. She’s already having to deal with a broader range of children.