Field Trip

At the beginning of the school year I had high hopes about taking the kids to Lansing for a daylong field trip. This is, after all, the Lansing year in our Montessori curriculum. So to make that happen I started calling the Capitol tours number last September. In the past I scheduled the tour five months before we went. I called a number, the phone was answered, the tour was scheduled…simple right?

Not this time. As soon as school started I looked up the phone number, checked the capitol tours web page and called the number. Hmm. In September the number was consistently busy. In October the number was busy, and in November I still hadn't gotten through. At this point I started faxing capitol tours several times a week. (At one point I even asked a 5^th grader to spend her 20 minutes of volunteer time hitting the redial button.) At the end of January I did finally receive an answer; we were on a waiting list. Not yet worried I contacted the tour group again, (by fax) thinking they'd be able to find a space for our small group. In February I did finally speak to a real person. I explained about the incredibly frustrating phone calls, the months of calling, and the size of our group. After being accused of calling a wrong number (Not so…I did call the phone numbers listed on their website) I was informed that the tour schedules 12 months out; no more, no less. The group size? Didn't matter.

Since then I have tried to get us hooked to a tour but unfortunately, I have had no luck. We have been unable to get a tour scheduled for this year. For the 3^rd and 4^th graders this simply means we will be going next year. For the 5^th graders it is another story and I am very sorry about that. I had absolutely no idea that scheduling the tour would be so difficult, given how easy it was last time. Going from five months/easy phone call to months and months of busy signals and finally…no luck. It was very frustrating!

Our class is definitely going to Windmill Island on May 1^st for the Dutch Trade Fair. This is just a wonderful event! Due to the difficulties with Lansing I am looking into a few possibilities for one more field trip, but I can't make any promises. Once again, I would like to apologize for this chain of events. If you have any questions, please let me know.