Suggestions for Parent Involvement

Parent involvement is essential for the success of your overnight field trip to Hidden Villa. There are several different ways in which you will need the collaboration of the parents of your students.

1. Permission Slips: All parents need to feel comfortable sending their child to spend the night at Hidden Villa. In my experience, this can be particularly difficult in families that are unaccustomed to being in wilderness areas or sleeping apart from the family.
2. Preparing Students: Parents need to understand what their children need to pack for the overnight trip. This includes making sure each child has sheets for the sleep-over and warm clothes for the evening program. Parents also need to understand what an eco-healthy lunch is, to be able to support their children in preparing for the day trip.
3. Parent Volunteers: This trip cannot happen without parent/adult volunteers. If a parent cannot volunteer, older siblings, cousins, aunt/uncles or friends (age 18 or older) can volunteer in their place.

Send home an info sheet about the field trip well in advance. Describe the field trip and your expectations of parent involvment. You may want to hold an evening presentation to introduce parents to the field trip. For this presentation you could share pictures from previous Hidden Villa trips or present the video introduction my students and I put together (see the Introduction to the Parents webpage). If you have parents who are particularly reluctant to allow their child on the field trip I recommend:1) calling home to address the parents' concerns, 2) connecting these parents with parents of students who have participated in the program, and 3) suggesting that they look through the Parent and Kids sections of this Hidden Villa Classroom curriculum.