Friday, June 08, 2007
  
Yesterday Hunter's second grade class had their field trip to the beach and of course, I went with. Honestly, I wasn't very excited about going on this field trip. With Hunter's diabetes and epilepsy the school almost always wants me or Mark to go on Hunter's field trips. Either that or they have to hire a school nurse to go with and they really don't like to do that. And because Mark holds a steady job and is the sole breadwinner around here, I'm usually the one that goes. Which is fine with me except that this year I feel like I've been on a lot of field trips. The last second grade trip I went on the kids chanted "honk, honk, honk, honk" at the top of their lungs the entire 45 minutes we were on the bus, trying to make every truck that passed by beep their horn. And that wasn't so bad except that even when there wasn't a truck in sight they would still scream, just in case they missed one. And that was just one way. By the time I got home my head hurt. . . bad. And I'm not whimpy. I mean, I do live in a house with six small children. I can't remember the last time I really experienced peace and quiet. So I have a pretty high threshold for noise. But this was extreme. And I suppose if I'm gonna have a babysitter come and watch all of my kids, there are a whole lot of other things I'd rather do than chaperone 60 eight year old kids while they wade through a whole bunch of sand and seaweed.
With all that said, I must admit, I had a really wonderful time with these 60 second graders, wading through a bunch of seaweed and sand. And I hope I can go again when Noah goes in two years. And again with Denver. I felt like a kid again, searching in the sand and tide pools and razor grass looking for little creatures. We got to see a seahorse--a real live one in its natural habitat. We found snails, shrimp, mussels, minnows, and all kinds of crabs. We watched snails race, had popsicles and lunch on the beach, and dug a hole almost all the way to China. And minus the sunburn I brought home on my face, it was completely painless, even the bus ride! And while it seemed like Hunter already knew it all (what great second grade teachers he's got), I learned all sorts of new things, including what an estuary is and how mussels reproduce. It felt good to learn something new. I gotta do that more often. And I guess the next time I have to go on a field trip with Hunter I won't complain so much. Instead I think I'm going to look forward to it.
My favorite quote of the day happened when Mrs. B had all sixty kids lined up and was getting ready to walk them down to the water. Some of the kids got excited and started walking down before she was ready, causing the line to go skewumpus. At that point Mrs. B. shouted, "Hey! You guys just broke a rule that I haven't told you about yet!" Too bad that doesn't work for parents. Or does it? Can you punish kids for breaking rules you haven't told them about yet?
posted by Shana # 5:21 PM 
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