The School Year's First Field Trip (9/21/12)

A bit of background (since I haven't finished the post on where my kids are going to school)... Will attends a charter school that is all project-based small-group learning from about 8 to 12 each day. I pick him up, and usually we come home for lunch, then do about an hour or two of at-home school work. We love this school model, but all that is for another post, too. What is important to THIS post, is that the afternoons are open -- not at school -- and parents work together and with the teachers to plan field trips for the students to enrich their at-school projects and at-home lessons. The first outing was during a science project about recycling and a math project to design an outdoor classroom. One of the parents arranged a tour of the at the fairgrounds to explore the Secret Garden, learn more about country life, explore the wonders of the great outdoors, and learn more about the people involved in agriculture in our community.

I took Ben, Maddie, and Jon out of school a bit early so they could go learn, also. ... and because that was the only way I could pick them up before evening while Will was on the tour. Unfortunately, the tour guide didn't show up because there was some confusion about the date, but we had a good time, and I KNOW the kids learned at least a little bit. It was nice to meet some of the kids Will often tells me about, and I was appreciative that the mom of one of Will's best new friends in his class helped me keep track of Will so I could keep an eye on my ever-exploring kindergartners.

After a few hours at the fair, the kids were begging me to get them the junk food. Though I remember liking all the fried treats when I was younger, I can't even smell it now without getting a bit of a tummy ache. Somehow, I convinced them that Sonic's happy hour would be a better use of our money, so we headed out for slushes and one order of cheese sticks (5 stubby sticks for 5 of us -- perfect!). We took our treats to the park so the kids could run off some of the sugar, then we headed home. The three younger ones fell asleep in the car, but Will waited a few minutes longer.