Round Two of Fall Semester Field Trips

Only the girls got to have two field trips this semester.

Both girls got to go on a second field trip this semester! M went with her class to the historic port on the north side of town, and E got to go to an insect musuem. I never even heard of insect museums. But apparently some teacher at some local high school had this massive collection of insect stuff and he left it all to the school as a legacy, and now it's an insect museum. Seriously. People here are really into insects though, I've stopped thinking that it's just something funny about isolated people. The other parents were really into it too! Apparently it's just me that's grossed out by insects. Anyway I tried to control myself enough that I could support the scientfic endeavor of the students. I think I managed it well enough.

At first E's teacher said parents weren't allowed to come, and I was devastated because I still hadn't been on a field trip with her. But apparently what she meant was that I couldn't ride the bus with them, but I could get there myself. Well, that's another thing! Lucky for me, the insect museum was just down the street from where H needed to spend the day. So he dropped me and K off to join E and when I was done, E took the bus back to school while I joined H for a lunch out. It worked out perfectly! And as always, going on a trip with the class gives you extremely valuable insight into the class dynamics. It was a great time! Apart from the insects, anyway...

With M's class, the rest of fourth grade was going to the same historic fort that we visited over the summer, but since everyone in M's class had already been there on their own, the teacher decided to take them to an even older fort that I hadn't heard of before. It was much more like a true fort, you know with ramparts and a trench and just huge piles of earth to deflect cannon fire. It was pretty cool. As always, I learned tons about the history of the area. I'm telling you M's teacher is like a walking encyclopedia. Anyway, it was a pretty good day, and the weather turned out to be perfect. It's also always such a treat to get to know some of the other parents and hear about why they chose this school and what they like about it. When we first started here, I thought I must be in a honeymoon period with it all, but the longer my kids attend this school, the happier I get. It's so wonderful to see them gaining such rich life experience!

Plus there's no way on earth I could have taught E that much about bugs myself.