Field Trip

One thing I always try to avoid volunteering for is field trips. When the girls were in preschool and kindergarten I went to all of them because I thought 1:1 or 2:1 ratio was important at that age. But, once they hit 1st grade I avoided them. Kids are over excited about being out of school and either under or over stimulated by the venue. All this leads to bad behavior and the last thing I want to do is discipline someone else's child. That said, Marcy has had me as a chaperone on a disproportionate number of field trips compared to the other girls. It's a combo of the youngest child and teachers knowing I have nothing better to do!!

Yesterday Marcy's class attended the Calgary Children's Festival - a free, open-air street fair at the downtown Olympic Plaza with arts and crafts, games, and educational presentations. You can imagine the number of kids that were out there, especially since the weather was good. Not my ideal field trip but I had just three girls to keep track of and they were very well behaved and cooperated with each other on what to do next. Here are Marcy and her classmates Kyra and Mia building with straws:

Their favorite part of the day was when I agreed to buy them some ice cream. It was a great way to end the day and used up the last twenty minutes before getting on the bus (and I got to sit and relax while they licked away!)