On Being a Field Trip Mom (and 4 Reasons You Should Be One Too)

Just before the boy started Fall Break,  I did something I’ve never done before. I was a driver/chaperone for a field trip to the fantastic Holliday Park for the Fox’s class.

I mean, I’ve been on field trips before, obviously. But I’ve never been just a parent on a field trip.

It’s kind of delightful.

Listening intently to the naturalist.

The teachers told me who to take. The teachers told me where to go. All I needed to do was herd my gaggle of boys there. I should say, that even though it rained the entire time we were there, the group had a fun time. Once the thunder stopped, we actually hiked in the woods, in the rain, for a good 45 minutes. It’s not anything I would have normally done with my kids, which made the experience even better.

Out in the rain, watching the rain.

Here are few more reasons why you should say YES! the next time you have the chance to chaperone:

1) You get to see your child in his element up close.

2) You get to see his friends in their element, up close.

3) Mostly, your job is to keep track of a few children. It’s oddly a whole lot easier than keeping track of your own children in public.

4) Your kid will grin ear-to-ear, if you catch them young enough. I imagine that in junior high, nothing is more embaressing than your mom chaperoning a trip. But at four? Having your mom right there while you check out a frog is pretty much the best thing ever.

FROG.

 

Somebunny Followed Me Home

I’m not exactly sure how it happened.

I was standing at the Fox’s school, waiting for him to come out on Friday afternoon, when an announcement was made- Freckles, the class bunny, needed a home for the weekend. Some how, this weekend was overlooked on the sign up sheet, and Freckles needed a place crash for the weekend.

I looked off into the parking lot.

One nanny said no for the family she picks up.

I looked down at my shoes.

One mom said they were already signed up for the following weekend.

I looked up- and people were looking at me.

“Um, I guess we can take the bunny. What do we have to do?”

“I’ll email you an instruction sheet! Let me go get the cage and the tote!”

The cage fit in the trunk of the van perfectly.

Rabbits don’t actually make any noise (more on this to come in upcoming post).

Their poo is small & non-stinky.

They don’t eat much.

But still. There was pressure.

There was pressure to be sure that Freckles was returned in the same condition (plus clean cage) on Monday morning.

Could we do it?

BgK and I, at times, doubted ourselves. We used twitter to enlist a professional in case we needed him.

Thankfully, all went well. We did learn a few things however:

 

That said, it was a fun weekend, and really not a huge inconvenience. And there were some adorable moments:

 

I’m pretty sure it’s moments like this one that keep Freckles welcome on the preschool circuit. Even if he did chew our wireless router/modem power cord on his way out the door this morning.

Happy Fall (or Autumnal Equinox)

Happy Fall! Like Mother Nature knows or something, the air turned this week and suddenly, it feels like fall.

I mentioned awhile back how in love I am with the Fox’s preschool. I can’t help myself, there’s something magical about the place.

On Thursday morning, the Fox and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up apple cider. See, his class was having an Autumnal Equinox celebration, and they needed something to drink.

“We celebratin’, Mom.”

“You are? What are you celebrating?”

“De earf. It spins and spins. And then, we get a treat!”

“It spins and spins?”

“Yes! And we get muffins!”

You can’t really argue with that, can you?

Today, he attended the celebration. I was home with MaM, so I didn’t get to see the decorations, but he tells me they were fancy. When I asked him what he did today to celebrate fall, he told me he celebrated the equinox, and he made a bird feeder.

“How did you make a bird feeder?”

“I take de icing and put it on my pinecone. De birds like de icing!”

“Did you roll it in birdseed?”

“Yes. They like birdseeds too.”

So welcome, autumn! The fox and his friends are ready for you. *

 

And for those of you who need a refresher on what, exactly the autumnal equinox is, I defer to Wikipedia:

An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth‘s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length.

At an equinox, the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the vernal point and the autumnal point. By extension, the term equinoxmay denote an equinoctial point.

An equinox happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location (the subsolar point) on the Earth’s equator, where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year.

Although the word equinox is often understood to mean “equal [day and] night,” this is not strictly true. For most locations on earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night are closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the “equiluxes” to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time, but equiluxes are days. By convention, equiluxes are the days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart.[2][3]