Hannah's first field trip

I chaperoned Hannah's first class field trip on Monday. We rode the school bus (Hannah's first bus ride!) to Rodgers' Farm which is just a few miles west of the school. Hannah and I visited this farm last year (I can't find that post though or I'd link to it), and although we enjoyed it, we think Weber's is a lot more fun.

We started our tour in front of the giant corn maze where our guide explained in far more detail than was necessary for a group of 3- and 4-year-olds all of the various uses for corn and how many food products it's found in. He held up a box of Trix, which I know Hannah has never seen before, and a bottle of corn syrup explaining that although the kids might not know what it is, it's in all the sweet stuff they eat. The other mom's and I kept exchanging smiling/shocked glances. Parts of his presentation were far too advanced for that age group (even I was bored) and parts just did not apply to a lot of the kids at the school, and certainly not my kid who doesn't even get the multi-grain O's cereal more than every couple months (the boxes go stale in our cupboard).  Everyone had a good sense of humor about it, but it was definitely not tailored to the Montessori lesson plan. Toward the end of the corn presentation, prior to taking the kids in to the first checkpoint of the maze, he asked that the little boys all remember not to run. Someone yelled out "and girls!" and he corrected his comment to include girls. If he'd seen how insanely quickly Hannah ran through the other mazes we've taken her to, he wouldn't have singled out the boys on that one.

We traipsed through a bit of the corn maze and then headed over to the animals. The cow walked right over to the fence to wait for the pumpkin the guide threw over for it snack on. Prior to that, Hannah tried to feed it an ink pen that she'd pulled out of the dirt when we first arrived. I pocketed the pen.

I'm not really sure what was said about the animals; it was absolutely freezing outside, and we were losing interest.

After the animals we walked into the pumpkin patch and the kids all picked a small pumpkin to take home. On our way to the tractor ride, Hannah hopped behind the wooden corn cob and asked me to take a picture.

After the tractor ride it was play time, and this, obviously, was the highlight of the visit. Hannah ran and jumped all over the stacked up hay bales, and then came home and continued jumping off of things, like our bed. Eric cautioned her about jumping from so high up, and she replied "It's okay, I'm a good jumper."

While watching her run around the hay bales, one of the other moms in her classroom said that she was in the classroom the other day helping with a craft and Hannah was cracking her up. This mom has a young baby, and Hannah clung to that information and talked a lot about it and also about the baby in my belly. At one point, she even told the mom "You can just sit here and relax, and I'll take care of the kids." I think I got that quote right; if not, I'm close. Anyway, the mom said she had to stifle her laughter and was thinking to herself, "aren't you the youngest kid in the class?" Hannah is not actually the youngest--there is one other girl who is 4 days younger than her--but she's close. That sounds like Hannah though. She's incredibly caring and articulate, and also a bit bossy. She gets that from her mama.

Anyway, I'm really grateful to have a flexible job that enables me to take off on a Monday morning to chaperone field trips with Hannah and her class, and I'm looking forward to continue being as  involved as possible in her classroom life.