Field Trips - Not for the Faint at Heart

Yesterday (Thursday, May 24) was quite an experience!  I went on our 4th grade field trip to Monticello.  We had around 44 kids and 15 or so chaperones, plus the teachers (2) and me. 

First of all, I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to get ready and be at school by 5:30.  Bummer.

Then, I tried to be helpful and sit almost at the back of the bus so the teachers wouldn't have to do it.  Most of the parents drove separately although we had around 5 or so on the bus plus the two teachers and me.  This wouldn't have been so bad except that (1) the bus moved around quite a bit back there and (2) we have some kids with bladders around the size of a pea (no pun intended) who used the "convenient" (read "stinky") bathroom on an average of every 10 minutes on the two and a half hour trip there and back.  It didn't matter if we were TWO MINUTES from our destination - if you asked "is it an emergency?", the answer was always "YES"!  Occasionally they could wait, but not often.  You can just imagine how bad it smelled on the way back!!  When a child would come back to use the bathroom, everyone sitting back there would yell "HURRY UP!  SHUT THE DOOR! SHUT THE DOOOOORRRRR!!!!"  This was accompanied by the shirt-over-the-nose look in an effort to minimize the horrible smell emanating from the bathroom the SECOND the door was open.  It was RIPE.  UGH.

On top of all this, they played videos...nothing I wanted to see, but hey, the kids were happy.  I think the movies were "Cinnamon" and "Hop".  They seemed to get louder and louder as time went by and the teachers cranked up the sound because the kids were loud and couldn't hear the movie.  Fun!  I read a book and listened to my good ol' 70's music on my MP3 player.  Thank goodness for MP3's and my husband, who put the music on there!  Of course, I was sitting with one of the students, so every time I got good and settled in my book, she'd make a comment or ask me something.  I didn't mind though - I really didn't!  It was part of why I was there.

We spent most of the day making sure the students didn't spend all their money before they had to buy their supper.  We went to THREE gift shops, so you can imagine all the "valuable" stuff they had to sell that the kids just had to buy!!  One boy spent all but 40 cents!  Of course, there were several ready to step in and help him out along with any others who, unbeknownst to us, had spent their last dime.  Fortunately, they all did pretty well in this area...mainly because we bugged them about it every minute! HA!

I think all the kids had fun - chaperones too!  I know I did!  It was great seeing the interest in their faces and hearing the insightful questions they asked.  They really asked wonderful questions and I was so proud of them!