Children in the corn

Sawyer's preschool class is fun this year. He is bringing home so many things that they're learning (songs, alphabet games, artwork, etc.), and he can tell me about what they do so much more than in past years.

One fun thing: His class is going on several field trips, and parents get to (and are even encouraged) to come along. The first trip was to J. Razz and Tazz Farm, which has hayrides, corn mazes and more farm-type fun. I jumped at the chance to help shuttle and herd a dozen 3-year-olds at a wide open farm.

The trip was scheduled for a Thursday but it was cold and rainy, so the teachers decided to postpone it.

The next week, at Sawyer's parent-teacher conference, the teachers confessed that they were not sure which child to send with us for the field trip because Sawyer has two girls (who are very close friends) who BOTH want to do everything with him. They often rival for his attention and try to sit beside him in the circle and at lunch.

Anyway, it worked out OK because one of the girls was sick on the rescheduled field trip day. So I hooked up Susan's carseat and after all the kids were loaded into cars, we set off for the farm.

Listening to Susan and Sawyer talk in the backseat was quite funny. They talked about all sorts of stuff and pointed out things we passed.

At the farm, the kids were raring to go, but unfortunately we burned a LOT of play time listening to this painful presentation about all the products that use corn, and the difference between sweet corn versus grain corn. The kids listened up to the point of her saying that corn syrup was in candy. I zoned out when she started throwing out words like biodiesel, ethanol and trans fat.





We then got to go on the hayride, which involved more boring talk about combines and tractors and plows that we passed. But the kids had fun riding, leaning over the rails and throwing hay on each other.







It was about this time that one teacher designated me as “trip photographer” so I worked hard to get a picture of every child. It was a fun challenge for me.



After the hayride, the kids got to climb on a haystack mountain, swing and their favorite activity … swim around in a silo filled with bushels of dried corn kernels. The kids had a ball. I climbed in with them to get pictures, and I showed them how to bury each other with the corn. So much giggling ensued.









We had to tear them away to eat lunch. After lunch, the kids were not happy to leave. But we had to get moving to get back by the end of school and carpool pickup. Each child got to pick out a mini pumpkin to take home.





I played our Halloween songs CD for Sawyer and Susan on the ride back, and we just barely made it by 1 p.m. Susan asked Sawyer to come over for a playdate and then asked me if he could (so cute!)

Luckily, Sawyer and Susan both stay for Spanish on Tuesdays so they weren’t late. And I managed to get them both in the building without getting run over in the street while hauling her carseat. It was a fun day seeing the kids interact and experiencing something new with Sawyer.