Blog #3 - Field Trips

Ahh, daycare field trips. Where do I begin on expressing my love/hate relationship with them? I'll begin with the love...

I love field trips, because it gets the kids out of the house, doing something different, and its really exciting to see a group of kids experience the world. When I first started daycare we would make a weekly trip to Godfather's Pizza. Nothing too big, I wasn't used to groups of children, after all. Godfather's was great! They have an all you can eat buffet (only .75/year of age for the kids), a ball pit, games and did I mention all you can eat buffet? We LOVE pizza! The kids would get their plates, eat crazy fast, and run, play and expend so much energy. Nap time after Godfather's was soooo peaceful! It wasn't uncommon for three hours of silence to fall upon my house. I would clean, read, dance, do flip flops, repair the roof, those kids were OUT COLD. See where the love comes in?

Now that the weather is nice again, and my number of children fit well into my Mini (van, that is, but just calling it Mini sounds SO much cooler), we have spent many days taking fun field trips. During the summer the local theater has FREE (that's right, free) kids movies on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I join a good daycare friend, we score our row of seats, and for 90 minutes the kids become engrossed in the film. Today, it was "Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs." So they aren't free new movies, but I love FREE and now that Toy Story 3 is coming out, the kids are all trained in sitting still in a theater setting. See, parents, I'm doing you a favor! We like to follow the movie with a park pic nic, and even possibly some spray park fun (we LOVE the spray park, and try to go at least once a week, movie or no movie), but sometimes, this isn't possible. That's where the hate comes in...

Recently, my house has passed around Fifth Disease. It's not as bad as it sounds, really. The unfortunate things about Fifth Disease are: 1) its contagious, but by the time you know you have it, you aren't contagious anymore; and 2) the child infected with Fifth breaks out into a HORRIBLE rash, looks like they've been slapped across the face (which, for a daycare provider, proves to get many looks from outsiders). The rash isn't always visible, but intensifies in heat, sun or stressful situations. Which creates a problem for summer fun in the sun... Which creates eager children that are locked indoors... Which creates attitudes toward one another that need to be broken... Which makes a field trip very stressful!

Keeping up with five children at once in public can cause anyone to go a little wild. But when those five children have been couped up in a house with one another, they are ready to pounce on the field trip freedom like a tiger hunting buffalo in the wild. They sense the freedom (field trip? I like me a field trip!), see it through the tall grass (we're riding in the mini, we're getting closer to the theater), crouch down low (I better promise to be on my best behavior, because Maegan said we would never do this again if I wasn't), creep up on the buffalo ever so quietly (better find my seat and be still with my snuck in popcorn), and... wait for it... shhhhhh, the movie's beginning.... POUNCE! "He's kicking my seat!" "She drank my milk!" "I want more popcorn!" "He spit at me!" "She threw my shoe!" "They won't keep their hands off MY arm rest!" "I wanna sit alone!"
"Mamamamamamamamamama!" "MMMMMMMIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEE!" "I lost my shoe!" "I REALLY have to go potty." "Are we going to the park after this?" "Our friends are going SWIMMING! We want to go too!"

Needless to say, between the behavior and the rashes, we did not make it to the park today. We did, eventually, enjoy Cloudy, during this sunny day. I also broke down and took them to McDonald's playland. After watching a movie, and being couped up for a week, we needed to RUN! My friend? She took her rash free kids to the pool. I think for the time being, I should focus on behaviors and treating our friends nicely, and maybe take a short field trip to teach about being nice during field trips. And maybe avoid field trips with a cooler babysitter than me. A pool, really? Does anyone have success stories on teaching behavior to wild tigers, err, children?