Field Trip Day..

otherwise known as Head Count Day.  Today, I accompanied the 4th grade class on a field trip to the San Juan Capistrano Mission, along with a couple of hundred 4th grade students from other schools.

These feet were made for walking

I take my job as chaperone pretty seriously and have attended every single field trip my kids have had except for one.  What about the one field trip I missed, you ask?

Well that happened way back when Son 1 was in Kindergarten.  The class visited a pumpkin patch. When my neighbor picked Son 1 up from school (we have a walk pool) she immediately noticed that he looked sick and was wearing his sweatshirt zipped all the way up in the 90 degree heat. Come to find out, Son 1 walked around in 90 heat, with his sweatshirt on, with no water to drink the entire duration of the field trip.  He tried to get his teacher's attention to tell her something was wrong, but was not able to speak he was feeling so bad.

Once I got him home, I gave him a cool bath and rehydrated him with water.  It took several hours for him to recover and I seriously considered taking him to the ER for fluids.  Once he was feeling better, I got mad.  Really, really mad.  I talked to the teacher and the principal about the total lack of supervision and attention paid to my son, and probably many other children as well.  I made a pretty big stink.  The Principal agreed that there had been serious problems and promised to make changes.

Fast forward 4 years and all the teachers know they can count on me to chaperone.  I don't care if I have to drive myself or pay my own way.  I will be there. 

Today I had 14 kids in my group all of whom were pretty well behaved.  After a few dozen head counts, blocking doorways and herding cats we had a successful trip.  Son 1's favorite part of the trip, the Koi pond.  My favorite part?  Students asking if I was going to be their chaperone :)