Field Trippin'

May and June signal the end of the school year which only means one thing: Field Trips! Yes, folks, it is time to board a bus, pay admission, keep track of a gaggle of kids that aren't yours, and explore the world around you!  I. Love. It.

My first adventure of field trip season was with the precious (and often times precocious) kindergartners in Mrs. Francis' class.

 

Trinity and all of her kindergarten crew were over the moon to visit the Gwacheon National Science Museum on the outskirts of Seoul-- and I had the distinct honor of chaperoning Trin and her friend Abby on our 3 hour tour.  Fossils and frogs, trains and terrariums, planets and playgrounds, it was a smorgasbord of science....and we ping-ponged from one exhibit to the next as only 6 year olds know how to do!

Hands down, our favorite exhibit was a tank full of "Dr. Fish", which are little minnow-like fish that gently nibble on your fingers to remove dead skin cells. I know it sounds creepy, but it actually tickles-- and in any nail salon worth its salt in Korea, they offer the Dr. Fish treatment.  (And, yes, its on my "Korea bucket-list" to get a pedi with the Dr. Fish, so this was a great way to ease into that experience!)



The girls had a great time exploring, and it was amazing to see how little the language barrier slowed them down.  Apparently, the appeal of a beautiful butterfly, the awe inspired by a giant rocket, and the fascination with skeletons is universal and needs no translation!





JP's class took a jaunt down the road to the Korean Folk village in nearby Suwon.  Thanks to a family day instituted by our wing commander, there were TWO Markowski parents on the field trip-- a first, I think, in our 14 years of parenting! 

There were all kinds of first grade energy running through the village that day-- and we were blessed to be in charge of three gems who were eager to learn, and run, and ooh and ahh at all the cool heritage from horseback riding, to kimchi pots and old stone grain grinders.  


There is something amazing about seeing things from a kids perspective....simplicity is beautiful and the world is still so inspiring.  It was such a gift to see this culture through their eyes-- we both left feeling like Korea had been revealed in a whole new light.


The trip that wrapped up the year was to a local petting zoo/farm with Lance's third grade class. My friend and fellow Fiednette, and I, had the distinct pleasure of chaperoning 4 of the most polite and well-behaved 3rd grade boys on the face of the planet. (Any mom will tell you that polite and well-behaved don't usually go together when describing boys of the third grade age group!) While most of the other chaperones were herding their groups around like cats in a farm yard, ours processed from one enclosure to the next with the restraint of a well-trained team of Clydesdales....you knew that there was lots of power in there-- power that could be wild-- but power and energy they harnessed beautifully.

There were sheep and rabbits, donkeys and peacock, horses and cows-- oh, my! Not wild by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely fun.  




I mean, how often can you stick your fingers deep into the wool of a young sheep or feed hay to a horse right out of the palm of your hand?  

The day gave the kids a great chance to relax at the end of a busy school year.  I'm pretty sure the highlight of the trip for the boys was a stop at the cafe for iced coffee drinks-- yes, we voluntarily paid for the boys to consume both sugar and caffeine, but it WAS 90 degrees outside, and they did have plenty of time and space to run it off!