Field trip

Jack's class at school goes on field trips occasionally, and after the last one I learned that parents go along sometimes. Work is a little slower for me right now so I said I'd go to the next one. It was today, at the Bruce Museum and its new dinosaur exhibit -- which naturally we'd actually gone to about a month ago. Regardless, I met his class there for the trip.

I got there a few minutes before them and held the door as the class came in. Some of the kids recognized me (Teddy: "Jack, your DADDY IS HERE!"), and then I heard Jack somewhere in the back: "Daddy!" He emerged from the crowd to say Hi. I of course wanted to be both his Dad but unobtrusive, so I greeted him but encouraged him to keep holding his buddy's hand, a little girl who looked a little forlorn at being ditched.

We all stood in the lobby while the museum employee, Miss Caroline, went over the rules. "And what kinds of things don't we do in a museum?" "RUN!!!" "SHOUT!!!!!" "HIT!" "SHOUT!!!!" "That's right...." Every few moments Jack would look over his shoulder at me, turn, and beam. I think he felt proud that his Dad was there. Which was nice.

We went off into the dinosaur room, two by two in file. Everybody sat down at Miss Caroline's request: "Sit criss-cross." They all complied. She began her introductory lecture about dinosaurs, while the kids sat and every once in a while raised their hands eagerly, some shouting out questions or answers ("Wait until I call on you....Oh, I can't hear with all of you talking....That's right......No, dinosaurs didn't eat people.....People hadn't even been born yet....first there were dinosaurs, then they died out, and then people came." "No, GOD made the people!" shouted one little girl. "That's right....")

Jack raised his hand a lot, as did all the kids. Not to get too psychiatrist-y, but it was funny to see some kids eager to give their opinions, raising their hands and speaking as soon as she glanced in their general direction, or shouting out other kids, or staying quiet. Pretty much a full-time job for the teachers: "No, it's Maryn's turn....Yes, now you may speak....Let Miss Caroline speak.....Sit criss-cross...."

When she held up a dinosaur's skull, some kids oohed and aahed, while another said, "Where's the rest of it?" Jack said, to much amusement from the adults, "Did you cut its head off?" That was funny. Jack also said, when he was finally called on, "My Daddy and I found a pteradactyl once!!!" Which was news to me.

After that the kids toured the little room, seeing where you could dig for dinosaurs, seeing the big skeleton, and debating how tall dinosaurs were. "The Brachiasaurus was higher than this museum," said Miss Caroline. "Have you ever seen a school bus? He was as long as TWO school buses put together." Much oohing and aahing. Then they sat down with construction paper and glue sticks and got to build their own dinosaurs, then got crayons to draw the food they ate. Jack made a big plant-eater type, but decided to make him a meat eater: "That's a STEAK," he explained.

The negative of being on field trips is that Jack of course sees me and isn't totally the way he'd be if I weren't there. He wanted me near him, wanted to hold my hand at times, asked me for a drink of water or said he had to go to the bathroom (then changed his mind) -- just the kind of thing that told me he knew I was there.

The positive is that I saw Jack, and he saw me. He thought that was pretty cool. When I left, before he went off to the bus with his class, he came running over and gave me a big hug.

I thought that was pretty cool.