Field Trips are so much fun

I've been lucky this year to go on a field trip with each of the boys. I went to the Field Museum with Brendan's class and just last Friday I went to Cantigny with Matt's class. (probably my last field trip with him, boohoo) I've always wanted to go to Cantigny and never have surprisingly. (after college one man wanted to conduct a job interview there which creeped me out so I instead met him at a mall and wasn't interested in his job opening anyway) Cantigny was very interesting. I never knew anything about it except that it was known for its wonderful gardens. There is so much history there! It's the Estate of Colonel Robert R. McCormick (1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army) whose family helped make the Chicago Tribune the World's Greatest Newspaper. The kids just learned about World War I so this was the perfect educational and fun field trip. They loved climbing on the tanks and going through the war museum which kinda made you feel like you were right in the trenches. http://www.cantignypark.com

Differences in chaperoning a 3rd Grade Field Trip vs. a 5th Grade Trip

1. Brendan sat with me on the bus; I sat alone on Matt's field trip.
2. The third graders sang at the top of their lungs the whole way back from Chicago; the fifth graders were pretty quiet and instead played competitive games like "which group of kids on each side of the bus could get the most waves and honks from the other drivers on the road." From now on, I will wave and honk if kids on a bus encourage it. I never knew how much it makes their day:)
3. Third graders talk about nothing mostly; fifth graders start talking about girls . . . yikes! By all the tanks there was a sign telling about it, how fast it went, what type of tank it was, etc. One sign had the word "hotchkiss" on it. It means a rapid firing gun I think, but one of the boys started telling everyone that this tank shoots out hot chicks! I couldn't believe it!
4. The third graders listened pretty well to me when I gave them directions; the fifth graders seemed to have a hard time hearing as I had to repeat myself several times. Okay, the third grade field trip was indoors and the fifth grade trip was both indoors and outdoors. Maybe the fresh air had something to do with it.
5. Third grade trip I had 4 boys in my group; fifth grade trip I had 7! That's alot of boys!

Thanks to Kevin who was able to stay home with Kamryn. Thanks to my mom too since she came over to stay with Kamryn in the afternoon while Kevin went to be the mystery reader in Brendan's class. It was something I committed to before the field trip came up. Brendan was happy to see his dad though.