Field Trip

Today, Grandma Naperville came in to care for The Girl and The Tot. And I took a field trip with The Boy's class to the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview. 50 kids, 20 adults and way too many bagged lunches on a smelly yellow bus. As a child, I always lived within walking distance of school, so the thrills of the yellow school bus were reserved for the rare field trip. Fortunately for my children, the same is true for them. I managed to forget how ill a ride on the school bus can make you. Fortunately for me, I was in the first 3 rows and it was not hot.

The Kohl put on a good program. We got there, ate lunch in a program room, had an hour to explore in groups (I asked child in my group to pick one area that s/he really wanted to explore and we hit all 5 in our free time), had a 45-minute session with the museum-provided educator, and then had 1/2 hour of free time again. During our education session, the kids read a book about birds' nests, drew bird's nests and made bird's nests out of clay and bits of string, feathers, etc. They were totally grossed out by the clay; they should see me when I come home from pottery: I've usually got clay in my hair, on my face, all over my clothes, stuck to the bottom of my shoes. It was a fun day, but tiring.

Jammin with Julie

Yesterday, I asked The Tot if he wanted to jam with Julie. He nodded "yes" very enthusiastically. We got there for the tail end of the 10 a.m. class and stayed for the beginning of the 11 a.m. class. The Tot was very participatory in the classes, which is extremely unusual for him, but Miss Julie commented that she was happy to see it!

This week marks the end of the fall session, but you can sign up for the next session, held January 7 - April 22, 2009 at Irving Park Lutheran Church, by calling Julie Helenius directly at 773-267-7607 or e-mailing her at jtjujubee@aol.com. The 16-week session is $192, which represents a bit of a price break over the Old Town School's Wiggleworms classes ($240 for a 16-week session), which are similar to Miss Julie's classes.