The Garden School Tattler

The first week of summer was encouraging. We're swamped! That's a good thing.

Our field trip was to Lincoln's Boyhood home - one of my favorites. The farm was really at rest on Friday - it was hot and muggy and the animals stayed in the barns for the longest time. But finally, "the man" arrived and hitched up the horses, and the kids got to watch and then they got to pet the horses. It's always funny to me to see the children just arrive at a site like Lincoln and not have a clue about what to do, and whine and snivel about it being hot and about being thirsty and tired and snivel, snivel, and then little by little they get their bearings and begin to find real kid things to do and finally participate like children of every age. On the hike back there was a huge king snake that tried to cross the path. Our kids were delighted.

We had an outstanding picnic and the children ate and ate. We are using tortillas for sandwich bread and the children really like this. It's small, light, and tastes good. We had a choice of tuna, egg, crab and chicken salad, peanut butter with or without honey, bologna and or cheese, pickles, carrots, apples, raisins, chips, cookies and milk. They got to choose what they liked, and they thought that was fun and they ate most of it, so I suppose they were hungry.

The bus ride home was good because Miss Kelly made a seating chart and it worked well. The bus rides are long and the children must remain seated. But it's an adventure many of them will not get a chance to do again, so it's worth the sit. Besides, the youngest love riding Miss Sandy's bus.

Monday is in school. Tuesday we're supposed to venture over to the pool, but it's supposed to be in the seventies and that's too cold to swim, and it's supposed to be 90 on Friday, so we may swap days. Depends on Miss Sandy. We will post any changes on the parent board.

Wednesday we will swim again, and then on Thursday it's in school. Friday we will go either swimming or to the Zoo. On the field trip schedule, we're supposed to go to New Harmony, but I called and they have this outstanding thing on the 15th, so I booked and we'll just go to the zoo this week instead. Changes changes.

Please make sure children are in bed by 8:00 on Thursdays because field trips are really hard if a child is sleep deprived. In fact, if a child is really sleep deprived, he shouldn't be in school. It's considered an illness. Most of our children are in rotten shape. Too much sitting in air conditioning and not enough outdoors. The absence of outdoor play is obvious when a child can't take a 1/4 mile walk in the woods without complaining and wanting to be carried. We have a two mile trip through the caves in July. That ought to wear them out!

Socks and shoes are best on Mondays and Thursdays. Sandals for Tuesday and Wednesday and Socks and shoes are a must for Field trips.

Signing off