Field Trip

Summer is almost here! The girls are wrapping up their school year activities with end of the year celebrations.

Lauren took her last kindergarten field trip to the Japanese House in Fairmount. Each month the kindergarteners took a different trip and this one was sort of the culmination. They learned all about Japan for about two weeks and then experienced it for themselves at the House.

Sophie had an art show of the different works that she did at the Narberth Handwork Studio. She took a fiber arts course where she sewed some pillows and a sewing machine class where she made a skirt. She loved that one so much she’ll be heading to a fashion camp this summer.

And Sophie also had her first Girl Scouts camping trip. Her troop went to a camp ground about an hour from our house where they earned badges hiking, learning how to use a compass, cooking dinner, and learning about nature. Dave was a chaperone… and Lauren and I slept wonderfully in our beds at home 😉

Sophie also did a program called Girls on the Run this spring, where, for two days each week for an hour and a half each day, she learned to run as well as did a lot of girl empowerment activities. The culmination was a 5K in May. She needed to have a running buddy with her so that was me. It was a hot day and she was tired, but we did it in 48 minutes. She was really proud of herself when it was done, and so were we. We can also definitely say she is not the runner in this family – at least not at the moment.

A few days later I ran in the Philly Broad Street Run, which is a 10 mile race. This was the 6th time I’ve done it and I got a personal best time, with a time of 1:22:55! It rained the whole race, but wasn’t that cold, so not so bad.

And finally Dave and I got dressed up for a black tie fundraiser for Temple University Trauma Center. We were invited as guests of the Gift of Life Family House, a board that I sit on.

Still up – Lauren’s spring ballet recital and Sophie’s spring choir concert – which are of course are at the exact same time in just a few weeks. We’re going to have to draw straws to decide who goes to which.

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The girls are both settled into their school routines and for Lauren that means that field trips start. Kindergarten is the culmination year for Montessori students and the kindergarteners take a field trip once a month. I was chaperone for the first one, which was to a Colonial Plantation at Ridley State Park. The plantation is run just as it was in the 1700’s (with the excepting of working toilets, fortunately).

Here’s Lauren performing one of the traditional children’s chores – chopping wood. I can say with certainty that if we needed to rely on our kids for warmth we would be dead.

They also made their own candles by dipping a wick into a pot of melted bee’s wax (about a hundred times).

The Plantation also had a bunch of animals that the kids got to see and pet.

 

Chickens, turkeys, and an enormous ox. The ox works the fields just as he would have hundreds of years ago. Fortunately they don’t eat any of the animals any more.

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It was a great school year! Lauren’s first in the Toddler House and Sophie’s last as a pre-schooler. Lauren loves her class – I’m so happy she’ll have the same teachers again next year.

Water transfer

Cutting cheese and giving the stink eye to anyone even thinking about taking it

With a friend

Sister love in the hallway. One of the teachers caught this cute scene.

End of year ice cream social
I volunteered to be a parent helper for Earth Day (actually, Dave volunteered, and then and to travel, so I took his place. Although I knew worms were involved, I agreed anyway). We did a lot of planting in the courtyard. 
Sophie with her posse: Liora, Claire, Beatrice and Else.

And the 3 Amigos: Sophie, Liora & Claire
I also volunteered to be a chaperone for Sophie’s class trip to City Hall. 
All 28 kids and 6 adults took the City Bus to get there. I will tell you that not everyone on board was so happy about this. But the kids had a blast. 

Once we got there we got to go all the way to the top of the Tower, which is something they only recently started letting people do. The elevator to get up there, and the space to observe is small, so each parent went with just 5 kids. It was a pretty cool view. 

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