Dylan was definitely lower on energy than normal last week, but he’s such a trooper it’s really hard to gauge just how awful he’s feeling. He’d been so energetic on Tuesday morning, we thought he was ok for school. He lasted the whole day, but really spiraled downward after class and he lasted not even an hour in his after-school program.
After skipping another day of school, we thought he might be ok to go his class’s field trip to the Aquarium. I was originally slated to drive, but then we were taken off the list in case we couldn’t make it. As it turns out, one of hte other parents flaked out, so we “inherited” 2 girls that were originally traveling with another parent.
These were super sweet girls, one of them is new to the school (and when I asked if she lived close by, she said she didn’t know and that she lived in the shelter) and, within minutes, I discovered that she gets car sick and that her grandmother doesn’t let her in her car (luckily, I managed to find a plastic bag and a box for her to hold on her lap). Neither of the girls had ever been to the Aquarium before and they were soo excited! One kept asking (aproximately every 60 seconds) if we could go see something else and the other kept on running up ahead without us! Despite the anxiety of managing divergent kiddie interests and the fear of returning to the school without one (and fearing that Dylan’s own interests were getting deprioritized–and, honestly, they were. After all, he’s been there several times and we could always go back with our passes), we did have some fun!
We started out tagging along with Dylan’s friend Maya, her mom, and her mom’s other charge. She used to work there as a researcher so we figured she’d have interesting commentary, observations, inside knowledge, etc.
Sure enough, she decided to head straight upstairs to the penguins instead of staying with the rest of the pack downstairs (upstairs would get very busy later on!). So, we were right in front to see the penguin feeding (learned lots about penguins, too– only 5 out of 17 species live in cold weather! They do projectile defecation, shooting their poop up to 3 feet away (so they don’t have to wander far from their nest)! )
While we were up there, we also went into the Splash Zone and we saw another feeding in the Big Ocean exhibit!
Before heading back to meet the group for lunch, I made sure to take them to the aviary (their program was supposed to focus on fins and feathers) where we did what was asked in my Chaperone pamphlet: find birds with various characteristics, and Kamila pet the bat ray. And, we watched the waves break over us (I love that part!)
After lunch, we visited the Jellies exhibit and saw the seahorses.
I have been volunteering in Dylan’s classroom regularly, but I have not been doing much in the way of “academic” stuff. Sometimes, I walk around and help kids sound out words for their journal writing, but usually, I’m there for projects. So, I was very surprised to find that neither of the girls in my group could read yet. Also, while all kids agreed they wanted to listen to the Magic Treehouse audiobook in the car, only Dylan was following the story and catching the funny parts.
It was an interesting experience overall. I got some perspective on Dylan’s abilities and I continue to be grateful for the diversity (such as it is) at his school.
