Friday, May 21, 2010

Herding cats

I chaperoned my second-grader's field trip to the zoo yesterday. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was 78 degrees and breezy. The sun was shining. And there were more than enough chaperones, since we have an over-achieving, hyper-involved group of parents.

I originally thought I would be in charge of a large group of boys. Seven-year-old S told me his class was divided up into animal groups for the field trip and he was an "Arabian sand cat." He said I would be in charge of all the Arabian sand cats. I pictured me, literally, herding cats.



But it turned out that I was only in charge of two boys. So I said, "You guys lead the way and I'll follow." It worked out great. Except for a few unexpected lessons from the lions.

7 yr old boys: "What are they doing?"

Me: "Um, uh, playing piggy-back. Let's move along... Oh, look, poison dart frogs!!"

I was NOT going to teach them anything about that topic!! Let their parents do that job.

5 comments:

Shannon said...

Too funny I am glad it worked out well, except for the lions. It seems like every time we go something like that happens. One time it was the Galapagos Tortoises. Kept hearing what sounded like drums, couldn't figure it out until we go to the tortoises. It was their shells banging together. Told the kids they were trying to play leap frog. That day my son learned that tortoises were stupid! You can't play leap frog with a big heavy shell no matter what Franklin the turtle does on TV.

We won't discuss what he learned form the monkeys and the bears.

I'll Take Mine... said...

Oh, yeah, the monkeys!!!! They are dirty little guys! Luckily their hands were preoccupied by some orange slices yesterday.

Shannon said...

Oranges were NOT what their hands were occupied with, but their hands were indeed occupied and they seemed very very happy. Also responsible grown men instantly revert to 9 year old boys when confronted with a happy monkey with occupied hands.

David L. said...

As a regular zoo-goer, your lion experience is pretty amazing. Generally, zoos keep the males separate from the females unless they are trying to breed, so I consider you lucky though I understand if you don't.

A Daring Adventure said...

ROTFL!!!!

Playing piggy back! That's too hysterical for words!

I don't think quickly on my feet. I would NEVER have pulled that one off!

And Shannon, I just can't even fathom what Dave must have said when confronted with those monkeys! I'm laughing just thinking about it! Dave is such a total stinker.