Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Field Day

Today was Field Day at my son's school. He's in kindergarten so this was my first experience with Field Day as a parent. I know I may sound old when I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. When I was a kid field day was much different. To start, Field day was all day. Today it lasted 90 minutes. (Shouldn't that be called Field hour and a half?)

When I was in school we had teams and each activity had a winner. Today the kids did each activity and there were no teams, no score and no winners.

When I was a kid Field day was always at the end of the school year when it was hot outside. OK, today is the end of the school year, but it was cold and raining today! Guess that has nothing to do with the school. Seriously, today's high is supposed to be 61. Field Day was from 9:30-11:00 this morning. It was about 50 degrees then!

When I was a kid we loved getting wet on Field day. We would toss water balloons and do other water activities. Today, the kids were wet because of the rain. Did you ever do a hula hoop in the rain? Unfortunately, now I have. I know you're probably thinking what could be worse than wet hula hoops? How about that I was given 8 hula hoops and the kids came to me in groups of 20? fun.

The mom next to me was in charge of the parachute. A wet parachute is also a lot of fun! She told me it was getting really heavy towards the end.

On my other side I could see the moms in charge of the 3-legged race. They didn't use something to tie 2 legs together. Instead they used a pillow case and had each child put one leg inside the pillow case. And since kids tend to fall down a lot during a 3-legged race, they had this activity on the sand and dirt section of the playground (aka mud today). So wet pillow cases with muddy shoes being dragged through the mud. Those pillow cases were filthy within minutes. I'm glad I wasn't in the last group of kids who had to use those pillow cases!

Behind me I could see the moms who were in charge of the tug-of-war. This was also done on the mud sand and dirt section of the playground because kids tend to fall while doing tug-of-war. Have you seen the commercials for those new shout wipes to get stains out of your clothes. They could have used a few cases of those next to the tug-of-war.

I was relieved when my time was up and I could finally go inside. They did use the gym for some other activities and the moms who knew better had signed up for those first.

Afterwards they gave out ice cream to all the kids and the volunteers. I passed on the ice cream because my feet were soaking wet and I was slowly turning into a Popsicle myself. All the kids took their ice cream and sat in the rain eating ice cream and shivering. Then the kids were sent back inside.

The kindergarten class are the first ones to eat lunch. Lunch starts at 11:00. So the kids had to hurry up and finish their ice cream so they could get in line for lunch! <> Thank goodness Field day isn't every day and now I'm very glad that Field day is only 90 minutes!

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Y.U.C.K.
I went to Catholic school and field day was a whole day!
I can surely do without it though.
One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you never have to volunteer for somebody ELSE'S idea of a fun day...You get to do your OWN fun stuff whenever you want! Nothing better than going to the zoo or something when all the other kids are in school!
Sorry the weather is so crummy...we have had mid to high 90's and high humidity all week...Thank goodness we got the pool up! I'll send you some heat if you send me some cool...oh yeah, it doesn't work that way ;)
Blessings, E

Michelle said...

Bummer!

We had field day all day when I was a kid. Mister Man had it this year -- the fourth to last day of school. Of course, it turned into the third to last day because of the bad weather. I suppose in your case it didn't matter what day you held it. Here's hoping that summer vacation has better weather!

Jules said...

Yeah and yuk.
Yeah because I remember Field Day. All day. Fun in the hot sun. Races and jumping and all sorts of lovely stuff.
Yuk, because rain is not my friend (uh... I don;t melt but my hair has issues) and I don't think I'd like to do all the stuff you did standing in the pouring rain.

But good for you for doing it! and your little one will thank you for it. So did you get any pictures?