We headed to Rutger's University, Cook Campus, for Jameson's first field trip today. The whole theme was based on "The Little Red Hen". We started by looking at wheat and how it is harvested. Unfortunatley the leader was a soft spoken and rather unenthusiastic man. He did show the kids how to use a scythe and other ancient tools of the harvest. One thing he failed to mention was the fact that no one uses those things anymore. Not once did he mention a combine. I reminded Jameson of the combines we saw in the fields when we were last in Harrow. I explained that farmers use combines these days instead of scythes.
The kids then proceeded to blow away the chaff and grind the wheat into flour. We went on a tour of the muesum and saw a bunch of ancient tractors, buggies, sleighs and other random things. Then the demonstration continued while they made fresh butter (we all got to shake the jar of cream) and pancakes (a demo of how to use flour). They made enough pancakes for each child but us parent chaperones just got to smell them. I was starving! What cruel punishment!! Not only did we need to spend two hours listening to a boring old man while watching our four year olds, we had to stand the entire time. I was quite famished.
We ended the looooong day (well, 2 hours) with a puppet show of The Little Red Hen and the kids putting kernels of wheat in a test tube with some cotton so they can watch them grow. On the way home Jameson couldn't resist and opened his test tube. Sure enough, he lost the wheat. I'm assuming it fell somewhere under the car seat never to be found again. At least this gives me a reason not to water the silly thing.
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