Art Museum Trip

My morning class went on a fieldtrip to the art museum the other day. It was a nice time. We went to this special kid section, and the first room we visited had a bunch of random activities and games for the kids to play with. Mostly building things or putting together puzzles or playing with plastic food.


There was also a little "maze" type thing. You crawled in the entrance and wormed your way through a pitch-black corridor until you came out the other side. My kids would all start, then get scared or confused and turn around. They kept pulling me over to try to convince me to lead the way. I kept refusing because I didn't think it was for adults. But then I saw a mother go in with her kid so I finally agreed to help them.

I didn't realize it was pitch black until I got down in there too. Like, completely dark. I was scared...not of the darkness, but of the impending kicks and punches in the face I would inevitably experience from the five-year-olds crawling all about me. So I turned around too. The kids were disappointed, but then I realized I should just bring my cell phone with me so we could have a little bit of light. So that's what we did. We all crawled in there and went through the maze and it was fine. We emerged from the other side feeling accomplished.

Then I heard the screams.

Cherub had lost us somewhere in the "maze" and was alone in the pitch-black darkness, screaming bloody murder and yelling, "TEACHER CAROLYN!!!!!" and sobbing. I briefly glanced up at my co-teacher and a few mothers in the room--all staring at me--before I dove back in there Indiana Jones style, cell phone in hand, on my rescue mission to save Cherub.

"I'm coming, Cherub! It's alright!" I shouted.

I found her, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the maze, trying to comfort her. She was nearly hysterical for a couple minutes but then quickly quieted down and went back to playing. The poor girl was terrified! We were both done with the maze after that.

After playing in that room for a while, we played at this wall for a few minutes. The wall is made out of this fast-drying concrete material and there are paintbrushes and water available so you can paint the wall with water and it'll dry a few minutes later. It's a really neat idea for kids! They had fun.
Then we went to some other sections with art stuff to do. You could make a paper ox, build with some blocks, and one room had a mat and when you stood on it and looked at the wall, you could see yourself in a kaleidoscope. It was fun!
Then we went outside and ran around in the stifling heat and humidity. Ahh, I remember the days when I didn't feel weather conditions...