On The Farm

Today was the ICSS's trip to the Lambourne End Outdoor Centre. In essence this was a farm (with, like, real life animals and everything), but with facilities to host other things like outdoor games, sports and camping as well. Due to time constraints we really only managed two main activities. These were a tour of the farm proper and then a brief introduction to pony training (including a little cart ride after).

I can't remember the last time that I visited a farm. It was probably when I was the same age as the kids that we took today. It was pretty fun all the same, hanging out with the cows and sheep and learning how they each had four stomachs. It's also good to see that the ol' fake rubber chicken egg trick is still around (and working).

The pony activity was quite a bit more technical. We first got to groom them with what seemed like a gazillion different kinds of brush and then moved on to preparing them for the cart ride by suiting them up in tack. I now want a horse (since ponies are for girls) by the way. That was about it really, which is a bit ironic seeing how the four and a half hours flew by. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids!

This was my first field trip after a year with ICSS and it was weird being on the other side. Nothing slams adulthood in your face than looking after children outside of the classroom, and things like this make you realise how hard it was for those in charge of us back in the day.

On the other hand it also hit me how unprofessional, accident prone and full of in-jokes my own teachers were when I was at school. It's like being told that great secret that, yes, teachers, guardians and caretakers are human too. But the strange thing is that instead of thinking them as failures or phonies in that regard, my respect for them just grows instead.

So that pedestal I placed them upon collapsed as I tried to climb on it myself, but the point is that kids don't know this and think that we know what we're doing... and probably will do until twenty years' time when they get in on the act themselves!