Teddy's First Field Trip (A Post About Inclusion)

Yesterday was a momentous day, Teddy's first field trip. I know many eagerly accompany their children as was evidenced by the fact that each chaperone had a whopping two children to supervise on this particular field trip. For us, though, chaperoning wasn't optional. It was a requirement for Teddy to participate because he is not assigned a 1:1 aide at school, so no one could accompany him on this field trip because it would have left his classroom understaffed.

You see, this wasn't a field trip for Teddy's special education classroom. This was a kindergarten field trip, and Teddy's kindergarten teacher said they'd love for Teddy to be able to join them. The only caveats were that we'd need to chaperone and that the bus had already been ordered and didn't have a 5-point restraint, which is what Teddy has in his plan to avoid him driving the bus.

As much as I wished Teddy had a 1:1 aide, I had no problem attending as his chaperone. My logic is that his team does so much to ensure he's included in the kindergarten classroom as much as possible that we, as his parents, can do our part to help with that as well.

And the 5-point restraint was not necessary because Teddy was so darn excited to finally get to ride the real, big school bus that he sat as well as any other kindergarten student for the entire 1.5 hours of the drive. He was literally jumping up and down with excitement before we got on the bus. Honestly, he'd have been happy if his field trip consisted simply of riding the bus.

Sheer joy for a simple bus ride.

But when we got the the Little Farmer, which is essentially an apple orchard, he was more than happy to leave the bus to explore. As he was walking with his class, I let go of his hand because he was following the group pretty well. One of his classmates gasped and said, "Look! Teddy's walking all by himself!" I laughed and said that Teddy is perfectly capable of walking by himself, but that sometimes he tries to go places he doesn't belong.

Throughout the day, children called out, "Hi Teddy!" with an occasional one saying, "I'm going to play with Teddy" for the few seconds that are a typical child's attention span on a brand-new playground. Teddy's favorite parts of the really fun playground were the real-size wooden tractor that he loved to "drive" and the race track with all sorts of pedal-powered carts. He even caught a ride behind two different children in the two-person car with me pushing the car.

There were the usual challenges that occur, such as throwing himself to the ground when he didn't get what he wanted or collapsing into a pile of dead weight. I made the right call in bringing the backpack carrier to contain and redirect him during the tour and when we needed to transition from the playground to the lunch area.

Still, from Teddy's perspective, it was an incredible day. He got to spend a day outside, one of his favorite places to be, with his kindergarten class, which is also one of his favorite places to be. He went for a wagon ride behind a tractor, which is one of his favorite things. He picked an apple and the scavenged another from the ground because why not? He ate his entire apple, core and all, and then eyed up my apple core before I put it in the core bag. He sat on a pumpkin in the patch to pick it out and then carried it by himself part of the way back to the wagon.

Teddy spent 20 minutes of the bus ride home hugging his pumpkin with a giant, joyful grin on his face. He was so proud of his pumpkin.

Teddy with his beloved pumpkin.

And what did it take for Teddy to have this incredible experience? A teacher who extended the invitation and set the expectations for me. She had the same experience for Teddy as the other students, including a Bingo card if he wanted for the bus ride and a name tag, even though she wasn't sure if he'd wear it. (He didn't care much about the Bingo card but wore his name tag remarkable well.) It took her willingness to include him, even though it was one extra child and a little more coordination. And what was the result?

• A little boy who had the best first field trip ever, full of so many of his favorite things.
• A classroom full of children who were excited to have their friend Teddy join them on the field trip who saw that Teddy can do many of the same things they can, in his own way.
• A teacher who was rewarded for her efforts with giant smiles from a pumpkin-hugging boy.
• A mom whose heart was so full of joy and gratitude.

The Time Teddy Almost Crashed the Golf Cart

Wait. Which time?

The most recent golf cart escapade was this weekend at my parents' farm when we visited for the day with the dual purpose of spending time with family and giving Dave an extremely enjoyable 10 hours to do linear algebra homework. All right, it may not have been enjoyable, but at least he got a bunch of homework done.

Teddy got to spend a couple hours in the cool, misty weather riding and driving tractor with his Grandpa and exploring with the 4-wheeler. Right before we left, we headed to my uncle's place to pick up the children's giant pumpkins. AJ picked the largest pumpkin, which definitely weighs more than 50 pounds. Teddy ended up with the slightly smaller pumpkin, which my dad joked weighed about "one Ted." He likes to use Teddy as a unit of measurement for weight since Teddy's always been quite the solid kid.

Teddy could have cared less about the pumpkins because his beloved golf cart was finally present. His great grandfather brought the golf cart back by the pumpkin patch, so Teddy immediately headed to the golf cart. My dad plopped Teddy's pumpkin next to him on the golf cart for a picture, so we could at least pretend Teddy cared about his pumpkin. We snapped a few pictures, and then Teddy hit the gas. His great grandfather forgot Teddy's desire to drive the golf cart, so he didn't have the cart turned off.

This is the look of a child about to commandeer a golf cart.

That made for an interesting 15 seconds as my 96-year-old grandfather tried to hit the brake and turn off the golf cart. I was a foot away from having my foot ran over, and my uncle was in line to be smashed between the golf cart and our vehicle, but the bike rack would have slowed the impact. My grandpa hit the brakes, and the 50-pound pumpkin went catapulting forward. My mom and then my dad lunged to catch the pumpkin and re-situate it while instructing my grandpa to turn off the golf cart. And Teddy laughed hysterically through it all.

I'm not so sure we should trust Teddy and Great Grandpa alone together on the golf cart ...

Summer Fun

Dave headed up north this past weekend to help his brother build a cabin (which is looking really awesome). That meant I intentionally filled our days with some fun activities to break up the monotony of being asked, "What can I do now?" or "Can I play Wii?" Those questions are AJ's version of I'm bored.

We hoped to check out an ultralight fly-in at the EAA, which is a local aviation museum in town. It's a phenomenal place to have to explore with a great hands-on children's section, which is usually all we get to visit. We took a different route to the children's section, so we got to see a few other things before playing there for a while. The fly-in was cancelled due to potential storms, but we managed to catch a shuttle to the hangers across the airstrip. The hangers have more than 50 more airplanes and vintage cars and other cool things to see. With the boys, it's more of a quick tour than actually reading anything in detail, but it was fun to explore.

Snarky face from Teddy. "Mom, let me go explore these."

 
Sunday we drove 2 hours to meet my dad and uncle for a dairy breakfast. Dairy breakfasts are a Wisconsin tradition, otherwise known as breakfast on the farm. It's quite literally what the second name says: you go pay to eat breakfast on a farm. The meals are large breakfasts, most often with pancakes or eggs, sausage, cheese, yogurt or applesauce and ice cream. This particular dairy breakfast had all you could eat buttermilk, blueberry or potato pancakes and strawberry sundaes. It was a great dairy breakfast, but it was even better to spend some of Father's Day with my dad and uncle.

Instead of a sandbox, it's a corn box.

The ride there was a bit rough, but the boys were excited to be at the farm. Teddy actually sat contentedly to eat much better than usual, possibly entertained by the live musician right behind us. AJ's favorite was the corn box, a giant sandbox filled with dried shell corn instead of sand, with tractors and shovels. Teddy and AJ both held a kitten and saw the other animals at the petting zoo. Teddy's favorite was absolutely the wagon ride tour of the farm. He kept veering toward the tractors pulling the wagons, trying to finagle a ride on them.

Our afternoon adventures included a slip-n-slide with Dave once he got home from up north. The boys both had a blast with it. Teddy definitely slipped and slid, although he didn't need to do any running and diving to do that.

Dave captured this amazing shot of Teddy!

These are the memories I hope the kids have of their childhood. The simple, fun things with family.

Teddy Likes Tractors

Another weekend in June, another dairy breakfast. Both boys enjoyed the food, especially the watermelon that we encountered here for the first time. There was an awesome collection of cute little animals including sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, llamas, cows and bunnies. Teddy got to pet a fuzzy baby bunny and a cuddly baby goat (that I would have liked to keep).

Just think ... we could create goat therapy!

 Teddy also got to sit on a few tractors, which he absolutely loved.

That smile ... that kid.

I think he's going to be sad that June Dairy Month is over ...

Farm Therapy

We spent Mother's Day weekend at my parents' farm, and both boys thoroughly enjoyed their weekends. They spent the majority of their time "helping" my dad and uncle. They rode on the 4-wheeler, in the golf cart with my 94-year-old grandpa and in the tractors. They were covered in dirt from head to toe, and Teddy licked the windows of  the tractors clean ... ish.

This window is delicious!

Since Teddy's favorite place to be is outside or in a cool vehicle, he couldn't have been happier bouncing from one fun farm toy to the next. He actually rode in a tractor for nearly a 2-hour stretch, which is rather remarkable for his attention span (and the sanity of my uncle if we're being honest).

When we first arrived at the farm, Teddy made a beeline straight for the first tractor he saw. He circled it and couldn't seem to figure out why no one was there to give him a ride. He got his rides soon enough and apparently decided he was capable of climbing all the way up the ladder to the tractor. When you look at the pictures, you can appreciate the muscle coordination, planning and strength that went into that feet for this little daredevil.

At least the ground was soft.

But he made it. And he's rather proud of himself. And I'm proud of him.

Teddy's making progress in scooting along in toys and is experimenting with pedaling. He understands the concepts and is starting to get a few rotations in with the pedals. He had fun playing on a tractor more his size when he couldn't convince the adults to give him rides.

Little farm boy.

If you've never walked across a farm field, you might not appreciate that it's not the easiest walking because the ground is uneven and quite soft. That didn't stop Teddy from walking darn near everywhere in the field when the tractor was stopped to reload seed to plant.

After all that hard work, Teddy found a new way to ride in style. His favorite thing about my grandpa used to be his cane. Recently my grandpa switched to using a walker more of the time to help him get around easier, and Teddy thinks that's even better than the cane as a toy. (But he still was happy to have the cane to use as a weapon while riding!)

This is one of my favorite pictures! They're both so happy.