2014 Field Trip Number 1

Two of my educational goals for 2014 are to do more field trips (after all it's not a Great Green Room if we are confined all the time to the house) and to dig deeper into the meaning behind holidays.  Today, Martin Luther King Day, we accomplished both.

This morning, after doing a limited amount of desk work and practicing violins, my two pupils and I headed downtown to our area's Martin Luther King Annual Parade.

While I understand that a parade may not seem inherently educational, MLK's presence was all over the place in banners, and pictures and references.  For example, we saw a garbage truck covered in a banner showing a picture of guardsman and older garbage trucks in 1968 in Memphis, the event attended by MLK prior to his assassination.  To enhance our experience we had read the simple but informative picture book, Martin's Big Words the evening before.  It told about this event and others in MLK's life.

Waiting for the parade to start

Here it comes!

The fifty degree weather was ideal for a January parade.  It was a good parade, too.  It contained the right mixture of cars, walkers, and floats. Plus the bands.  As a former bandie, I love the bands--it is a physical impossibility for me to watch a band without tears.  Also, with cavity prone kids, I was quite satisfied that they each got one piece of candy.  One.  There are advantages to being at the end of the parade route.

**sniff**

To top things off, after the parade we met my husband for a little downtown lunch date.  If there's one thing I miss about full-time employment, it is the restaurant lunch.  It was a treat.