Impromptu Field Trip (Lessons in Flexibility and Prioritizing)

We had plans to shop at the Scholastic warehouse sale. My girl had already handled one disappointment. She wanted to go last week, but my schedule would not allow it. But as I backed out of the garage to take her brother to school, we had an unexpected surprise.

I had to find a way to get my son to school. I had to call roadside assistance and get the spare tire on the vehicle. I had to get a new tire - which involved a lot of unexpected waiting. I managed to model my thinking process aloud for and with my girl., real life, in context, working on cognitive goals and objectives.

At first, she was concerned only about her trip to the warehouse to look for books. I explained how sometimes, we have to change our priorities and that I was making a list in my mind of what we needed to do and wanted to do and that I was ranking them by importance. I explained that the rules of the spare tire include driving 40 miles or less on it, so getting to a tire doctor quickly is very important. The book warehouse is across the city and we want to go on a tire that is safe for that.

She brought some activities to work on while we waited. I brought some activities to do while we waited. But the waiting was longer than our activities and she and I were tired and bored. We bought junk food from the vending machine. 

We watched the clouds. Usually we look for cloud formations, but this day, we saw sky formations the clouds left. See the heart? 

She came up with spinning coins by herself.

We finally got the tire changed and were on our way to the warehouse. We came home with a bounty of new books to enjoy. And this impromptu field trip took us out of the house and on to learning in new ways.

I'm proud of me for being able to self-regulate in a way that allowed her to be a part of the experiences of the day. She wasn't happy about another delay to the warehouse; she wasn't happy about the unexpected wait; and yet, together, we managed. That is a good day.