Last Friday I took the day off from work and spent the day with my daughter on her first field trip of the year. I was a little hesitant at first because it was for rural education day and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

We went to school early that morning, got our instructions, and then boarded the school buses. I should mention here that I really do not like riding school bus! Loud, bumpy, drafty… I don’t know how I rode the bus all those years.

We made the best of the trip going through our packet and of course taking pictures of ourselves.

Funny thing… it took us like 3 or 4 tries to get this picture because of the bumpy bus ride!

The ride finally ended 20 minutes later and I found myself transported back in time to a time with old gas tractors, yarn spinning, farm animals, and a place in Michigan where there was zero, zilch, nada in cell phone signal.

We planned out all the areas we were going to check out and headed for the candle making, yarn spinning, and rope making area first. The kids learned how to make candles and how to spin wool into yarn and then how to turn that into clothing or rugs.

I’m pretty sure that anyone living in the late 1800’s had such sweet smelling candles but they kids had a lot of fun dipping them over and over again in the hot wax.

We learned what sorgum is and how it’s turned into a thick, dark syrup similar to molasses. We even bought some to make cookies with for Lauren to take to school with her one day. The sorgum is grown, harvested, and processed right there!

By far though the best part of the day for any kid that was there on Friday was being able to drive a tractor! Those kids thought that it was the best thing ever and did everything that they could to be able to do it again!

Overall it was a pretty good day!

I was really surprised how much Lauren liked using the old fashioned washing machine…. I’m pretty sure that if she had to spend the day washing all the laundry that we, as a family of 6, produces in a week she wouldn’t like it much at all and she’d stop after the first couple of pieces!

Between listening to the heart beat of the cow, sheep sheering, tractor driving, and a good old fashioned hot dog lunch the kids (and I) had a pretty full day!

And of course only in Mid-Michigan will you have a rural education day field trip.

Am I wrong? Do you have rural education day?