Field Trip: Detroit Institute of the Arts
The knights in armor at the DIA
This week was a doozy. Colin had 4 days of offsite special training, meanwhile I worked 5am to 11pm pretty much every day in advance of my employer’s biggest regional event next week in Japan. We are le tired. However! When I heard the 5th grade was visiting Detroit Institute of the Arts, I knew I wanted to participate as a chaperone to experience that with Peter, especially as he’s approaching middle school and the end of these elementary school trips altogether.
After meeting in his classroom, receiving some direction from his teacher and familiarizing myself with the children who would be in my group, we lined up to board the school bus to Detroit. Friends asked Peter to sit with them and I listened as he told each of them that he couldn’t sit with them because he wanted to share a seat with his mom ::heart eyes:: His mom! That’s me! My sweet boy wanted me to sit with him on the school bus and I soon realized that would be the best part and most core memory made from our field trip day at the DIA.
The bus was rowdy. I followed Pete into a bench seat up front and he was chatty as could be. I was thankful that the escalating chaos and ear-shattering din was a few rows separated from us and our bench. Still, children poked and prodded at him or called him out during the ride. He took it in stride and smiled when they joked with him. It warmed my heart that he seemed genuinely happy to be cozied up with mom.
We made it to the DIA and met our tour guide. With a little over an hour to spend in the exhibits, it became clear that the guided tour was going to deliver on interactive experiences and discussion rather than breadth and coverage of the museum. We spent more than 20 minutes at one featured exhibit by Tiff Massey, another 20 minutes at the knights in armor, and a final few minutes in the Japanese tea room. The rest of our time was spent walking from one area to the next and corralling and counting the children. All in all a positive trip, but it seems like we would’ve all liked to see more of the art for the amount of time we spent traveling to get there and back.
On the ride back to Romeo we snuggled up again, played sudoku on my phone and almost-maybe-could’ve taken a nap to escape the tambor. But we didn’t, instead talked about the day and the evening to come. Would he need to return to school when we got back—yes. Would we maybe go out for dinner tonight—absolutely. It was a much-needed lovely end to an unnecessarily chaotic week.
Peter looking at the knights in armor
Peter at the Tiff Massey exhibit
Bus ride to DIA