Our First Field Trip!

This first week of school was fun yet very trying at times. I've had no formal teaching training and never thought about how hard it might be to instruct someone on how to write. Philip and I made it through three sessions of handwriting lessons (we'll do handwriting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and he did get better with each one. All that hard work was rewarded when we headed out Friday morning for our first field: visiting our local non-commercial airport!! We'll be learning the alphabet in correct sequence. Therefore our first week focused on the letter "A" and "A is for Airplane"!

I have lived here in Spartanburg for 9 1/2 years and finally feel blessed to have visited this tiny piece of history. The Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport was built in 1927. Charles Lindburgh was at the dedication of the airport just months after completing his famous solo flight from New York to Paris!! Very cool! There are portraits of noteworthy pilots hanging in the main room of the airport. I also enjoyed reading the memorial stones to Philip which circle a flag post in a grass area. All the men memorialized were from Spartanburg; some died while flying in WWII and others died while enjoying their hobby of flying. I never thought we'd study history while on our field trip too!!

When we went inside, I told the man at the "check-in" desk that we had begun homeschooling and were learning about airplanes. I asked if we could watch any that were to take off or land and he said that a small private jet was about to leave!! He said to just stand on the inside of the white wall. What a blessing to arrive just as the jet was leaving. The pilot waved to the kids from his window while checking all the pre-flight stuff! After the jet taxied away, the airport man came outside and invited us to go to the top of the tower. This airport is no longer operated from a controlled tower. I asked him, "So is it basically, fly at your own risk?" and he said, "Pretty much." From the tower, we watched the personal jet take off, a smaller Cessna plane take off, and the local TV station traffic jet land and then take off. What a great time we had!!












Upon getting back in our car, I told Philip, "I'm not that good at teaching yet, and sometimes writing is hard for you, but guess what? We both LOVE field trips!" His face beamed.