I couldn't sleep, which is a major surprise to me after the last few days, but I'm taking this opportunity to get caught up on some of my correspondence while away.

Today we had an entire school field trip. We visited the 13th Century Mongolian Museum. We stopped briefly at the new monument being built. When it is finished you will be able to travel up inside Chingis' horse, just as a Trojan would perhaps, and see the surrounding countryside. I'm sort of a where's Waldo in this picture, but you can find me!

We continued on and had our lunch. It was good. The kids marvelled at how the light came through the ger top and shone directly on where Chingis would have sat himself. They felt it was a light effect and done on purpose, but I took it as a chance to reinforce some Science. We were driven around to many different sites that day, all just as windy as the next. In the photo below I had the kids say "Windy" instead of "Cheese". But, there were many hands on things for the kids to do and they just loved it. They tried on clothes, pretended to be warriors, saw an eagle and rode on camels and horseback. I would have wished to know the itinerary better before going. I would have appreciated the chance to discuss how to behave around animals like horses. It made me nervous, seeing the kids all vying for a position to be next on the horse or camel, running around them like they couldn't kick and hurt them, yelling and the like. They were mostly from the city and had never had a chance to be around such animals in more than a cursory way. I was just reminded of how my dog, Farley, reacted to being around children. They are unpredictable and loud. I was worried one would get spooked. Everything basically went off without a hitch.

As I had mentioned previously, the kids were so confused that one of the people who worked there said he was Chingis' great grandfather. They believed it literally. I had to explain that if that man was Chingis' great grandfather, that would mean Chingis was still alive and thousands of years old. Then they asked me if it was year 1, then would that mean the dinosaurs would still be there? I think we need to incorporate more history into the curriculum. Science is almost done and they have been swimming in the Greek mythology I have taught them, I think they'd really enjoy some history too. So funny to realize that the year I was born is such a foreign idea to them. 'Things existed before I was born?' you thought. I used to think that too!

I didn't need much coaxing to get into the formal gear! It was fun. We rapped our knuckles on the shields and were in awe at how heavy the armor and (dull) swords were. Great fun!