The Light Rail Train

Today I thought I’d take a break from talking about our East Coast trip to write about this morning's adventure. I went on my son’s preschool field trip on light rail. It was a practice run leading up to longer field trips this summer, where the destination will be something other than riding the train.

There was a lot of build up for the trip, and Xander was anxious and a bit scared this morning. I try to prepare my boys for their day, so there are no surprises, and they know what to expect. But recently he gets really worked up about trying new things. He was scared to go to his first baseball game, scared to go to swim lessons and then scared to go to the movies -- he even told me that he is scared to turn 4 on Friday. But once we are there, in the moment, he is really happy and has a great time. I think it has a lot to do with his age, teetering somewhere between babyhood and childhood. It makes this mom a little sad to think that my baby is growing up.

Ten parents volunteered, and we each got to be the hand holders for two preschoolers (ages 3 to 4). I escorted my son Xander, and his friend Emily.

The kids all wore blue shirts, with the address and phone number for their preschool. It is a good idea not to put childrens' names on their shirts, otherwise they could be lured away by a stranger. Since all the children were closely supervised, there wasn't even an opportunity for the kids to interact with strangers.

When planning outings for small children, it is good to be reminded that sometimes kids can have fun doing things that adults might find mundane. The destination is not always the important part. We road the light rail train through downtown San Jose, all the way to a stop 30 minutes away, and then took the return train back to school. The kids had a lot of fun.

We were also able to reinforce some good safety practices, like holding hands when we were walking through the parking lot and onto the platform, standing behind the yellow line, and staying seated on the train. We plan to take public transportation on our East Coast trip, and it never hurts to practice safety.