TV Station Field Trip

Last Thursday Jackson's preschool director sent an e-mail announcing a last-minute field trip to the Channel 9 TV Station. One of the news anchors has two sons that attend Jackson's preschool, which is how we were able to take a tour of the station. Field trips in preschool are definitely more work for the parents, because there is no school on field trip days. You either take your child to the field trip or you stay home. I thought touring the TV station was a really unique opportunity and confirmed that we would be going. I was surprised to discover that Jackson was the ONLY kid from his class of eight students who showed up. His teacher told me that many of the parents chose not to come because they couldn't find sitters for their other children. [insert eye roll here]

 

Despite being the only student from his class, most of the 2 and 4 year old classes attended. Because the station is fairly small, they ended up breaking us up into smaller groups. My four kids and I hung out with other families for over an hour, just so we could go on a 20 minute tour.

 

This was one of those field trips that was more for the adults than the kids. I should have prepped Jackson for it--shown him behind the scenes videos and local news clips--so he would have been excited. Mommy fail.

 

Nevertheless, here were some of the more interesting aspects of the tour:

 

The "make-up room" was less glamorous than I thought it would be. Though, I can't imagine ever having a job where this would be necessary.

Most of the TV producers and reporters work in one large room together. That's a serious lack of personal space. I had a difficult time navigating this room with the double umbrella stroller. I actually had to ask multiple news workers to get out of their seats because the wheels of the stroller kept getting stuck with the wheels of their chairs.

I don't even know what this room is but we weren't allowed to talk because they were about to go live with "breaking news" about Cam Newton being released from the hospital. These producers stared at the screens gravely. I suspect they might have a Vitamin D deficiency.

The only part that peaked Jackson's interest was the green screen. One of the weather reporters modeled for us. She singled Jackson out, picked him up, and waved him around the map. I wasn't sure how he would react, but his face lit up when he saw himself on the monitors.

Another news anchor let the kids take turns "co-hosting" aka posing for a picture. What you cannot see in this photo are the expensive cameras and foot high cables that I had to physically pick the stroller up and lift over.

While the tour was interesting, most of our time was spent in the break room watching Nick Jr, drinking sparkling cider, and eating pretzels. James, Amelia, and Maddie appreciated the freedom to walk around. They were very silly but well behaved.

Since the field trip was uptown, I decided to make a day of it and spend the afternoon roaming the streets of Charlotte. Every night after the trio go to bed, Jackson, Jesse, and I share our favorite parts of our day. Jackson didn't mention a single detail about the TV Station, but he was very excited to recap the "tall buildings" and "giant ornaments".  Perhaps we'll have another opportunity to tour in a few years when Jackson can better appreciate it.