Zilker Park

Not long ago I saw a segment on the nightly news about an archaeological dig going on at Zilker Park. It intrigued me only for the educational factor in it. As a homeschooling family we have seen and done many activities that revolve around archaeology. The dig was just one aspect that we have never actually witnessed.

On specific days at certain times they were allowing viewing of the dig and to be able to sift through the dirt they had dug up for artifacts.

When we arrived at Zilker there seemed to be some kind of issue with the site and they weren't letting anyone in. We still got to see the site and the very helpful girl at the gate showed us some of the artifacts they had already found and answered our many questions with patience.




Afterwards we headed over to the playground area. There were several school buses there so we were a little worried about the crowd factor. It wasn't too bad at first. Our "unsocialized" little girls were running around with the school crowd as though they were a part of their group, running, chasing and playing with them.

Our girls have enough interaction with public schooled kids to know how the "system" works.




After a little while we grabbed our picnic lunch and found a lone, vacant picnic table away from the quickly growing crowds of school kids. By the time we got through with our lunch and headed back to the playground it was like rats in cage out there. More buses had come in with more kids.

There were wall-to-wall kids. It was very nerve racking to me. At this stage in my life I am not mentally capable to be couped up with that many unleashed school kids at one time. School kids are always a little wilder than usual anyway. They are trapped in a classroom behind a desk for the most part of the day. When they are finally let out, they are like a dogs who have been chained up and gotten off their leash. My son was public school educated so I am very familiar with the behavior.

I can only hope that none of us contracted Swine Flu while in the masses of school kids. :-/

The girls did have an incident on the playground right before we left. There was such a large amount of kids on the playground that everyone was bumping into to each other. While Summer and Jordan were playing somehow they were pushed into a little boy. This obviously upset the little boy. He then proceeded to "manhandle" the girls. Angela and I were watching from a distance.

At first I thought it was all innocent play until I saw Summer take a punch at the boy. Then I noticed her expression and could see desperation in her eyes. The boy then let go of Summer and grabbed Jordan. Jordan had the same expression on her face. At this point I knew it was time to step in.

With all the playground commotion, by the time we got to them the boy had let go and went on about his way. So much for the idea that public schooled kids are any more socialized than homeschooled kids. It's obvious this little boy did not have any "social skills" by being public school educated.

I guess I am going to have to add self-defense as part of our curriculum.