Hiking with 6 Year Olds

I experienced my very first field trip and it was quite a treat! The South Korean government has banned schools from taking indoor field trips due to the swine flu- so most of our field trips have been cancelled this year. Luckily, they still let us go hiking this week.

We assumed this hike would be more like a stroll since we were taking a bunch of five and six year olds. Boy were we wrong. Our first mistake was to think that hiking in the mountains would ever be easy with six year olds. Our second mistake was to believe that we would be able to follow the correct path and NOT go the wrong way...

The school asked the kids to wear there gym sweat suits on the field trip so that they would be easy to see. The sweat suits are gray and yellow and it was ridiculously hot. I am sure you can put two and two together, but to clarify- the sweat suits were soaked all the way through by the end of the hike:)

While on the nice "stroll" we took a wrong turn and ended up on a vertical climb. I could tell you stories all day long about this vertical climb- but to make a long story short we had 6 year olds sliding down the mountain all over the place. With their lack of hiking gear, their size, and the very narrow path- it was stressful (to say the least) trying to keep everyone safe. I had at least four children at any given moment grabbing my legs and under my arms. With the huge rocks, roots, and trees in our way- it was difficult for me to stay on my own feet without trying to get kids safely up the path. I was grabbing falling kids left and right- kids from my own class and kids from other classes-as their little feet slipped out from under them more times than you can imagine. AFTER we got to the top we realized we went the wrong way (figures) and then had to go back down. Going down was even more dangerous than going up, but everyone survived the trek.

I took some pictures but obviously wasn't able to capture the intensity of this hike. I felt it wasn't appropriate to grab for my camera instead of a kid when we were in the midst of the steep climb. I must say- hiking with a bunch of 6 year olds was a first for me!