Today we visited our local police department on a PTA outing. Nicholas wasn't excited about it. "We've done that before", he said. We did just go in December for one of my turns to host our educational playgroup. We talked about strangers and how to keep safe. I reminded him how important it is to be safe and that we would have fun even if he has already heard all about it.
I'm so glad he decided to go because it was very different than what we did in December! We started off getting to look at some of the cool police vehicles. We saw the sky tower that they use in shopping center parking lots and at athletic events. All the children loved watching it go up and down.
We also learned about the Citizen Patrol program and got to look at some of those vehicles. Nicholas and Emma Rae put their arms around each other while they listened. How cute!
Then we got to look at and crawl into a real patrol car. The cars are really sharp looking.
I told Nicholas this had better be the only time I see him in the back of a police car!
Nicholas loved getting to sit in the driver's seat where all the cool gadgets are!
Officer Caldwell then showed off the lights and siren on the car. That was loud!
While waiting to go inside...
Next we went inside and talked about how the police officers train. Officer Caldwell showed us a real baton. Then he showed us the training equipment and every child got to go up to him and practice with the training baton. The training batons are foam covered so they don't hurt as bad and Officer Caldwell had a well-padded shield to protect his leg. All of the boys were quick to raise theirs hands to participate in this.
The most excited Nicholas got the whole time was during the tour of the police department when he and some other boys found a Star Wars poster in someone's cubicle!
Then we went back outside behind the police department. Officer Caldwell talked to us some about how they handle prisoners. Nicholas and some of the other boys were much more interested in studying a bug they had found!
Look at our little SWAT team!
At the end of the tour, each child was given a safety coloring book and a police officer badge sticker.
After the police station we took the kiddos to a nearby park to play. Nicholas taught some of the other children about "Inja Turtles". I've tried to explain to him that they are Ninja Turtles but he says, "No, mom. That's silly! They are called Inja Turtles". Ok, there is only so long that I'm going to argue with a 4 year old. It's really quite pointless once they have their minds made up. Then we had lunch and ice cream at Braums. Yum!
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