Learning Through Experience @ Hay Dairies Singapore!

People say that “Experience is the best teacher.” This is a fact that everyone can relate to either you are a kid or an adult. Let’s walk down on our memory lane during nursery until high school days when field trip has always been a big day for the students. This is the day where everybody prepares what food to bring, what clothes to wear and which camera to use. This is the day where all students gather together and learn outside the walls or vicinity of school.

What makes it special from other days in school? Every field trip day, the students get to experience things that they won’t see and learn in the classroom. They will be exposed to a different learning environment which entails new learning experiences. Be it a zoo where they can see variants of animals or even simply a park where they can run on fields, fly a kite, fall down and get dirty. These are all experiences that no one can teach them but themselves.

Just the previous week, the Playgroup & Nursery class of Bridging the Gap went on their first fieldtrip for this year. The children, together with their teachers went to Hay Dairies at Lim Chu Kang Lane, Singapore. The said place is the only goat farm in Singapore supplying fresh pasteurized goat milk to local market.

The children gathered at the center in the morning and all boarded the shuttle together. The drive towards the farm started the curiosity of the children. They sat by partner in the shuttle without their guardian which is actually a big step for them as it is outside of their comfort zone. This is where learning takes place. With all the trees lining up on both side of the road, this scenery is rare in urbanized Singapore. The road may be short, but the surreal drive does make the children explore what’s outside the classroom.

Upon arriving, the children wore their excited smiles. The moment they saw the pictures of the goats, the children hastily went down the shuttle. The first thing that the children witnessed was the milking of the goats. They saw how the milk comes out and how it is pasteurized. The good thing about Hay Dairies is that after witnessing the milking, the children can go view and feed the goats.  Bags of hay were bought for it to be fed to the goats. Each bag was shared by two kids for them to develop their sharing skills. The kids patiently waited for their turn to feed the goat.

Surprisingly, all were brave to feed the goats. The funny thing is that, after feeding, they even pet and touched the goats. The feeling of the goat’s skin and its tongue licking their hands, these are priceless experiences that these children will remember.

After feeding the goats, the children washed their hands before eating their snacks. One of the most fun times is having snack together, sharing food to friends and socializing with peers. Short stories and laughter were shared during the short snack time.

Before heading home, the children the chance drink and experience how the goat’s milk taste like. Sadly, not everyone like it but it was worth the try!

Looking forward to more learnings through outside experiences!