Corn Maze Fun!

This past weekend my family and I had the opportunity to go to a local corn maze.  The corn maze was located on a farm that had much more than a corn maze there.  There was a small farm area with lamas, horses, cows, ducks, and goats.  I grew up with goats when I was a kid, so I'm very familiar with them.  Whenever we go to a petting zoo I always try to get my wife to feed the goats, but she always refuses.  :-)  This year I introduced my 2 year old to feeding goats.  I paid a quarter for the goat feed, stuck a few pieces in my daughter's hand and told her to stick her hand next to the goat.  As soon as the goat made a move toward her hand she dropped the feed, pulled her hand away, and giggled.  I gave her a few more pieces and this time held her hand until the goat licked the feed off.  You're not really feeding a goat unless the goat licks your hand!  At least that's my opinion.  I thought she might freak out, but she giggled again when the goat licked her hand.

Who would refuse to feed a goat?

Later I paid another quarter for a handful of corn to feed the ducks.  My two year old had a blast throwing the corn at the ducks.  Together we led one of the ducks closer and closer, one corn kernel at a time, to the edge of the fence.  It was awesome seeing the smile on my daughter's face as the duck came closer.

Later we did the corn maze together as a family.  There were several educational aspects to the corn maze.  First, my 5 year old had to use critical thinking skills to determine which way to go at the unmarked intersections.  Although the choice may seem random, it really isn't.  If one is paying attention to how far they've walked in a certain direction, you can deduce which way you should turn at unmarked intersections.  She was also able to determine which paths led in a small circle.

There were several marked intersections that asked you multiple choice questions.  Depending on your answer you were told to turn left or right.  Most of the questions were about corn.  Where does popcorn come from?  Which part of the corn plant do we eat?  Etc.  Thus my daughters learned a little about corn on our trek through the maze. 

In addition to the education, it was an awesome experience as a parent to watch my two daughters run after each other, hold hands through the maze, and point out cool things.  One time they spotted a beetle crawling across the path.  My 2 year old insisted on stopping at every cob of corn that had fallen into the path and shouting "CORN!!!!"  

There are corn mazes all over the country, especially in the Midwest.  My guess is that there is one not far from your home.  I encourage you to take a weekend day and take your kids to a corn maze.  You won't be disappointed.