Being Responsible for Young Minds

Yes, it is a scary day in the Northeast folks. I have been given the responsibility for growing little brains in the subject of Agriculture. I am starting my little 3-5 year old Ag Class "Come Grow With Me" (I know, I know, just ignore it)

Now this isn't as far fetched as it may seem...it is what my extensive college education that I paid for longer than I used it, was all about. However, in my past life, I was only responsible for Middle School and High School brains. The ones that were too busy tuning me out while trying to grab a look at the cute boy who changes classes at about the same time, or sticking gum to the bottom of a desk, or, well, they were pubescent kids, they very well could have been thinking about nothing...just a vast array of blankness and itunes, and that would have been likely too. (Hormones do funny things to us.) I loved those years, and teaching those kids...I did however pick that age group for a reason, preschoolers scare me....therefore...I am scared....very scared to be faced with 13 of them on Wednesday.

There is something about those little minds with big eyes that are staring up at you as though they are waiting for the next bit of easily misinterpreted agriculture information they will absorb and regurgitate all mangled up at the dinner table to their horrified parents. Or the looks of disdain from the over protective mothers when I actually make their kids dirty during a planting activity... yup, I am a little scared to be teaching those toddler types.

I guess the bright side of working with this age group, is you can get them to do almost anything. They won't even give you a funny look if you ask them to float around the room like a leaf falling from a tree, or to all pick animals and make that sound to create a "barnyard experience" in the room. That is so down their alley.

And if all else fails, and action rhymes don't bribe them, surely the use of glue will. I have yet to meet a little kid who doesn't LOVE to use glue...and it is the rare mother that actually lets them use it in their own home. So if nothing else...I will be the glue queen in the preschooler kingdom.

So think of me Wednesday as I take on the preschooler kingdom, and I will go in armed with cheesy farm songs, and my arsenal of glue and smelly markers. Yeah, I will rock their world!