Kindergarten at Oakbar today!!

[oakbar]

  Now-- before I get a lot of comments from some of you-- this is not a sign that I've suddenly decided to take up higher education!!

We actually have  45 kindergarten kids from the local school coming to our farm today.  Usually, they're pretty well behaved but every once in awhile you get a group that hit the ground running and scatter like a covey of quail.  Now I understand the phrase "Its like herding cats!!" 
Briar, our 17 year old daughter, will be showing them our 09 calves, her cow calf pair, and this year's show heifers.  Its good for her, too, because she gets to teach the younger kids some of the things she's learned over the years.    Dad pretty much has to get everything ready and then just stay out of the way.  We always play the game "Match the calf to the Momma" and that can be pretty interesting with our Shorthorn cows.

We'll also take them back by our pond and into the woods to look at some of the wildflowers and, hopefully, wildlife!!  My grand nephew is in this class so he'll get to introduce his classmates to the calf he's going to show in the bucket and bottle class at this year's fair.  I'm sure he'll be pretty proud.  This is a fun time each year and a great opportunity to get some of the "town" kids on the farm and get them started thinking about agriculture in a positive way.  I wish it were mandatory for every child to visit a farm at least once a year and to get some education about where their food comes from---it might go a long ways towards solving some of the other concerns we have in today's world.  JMHO 

I better get busy before "Management" finds out I'm not really working right now!!

 

[steermomintx]

I wish our schools did something like this.  The area we live in used to be rural but not anymore.  I think kids need to learn where there food comes from not just you go buy it at the supermaket.

 

[shortyjock89]

Lynn, that's really cool that the kindergarten comes out to see your place.  If it's good enough for a bunch of crazy 6 year olds, it's good enough for me!  Now I'm definitely going to have to go on my own field trip this fall when I'm in Iowa. 

 

[RSC]

  Now-- before I get a lot of comments from some of you-- this is not a sign that I've suddenly decided to take up higher education!!

We actually have  45 kindergarten kids from the local school coming to our farm today.  Usually, they're pretty well behaved but every once in awhile you get a group that hit the ground running and scatter like a covey of quail.  Now I understand the phrase "Its like herding cats!!" 
Briar, our 17 year old daughter, will be showing them our 09 calves, her cow calf pair, and this year's show heifers.  Its good for her, too, because she gets to teach the younger kids some of the things she's learned over the years.    Dad pretty much has to get everything ready and then just stay out of the way.  We always play the game "Match the calf to the Momma" and that can be pretty interesting with our Shorthorn cows.

We'll also take them back by our pond and into the woods to look at some of the wildflowers and, hopefully, wildlife!!   My grand nephew is in this class so he'll get to introduce his classmates to the calf he's going to show in the bucket and bottle class at this year's fair.   I'm sure he'll be pretty proud.   This is a fun time each year and a great opportunity to get some of the "town" kids on the farm and get them started thinking about agriculture in a positive way.   I wish it were mandatory for every child to visit a farm at least once a year and to get some education about where their food comes from---it might go a long ways towards solving some of the other concerns we have in today's world.  JMHO   

I better get busy before "Management" finds out I'm not really working right now!!

That's a cool idea!  I have been taking calves into the preschool for the kids to see!  Even in rural america, most of the kids are not exposed to animal ag to much extent!

I may try this in a couple years!  Is there a liability issue that needs to be addressed?  Do the kids sign a release form?  Just currious as with kids you never know!

Tony

 

[Jill]

Tony, don't want to be a boo hoo'er, but talk to your insurance agent because there is a huge liability issue even if they sign a release form if they are injured on your property you are liable.  I know there is a rider you can put on your property insurance and in opinion I guess the old saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Oakbar, that is really cool, we take calves and chickens to school, just hatch chicks for the 1st graders, it is something most of them, including the teachers never get to see.

 

[RSC]

Thanks for the comment Jill! Was kind of thinking that! Still think the youth should get more of a look at Ag! It's the world we live in now!

 

[CAB]

  Lynn, thanks for sharing your farm with the kindergarten class & us. Now we'll expect a 2 page report Thursday.  (clapping) (clapping), Brent

 

[linnettejane]

so cool!  (thumbsup)

 

[TMJ Show Cattle]

The dairy I worked on has done the elementary school tours for years.  A couple years ago, they incorporated "adoption" into the tour...the kids of the 4th grade class would get a birth certificate of the calf they adopted in March and April.  Each birth certificate has the calf's name, hoof prints, and dam and sire just like a childs birth certificate.  Then the fun part...when they come to tour the farm in May and June, they get to see their adopted calf AND go  find their mothers in the barn!  They finish the tour with ice cream and string cheese.  It"s always lots of fun !! (cow) (cow) (thumbsup)

 

[oakview]

Lots of fun when the town kids come to the farm.  I always enjoyed the school kids 'chained' together in a long line at Denver when we used to show there.  Lots of big eyes and open mouths.  Our twin grandsons had 'farm day' at pre-school this year, took tons of photos of the farm.  They got the biggest kick out of a picture of one of our cows whose head and neck had 'diasappeared' into a big round bale of hay.  ISU's livestock judging team used to come out here, too.  Not sure if they came out for the practice or mom's homemade doughnuts.

 

[Davis Shorthorns]

Our FFA used to do something like this my first 2 years of high school.  It was great.  We did it out at a local cattle breeder and we brought out pigs, sheep, chickens, and fish.  We would then teach about half of the 4th graders in the area about where their food came from.  It was a great time.  After our adviser retired the new adviser(who knew NOTHING about ag) took over he didn't think that that was something important enough to justify taking time away from his horse judging and rodeo to deal with.  I will always remember those kids faces when they finally put 2 and 2 together with what a cow was and that was a burger and that chicken doesn't come from a bucket.  I really felt like we were doing something good for our community. 

 

[oakbar]

The day was a success even though it was really, really windy!!  The kids were full of questions and we had a really good time!!  I think a few of them might have even learned something!!

Most interesting question of the day--"Does that black sheep have to mount that white sheep to make babies?" 

They also had a really good idea where milk came from---anatomically speaking!!

Here's a few pictures::

 

[jbw]

I have been going into the school system here for about 6years now and talking about genetics to the fifth graders, I take in the semen tank, A.I. kit and a few props. Holy cow do those kids want to get into details. Like how EXACTLY do they get IT out of the bull. I am going in next Wednesday for a couple of hours.

When I was a freshman in HS we had a group a college girls here from Boston, The nieghbor  girl brought them all home and they had never been to a farm, they came out and saw the babies. Boy was that interesting. Dad told me to take the pickup and take them out into the pasture, I wanted that truck to run out of gas, but no such luck!

 

[shortdawg]

That's great ! We have a " Farm Day " in our school system that is part of our Ag in the Classroom Program. I always take one of our show calves up there every year and tell about 400 Pre-K and Kindergarten kids about them. Man they ask some challenging questions sometimes. One kid asked my friend who has four egg houses about the difference between a Rooster and a Hen - his answer was .. One lays an egg and the other crows about it.

 

[tlcattle]

first off... i would deffinantly roll down that hill with all of them! lol.

our fair does a kids day where a buch of the 4-h and ffa kids walk the kids through all the barns. it's fun 2 years ago i got to walk a group of 6 autistic kids around and they loved it. last year i got a herd of kids that were like sprayed roaches. they were like herding cats. lol. but it's still fun to do.

 

[linnettejane]

this is just an awesome idea!  thanks for sharing with those kids...its probably something they will remember the rest of their life  (clapping)