Let's reverse it

My first full week of being an intern was occupied by 12 preschoolers and a farm.

When I first found out that I would be helping teach a class on the farm, my reaction was one of skepticism. "The farm?! Seriously? I've lived my whole life in cities...I'm not really the farm type of a girl." But, hey, I'm up for the challenge, right? So hooked up my overalls and trekked it out to the farm for the first day. Okay, there may not have been any overalls involved, but certainly some trekking. (The Zoo Farm is about a mile down the trail from the main zoo buildings, so I have for sure gotten plenty of exercise.) After meeting the kids and parents at the gate, we led our children like little ducklings through the farm to the classroom, singing all the way. The song ("Down on the Zoo Farm") gets stuck in my head to this day, which is not surprising considering we sang it everyday to and from the classroom.

Seeing as this was a morning class, we said good morning to all the animals every day, and thus I know all the animals by name (except for the goats, sheep, and pigs, for there are far to many to keep track of). I take it back, there are two goats of whom I know the names: Heidi and Fabio (aka Jumpin' Jack). Heidi is one of the larger dairy goats, who is very kind and especially patient. She hardly bats an eye when 12 five year olds attack her with grooming combs. Fabio is quite the chap, he is the only goat to hang out in the Dairy Cow barn. The popular question is "why, is this goat in the cow barn?", the answer is a simple one: Fabio is a little too friendly--especially with the girl goats. Oh yeah, I hear that he earned the title "Jumpin Jack" when he got so friendly he started jumping fences. My preschoolers still don't understand why I laugh every time I see him...

Here at the zoo, we like to give the Zoo Campers real hands-on experience. So whenever the opportunity arises to touch an animal, we make sure that they get it. It just so happens that the week of my farm class there were some 2 week old piglets on the farm. And because the teacher had a broken wrist, it was up to me to pick up a piglet or two to let the kids pet. Now, I don't know if you are familiar with baby pigs, but they are not as keen to be held as 2 week old human babies. In fact, they start to squeal at a pitch that that makes a screaming 2-year old sound like whimpering puppy. Being considerate of our preschoolers' feelings, we warned them that there would be some squealing. Obviously we didn't quite get the message across, because once the first pig opened it's lungs, all I had were 12 kids, hands over ears, with terrified looks on their faces standing a clear 6 feet away from me. 2 or 3 piglets later, we found one that at least staid quiet long enough to let some petting happen.

All in all, save for a couple of unfortunate bathroom incindences, it was a successful week!

Day 20

Greetings to the ever expanding world wide web,

This would be my first post on Blogger, and I am ecstatic to be here! Per request of Grandma Brown (Hi Gramma!), I am embarking on a mission to document my never-ending adventures of being an Intern at the Minnesota Zoo. Before you ask, I do not scoop poop, play with the monkeys, or swim with the dolphins. I do, however, hang out with kids from 4 years old all the way up through the wonderful world of preteens. I work for the Education Department, and more specifically: Zoo Camp.

What is Zoo Camp you ask? Zoo Camp is the extensive summer camp school type program that provides opportunities for kids (pre-school through high school) to come to the Zoo and learn about animals and stuff and basically have the run of the Zoo. I'm there to enrich their little minds and make sure the animals don't hurt them (or more likely, that they don't hurt the animals....). 

I hope to post frequently, and believe you me there should be some interesting stories coming through here. I am learning more and more that kids really do say the darndest things. 

Feel free to leave comments and such.........................................................................................