Damn Cricky Crackers!
Okay, next trip... PARQUE MARINO! In Puntarenas there is a a Marine Park. Like a mini Aquarim.. They have sea turtles and sharks, crocs and camines, not to mention many fish and a Red Snapper Fish hatchery! SO we planned to be there for 6 hours. OKay seems long, but we had a 3 hour program to offer.. 45 min chat about the circle of life in the sea, then the tour of the park, then a recap on the circle of life, and then lunch and then the tour of the fish hatchery. Bingo Bango... wait... did I mention the X factor?
So we arrive to the park. All is well. We get the 50 kids in to the classroom, Aula numero 3 and we begin the Cadena de energia chat... Right off the bat Im realizing this chat is NOT for kids. They said it was... but it could have been used for a Bio 101 course in a college somewhere... Im talking FULL scientific defintions, full paragraphs, equations for photosynthesis and so on... the kids were not into it. They would comment, but it was always something like "one time, I was fishing with my dad, and we caught a fish".... not so much about zooplankton and phytoplankton... and then... thats when IT happened...
All of a sudden we heard a ¡CRACK! come for the center of the room. Linsdey, Andrea and I from our respective corners IMMEDIATELTY turn our heads to look. One of these little guilas threw down a fire cracker! "WHO WAS IT?" Andrea asks... no one moves. "WHO WAS IT?" Nothing... then the blame game starts.. "he did it", "I didnt do it", even the completely innocent ones started to say "it wasnt me" oh sooo sweet.. but really this was a problem. First disrespectful. Second potentially dangerous. Third theyre lying! SO I stay with the kids and the super boring chat continues, meanwhile Linds and Dre discuss what they want to do... obiviously, the Africa Mia trip is the best part about the camp, and its the second to last day, and its good leverage... so they come back and say... they just want to know who did it. Just a confession... but if the confession isnt given... NO AFRICA MIA! DUM DUM DAAA....
Oh and about the chat... it was eye opening... you have to talk to children in ways they understand. I could have and should have done this chat... I think the kids would have gotten much more out of it if it was in there language... I mean what 5yro understand this... 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy --------> C6H12O6 + 6O come to think of it... how many adults understand this... point taken?
Needless to say... this tactic that works wonders in the states does not fly with tico children. But bad habits reveal themselves and the little cricky cracker thrower stuck again, and this time struck out... Him and the other naughty ones got calls to there mommas, and those mamas ticas were the ones to decide if the kids get to stay or go to Africa Mia... and it worked.. Only one bad ones mom let me go on the trip. The others, unfortunatly missed out... and without the naughties the trip to Africa Mia went really smooth.
Thats the thing with kids, they conform. And when you got a trouble maker, other kids join in . . and when you remove that x factor, the relatively good kids, return to there angelic states... hahaha... or something like that...
So we arrive to the park. All is well. We get the 50 kids in to the classroom, Aula numero 3 and we begin the Cadena de energia chat... Right off the bat Im realizing this chat is NOT for kids. They said it was... but it could have been used for a Bio 101 course in a college somewhere... Im talking FULL scientific defintions, full paragraphs, equations for photosynthesis and so on... the kids were not into it. They would comment, but it was always something like "one time, I was fishing with my dad, and we caught a fish".... not so much about zooplankton and phytoplankton... and then... thats when IT happened...
All of a sudden we heard a ¡CRACK! come for the center of the room. Linsdey, Andrea and I from our respective corners IMMEDIATELTY turn our heads to look. One of these little guilas threw down a fire cracker! "WHO WAS IT?" Andrea asks... no one moves. "WHO WAS IT?" Nothing... then the blame game starts.. "he did it", "I didnt do it", even the completely innocent ones started to say "it wasnt me" oh sooo sweet.. but really this was a problem. First disrespectful. Second potentially dangerous. Third theyre lying! SO I stay with the kids and the super boring chat continues, meanwhile Linds and Dre discuss what they want to do... obiviously, the Africa Mia trip is the best part about the camp, and its the second to last day, and its good leverage... so they come back and say... they just want to know who did it. Just a confession... but if the confession isnt given... NO AFRICA MIA! DUM DUM DAAA....
Oh and about the chat... it was eye opening... you have to talk to children in ways they understand. I could have and should have done this chat... I think the kids would have gotten much more out of it if it was in there language... I mean what 5yro understand this... 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy --------> C6H12O6 + 6O come to think of it... how many adults understand this... point taken?
Needless to say... this tactic that works wonders in the states does not fly with tico children. But bad habits reveal themselves and the little cricky cracker thrower stuck again, and this time struck out... Him and the other naughty ones got calls to there mommas, and those mamas ticas were the ones to decide if the kids get to stay or go to Africa Mia... and it worked.. Only one bad ones mom let me go on the trip. The others, unfortunatly missed out... and without the naughties the trip to Africa Mia went really smooth.
Thats the thing with kids, they conform. And when you got a trouble maker, other kids join in . . and when you remove that x factor, the relatively good kids, return to there angelic states... hahaha... or something like that...
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