John Deere: A Tractor Isn't A Tractor By Any Other Name!

A new generation of Trakkies...

Motivating Kindergarten kids to learn English as a second language is not always easy and a picture or story about a farm life scene usually does the trick.

" Kids, this is a cow, this is a donkey, this is a sheep and there is a tractor. What colour is it? "

" No! This is a John Deere and it is green."

Granted, we live in a farming community but surely not every tractor can be a John Deere? But so it seems. Often I overhear the boys telling each other ( in German of course ) about how they had driven a John Deere that day. Depending on the age of the storyteller, the question is often lobbied back by the listener...

" Not a real John Deere? It doesn't count when you mean the one in the Kindergarten. I drive it daily! "

At that stage those little boys can become rather loud and fisticuffs are never that far off. The real badge of merit and manliness seems to be a ride on a real John Deere. Not the smaller version lurking in Kindergartens and playrooms nation wide. Shouts of

" I don't believe you. You are making this up! "

are frequent and it takes all my might to channel their thoughts on to more pleasant things... like helicopters. Although, this too can lead down a braggery slope.

Now and then a granddad is roped in to pick up a the apple of his grandfatherly eye from English. Just to quell my curiosity, I ask about this John Deere story because we all know how inventive a child's imagination is. Gosh, and most of the John Deere adventure stories do tend to be true.

Usually the only one having the patience to drive around with a 5 year old boy, are the granddads. Driving on a tractor requires utter obedience and silence and the boys are so very excited that they behave like angels anyway.

A few mothers have caught on to the real value of driving with granddad on a tractor. Now and again they leave their boys with me and only utter one possible punishment:

" I am going to ask Biggi if you behaved today. Otherwise you can't go with Opa on the John Deere! "

and you know what, bribery like this one seems to work a treat. Thank you, John Deere!

Peg Perego John Deere Ground Force inkl. Anhänger 12V IGOR0047

Biggi