I just returned from doing a presentation about guide dogs for a group of homeschoolers ages 8-12. In the past when I've done presentations like this, I tried to tailor my lecture style to the age group. This time I tried something completely new. I made up some questions ahead of time to keep them interacting and find out a bit about what they knew and thought, and I interspersed bits of my presentation with questions. I had candy, and those who answered got to come up and take one piece of candy. At the end, they had their question time, and finally they got to pet. I took both Meg and Loretta, and they really seemed to enjoy this.
I was very impressed with how well the kids followed along with the topics. I think that having the questions ready for them helped to keep things orderly so that we didn't have kids telling their life stories in the middle of the time. The dogs enjoyed their pets; and a good time was had by all.
