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    Getting them to ask a question, not tell a story: that’s the most frustrating part of reading to Kindergartners (Ks). Art Linkletter may have said that “Kids say the darndest things,” but I submit that “Ks ask the darndest questions,” if you can just get them to ask one!

    One of my favorite K teachers, Kathy Gayer (Kathy), explains that Ks are ripe to start asking questions at the age of 5: developmentally, that is when they begin to come out of their own little worlds and see that there’s a lot of “who, what, where, when and whys” to ask. They stop telling stories about themselves, and start asking about others.

Oh and the questions that come from those still mostly naïve but on the edge of curious Ks, when they start their sentence with those most inquisitive words!

    My adventure into the exploratory minds of Ks started with my Bakersfield Downtown Rotary Club’s Rolling Reader Program. Each Wednesday, a Rotarian reads a book to Mrs. Merritt’s K class at the Downtown Elementary School.

 Enthusiastically signing up, I looked at this as an opportunity to read to the most pleasurable of all ages while costuming up (and hamming it up) to the most believing and adoring of all audiences. I recently added Kathy’s K class at Louden Elementary School to the audience pool.

    I appear three times during the course of the year, book in hand, as three different sisters.  Miss Teri (me), an enthusiast of the Olivia the Pig book series, appears in September. I ask the Ks whether I should get a “pig nose job” so I can look more like my “Pig Idol.” Each time the answers have been overwhelmingly yes, even after I emphasize the pain, cost and potential loss of my law job (well, maybe I could work at a Piggy Bank, I say to blank stares)! Nonetheless, it’s a start on the “question asking” learning curve, and the question must be answered yes or no. No question that they certainly get that concept!

    Come October Miss Meri blows in. She’s my younger sister, the “Kind but Ugly Witch.” After reading Pig, Pigger and Piggest, a book about three witches who fall in love with three pigs, Meri disses me for wanting an ugly pig nose. Miss Meri notes that she, being ugly herself, is looking for a boyfriend. One time a couple of Ks, after whispering between themselves, asked the most sensical question: “So what’s your phone number in case we find a boyfriend for you?” Great question, but no quick answer on my part!

    Miss Keri, my identical twin sister, flies into town in December as “Santa’s Helper.” She carefully places her red cell phone in clear sight: the phone that she uses only for Santa calls. The red cell phone delightfully distracts the Ks from the latest in the Olivia the Pig book series that Keri plans to give me for Christmas.
 
Then the red cell phone rings, and it’s All About Santa! He’s calling in with his Naughty or Nice List. The looks of anticipation of being named to the Nice List (or fear of not) is priceless. And many questions flow about Santa: Where is he now? What is he doing now? When will he leave to come here?

    Two years ago, I added our family pet Cockapoo, Cassie, to the cast: Cassie, Sassie and Lassie, one for each sister. Cassie stole the show from the debut, and she elicited many questions: What does she eat? Where does she sleep? Does she have more sisters?

    And, just as Kathy taught me, as the school year progresses, the Ks start getting onto the three sisters and their three dogs, and their questions, when asked, progress in smartness. Some Ks begin noticing that Meri the Witch, albeit with hairy warts, green hair and missing or rotted teeth, looks like me (to my mortification).

I guess the identical twin story for me and Meri, Santa’s Helper, worked for a bit. But then came the question from a smart young boy to my side: “You’re all the same person, aren’t you?” I pretended not to hear the great question, and quickly changed the subject.

    And then came a real difficult question from a little girl smartie: “Could all three sisters, with their three dogs, come at the same time to see them?” Luckily it was in a follow-up thank you note from Kathy’s class, so I had time to plan my “little white answer” about my sisters’ travels taking them on a slow boat to China. It seemed to work, since the question was not raised at my next visit.

    But back to my proposition that Ks ask the darndest questions. It was one cool December morning when I faced, what is to this day, my favorite dardnest question from a K. As Santa’s Helper, I had pointed out the beautiful (plastic) Santa ring that Santa had given me one Christmas, and the (faux) diamond pin he had given me another.

One little girl asked: “If Santa liked me so much, could I become Mrs. Santa after Mrs. Santa died?” After the momentary shock that this young girl appeared to catch onto my K-rated double entendre, I uncharacteristically came back with a quick-witted response: Mrs. Santa will never die, just like Santa Claus, so that could never happen.

    As the year progresses, one has to be quick on one’s feet with these Ks! Maybe it IS better to let them just tell their stories, rather than to encourage those great lines of questioning that slowly but surely develop during the course of the school year!

    Reading to, and eliciting questions from, Ks is one of the most rewarding tasks that I do. I encourage anyone with a love of reading to donate time to read a book to a K class. You don’t have to costume up! Just be, and tell about, yourself! But be ready to be “Smarter than a Kindergartner!”

    And if you can’t take time to go to a class, just take time to read to a child of that age. It’s fun, and the reward will be as much yours as the K’s.