A guest post by Rachel’s mom, Jennifer Gingell
For this post, I’m delighted to introduce my mom, Jennifer Gingell. People often assume that my Dad is the one who taught me everything I know about tractors, but that’s not the whole story. While Dad’s the mechanic in the family, my mom is the one who did the real work of instilling a love for farm equipment in me from a young age. Here she is to explain what we know affectionately in my family as “The Tractor Guess Game.”
Last summer at a tractor show, a 4-year old boy came by my booth with his family. He took one look at some Farmall fabric I had on display and started identifying the models printed on the material. “That’s a 1206,” he said, reaching for his dad. The two of them together identified all of the models represented on the fabric before they left the booth. I was amazed at this little one’s knowledge, but more importantly at the amount of quality time it represented between father and son.
While my daughters weren’t able to identify tractor models at age 4 like this little boy could, they loved to play the tractor guess game! Perhaps it’s something you can start in your family.
For very little ones, the tractor guess game can start with colors and sounds. Just like you teach your children what sound a pig makes, teach them what sound a John Deere makes!
Older children can play the game by giving each other clues that eventually lead to the correct make and model. For example – I’m thinking of a tractor that:
- Is red
- Doesn’t have 3 point hitch
- Is used to haul firewood
- Was the top production tractor model for its brand
Have you figured it out yet? If you guessed Farmall H, you’re correct!
Once kids master this version of the tractor guess game, they can try playing 20-questions style. My husband’s significant skill in this version of the tractor guess game came in handy when we opened our own dealership. You’d be shocked at the number of people who would ask us to buy their tractor without even knowing the make and model of what they had to sell! Because it is difficult to make an offer on “a big grey tractor,” we got good at figuring out the make and model of a tractor through a series of questions.
The tractor guess game can be modified to fit all ages and knowledge levels, and it can go a long way towards helping children (and us adults too!) learn new things about tractors in a fun way. Next time you’re sitting around the dinner table, I hope you’ll give it a try!
Randall Wiggins says
Great job!!!!!on all the hard work. The videos are great thanks, so im restoring my Farmall Cub and cant find out what year it is lol Guessing its 1941 this is the ser num thats stamped in the plate 601128 what do you think on it?
al says
awesome…