Yep, you're talking to the original 'dirty fingernail girl' here, David.
Can't keep my hands out of the dirt, even though I keep gloves all around the garden.
Once I do put on the gloves, though, the signal to the brain is "time to work" and I get a lot more done. It seems to work the same with the kids, they put on the gloves and it's kind of a signal that they're actually meant to dig in and work, not just stand around and talk about it.
We work hard to keep the kids thinking it's their garden, not ours that they're just allowed to visit. We had a new volunteer last week, and I caught her doing a little bit of weeding! She was surprised when I said "don't pull the weeds, they are for the kids!" then had to explain that "we're just here to coach, not to play the game for them" Besides, it's amazing how many little weeds get pulled out when you have 20 little pairs of hands working at it!
