what is this thing called teaching

I am a painting instructor.  No, I have not held any classes yet, but I finally do have some students signed up.  I'm not sure what I think about this whole deal.  I strongly believe that to truly learn how to paint is a process.  I feel like the expectation of someone signing up for a painting class is to be awesome right away, or they don't sign up because they feel they have some kind of artistic inadequacy - "oh, I'm not 'crafty'."  I guess I'm bugged by the lack of ideal-ness in the situation.  What I would love, if I must teach my craft, is to have students over an extended period of time, where I could teach them first to draw then to paint, then un-teach them how to draw so that they can paint without reservation.  I'm not sure what someone expects when they sign up for a three hour one time painting class.  I guess they want instant gratification and to be able to say, "hey! look what I did!"... and I think the curriculum I'm trying to develop for this one time sort of thing should allow that.  I guess what I'm having more trouble with is figuring out what I'm supposed to teach in my kids classes... especially because one of my students has parents who seem really eager for the kid to really learn something and succeed and figure out at a very young age if art is something they want to pursue.  I keep thinking back to when I was in elementary school and the projects my teacher had us do.  If I could just remember some of the ones I did at particular ages, maybe I could develop appropriate projects for younger aspiring artists that would be beneficial.  I was thinking tonight about class with Ms. Brown and how our assignments frequently stemmed from children's books with lots of awesome illustrations.  She would read us the book, let us each choose an illustration to copy/re-illustrate, then photocopy it so we could use it as reference.  I think it was important to not just copy a picture but to have the original context that it was drawn for, to make early connections between literature and illustration, word and image.  It's hard for me, because I've been out of elementary school for about 13 years and although I don't mind working with kids, I haven't done it so extensively that I understand what level they should really be taught at.  I don't like the idea of dumbing down lessons too much because kids understand more I think than we give them credit for, and will absorb more if more is taught.  However, I don't want to make something so challenging that a child would give up.  It has to be fun, but it shouldn't be stupid.  If that makes any sense.  Anyway, I'm thinking a lot about this, because I am one student short of teaching a kids painting class at the end of this month.  Prayer is appreciated both for there to be more interest in the class and for me to be in the right frame of mind to prepare properly and to teach the material that should be taught to the students in the class.  There will only be a few students, so it will almost be like private art lessons.