DIY Chairs, Fitness, Scavenger Hunts and Fire-Dancing
The Scouts have been keeping us busy lately (as per usual) but at least we now feel as new Scout Leaders that we are getting to grips with the programme and have some control over what is going on.
It’s taken a while and there have been quite a few changes at Borth 2nd Scouts over the past year with lots of new leaders all finding their feet and slotting into their respective positions. It has to be said that at first there was quite a bit of confusion over who was doing what and how everything should be organised. This led to numerous ‘planning meetings’ in which very little was actually achieved and what was planned often didn’t come to fruition. We found we were spending more time planning and meeting than actually ‘Scouting’. Things have now worked out nicely and Anna and I plan things for the Scout section ourselves and then just tell the other section leaders what we were going to do. This approach seems to be working much better.
It doesn’t mean we can get away from the Group planning meetings entirely. Obviously there are still certain nights when we need to co-ordinate with the Beavers, Cubs and Explorers. Nights when we need to help out with them, or when we need help from the other leaders, but concentrating just on the Scouts for us seems to be the best policy.
The Scouts themselves seem to be enjoying it as well, and I think the parents will start to appreciate having information about activities further in advance too.
A few weeks a go we had them doing DIY in the hall and they all built themselves a camp chair. This went down really well and they have all been going on about it ever since, so we’ll be finishing off their chairs in a forthcoming meeting sometime soon.
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- Chair Making
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- Precision Engineering
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- Finishing Touches
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- Chair Building
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- DIY Camp Chair
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- DIY in Progress
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- A Completed Chair
Two weeks ago was a fitness night and a couple of ‘Zumba’ instructors had been drafted in to do Zumba with the whole group, Beavers first, then the Cubs, then the Scouts and Explorers together. The Beavers and Cubs enjoyed it and the girls in the Scouts seemed to as well, but as predicted the other Scouts and Explorers weren’t too keen! Luckily I had planned an alternative activity and finished off the night with a gym test for them all. We scored them all on the number of reps of various exercises that they could do in a minute. It’s surprising how seriously they all start taking it when there is a little competition involved – especially if they think they have a chance of beating their Scout Leader!
Last week we sent them all off on a scavenger hunt in Aberystwyth followed by chips, hot chocolate and a fire dancing show on the seafront. Their route planning was good, they all engaged well with the task and got on with it enthusiastically. They managed to answer most of the questions, but we need to improve on their team-work, leadership skills, communication and remind them to fully reading the instructions before setting off – we’ll get there with them and soon have them rattling off these tasks with ease.
Fire Dancing on the Seafront
It certainly keeps us busy, not only on Scout nights themselves but also all the planning and organisation before and after. What with that and the various training courses we have to go on in order to tick certain boxes we’ve got a full schedule for the next few months already.
