Badge blankets - what are they and how do you make them?

I go by many names - but one that many young people know me by is Akela.
I've been involved in Scouts since I joined age 15 and have had all sorts of different volunteer roles.  For the last two years or so I've been a Cub Leader in Hereford.  Cub Leaders are known as Akela - like the chief wolf in the Jungle Book.

One thing that I've had that is a bit of a record of my Scouting journey is my badge blanket, sometimes called a camp or campfire blanket.  Since 1995 I have kept this blanket and gradually added to it.  I recently made a video explaining all about badge blankets.  In the video I didn't recount a funny story about how I started my blanket though:

We (the 5th Exmouth Venture Scouts) were going on a white water kayaking trip to the French Alps.  I had already cut my poncho shape and started my blanket stitching around the edge before heading off on the minibus.  By the time we got to the ferry at Portsmouth I had started stitching my lettering and walked up to the passenger area proudly sporting a blanket that said "Mel's Big"... hmmm.....  I continued sewing on the ferry but the result as I walked back down to the bus wasn't much improvement... "Mel's Big Blank"  I absolutely didn't care - I guess I have always been somewhat... individual.

Thoughts on Home working and what we're all doing in the shut-down.

I posted yesterday about Home Learning and how to support the children during this shut-down.

In the meantime, what have I been doing?  As a teacher I am technically a key worker but my underlying kidney disease, vasculitis and immune suppression mean that I am classed as "extremely vulnerable".  I have been home-working since last Wednesday, and as of Monday evening am on the list of people who are not supposed to leave the house for 12 weeks.  

 Each morning I have started with my home-working teaching tasks while the children have been busy with their work.  This involves working with my Year 2 colleagues to compile appropriate work for the children to do from home in each of the subject areas.  As parents email the work in, we note it, respond, post something on the school twitter-feed, post the answers for the parents to be able to mark their work and generally follow up.  We're also taking the opportunity to catch up on paperwork and planning across the school.

After I've done this, I move on to virtual Scouting.  I'm running a Cub Pack and a Beaver Colony so I'm regularly posting activities or badge work that children can be getting on with at home.  I'm looking forward to running a virtual meeting on a video-call platform too so they all get to see one another.  We'll probably have a go at that next week.  

In my County Scout role I'm rearranging adult training modules so that people can pick up on them after the shut-down, but also supporting people to use this opportunity while they are at home to do some e-learning and get their training validated.

Once I've done this I move on to writing.  I'm trying to warm-up my skills a bit by entering writing competitions.  I know that I'm unlikely to win any prizes but the discipline of a deadline and trying out writing in different genres is quite refreshing.  I've entered a Travel Writing one so far, and am now working on an entry for a humorous poetry competition.  Also the fact that I'm stuck indoors, I can stretch my wings a bit here on my blog.

Each day I'm also making sure that I get some exercise.  I've returned to my old favourite Claire Sweeney Slimming World DVD but also had a go at Joe Wicks does PE this morning with the children.  I'm attempting to tame a mature and somewhat wild garden, starting with a patch that Miss Busy has asked to adopt.  Also, the house hasn't been so clean since just after we moved in.  We do have some decorating to do but, while the sun is shining, the garden gets priority.

Plus, of course, spending time with my children.  Making sure that they are getting some of their schoolwork done and not spending all day in front of a screen.  Making sure that they are okay.

What are you all doing during this shut-down?  What does your day look like?

Today's accomplishments

Instead of a "to do" list, this is what is known as a "ta dah" list - as in, a little fanfare of jubilation for the things I've managed to do.

• Had a lie in - until 9am - go me!
• Then relaxed in front of "100 best walks", because... why not?  It's New Year's Day, I don't have a hangover because I didn't drink anything last night.  I was just relaxed!
• Started the medium term plan for Year 3 French for this term.
• Basket full of ironing.  And then two more loads of laundry.
• Read a chapter of my new book "The Body" by Bill Bryson.  Got pretty excited about all the microbes actually.
• made lunch and made the dough for this evening's pizza.
• sat down and completed the 1st draft of our new Induction Pack for County Appointments for Scouts Hereford and Worcester, and e-mailed it to the County Commissioner for his thoughts.
• e-mailed the 1st Holmer Scout Group leader team to ask for content for the Spring newsletter.
• started printing off Cubs personal details record cards so I can send them home to be checked for any contact info updates / accuracy at the beginning of the year.
• updated our finance records and responded to a bunch of e-mails.
• Got in touch with the Headteacher of a local primary school to arrange an assembly about what Scouts can offer.
• Finished making the dinner and then relaxed and watched Jurassic World with the family.
• Took the dog out for a run (mostly walking actually, but I'm out of practice so that's okay).
• wrote a blog post.

Considering how unhurried and relaxed I've felt today, I'm pretty pleased with how much I've accomplished.  I have a warm feeling of smugitude which is not very becoming but will help me go to sleep with a smile, after I've read another chapter of my book.

New Year resolutions

I don't really have any New Year resolutions this year.  I already made some back in the Summer and they are "Things I want to achieve by the time I'm 42."

I'll share them here now, only because it makes me more accountable and therefore should help me along with my will power.

1. My family.  I want to spend more time doing things outdoors with my family.  I'll put things in the diary - walks in the hills, days out on the bikes, make use of our campervan, make picnics and get out in the outdoors.  I'd like to spend time finishing jobs around the house together, and making sure the garden looks amazing so the house is a relaxing and wonderful place to spend time.
2. Get below 65kg.  I'm aiming to do this by exercising for at least 30 mins daily.  I'm going to give myself some fitness goals along the way too, such as a 5km run, then a 10km run, and then a triathlon sometime in the Summer.  To help me out, I'll weigh more regularly, and write down what I'm eating.
3. Write a book and sent it to a publisher, and make money from my writing.  I'm going to work on editing a book that I've already finished (it was some time ago, so it's probably going to be quite a comprehensive edit).  I'm also going to work on teaching resources to sell, work on People Per Hour etc. and also keep a track on time spent on writing projects so I can see how much I actually earn per hour.
4. Have some control over finances - I'm going to save money I make from writing to spend on treat days and holidays.  I'm also going to make and stick to a grocery budget each week.
5. Scouts - I'm going to create a County Induction Pack, complete all my Manager and Supporter Training, establish a wider training team for the county, develop a wider Cub Leader team at Holmer, increase the Wildcat Pack to 36 Cubs and go camping with the Cubs at least once per term.
6. Teaching - I'm going to have a successful year.  I'd like the lessons I teach to be exemplary in terms of children being engaged and enthused, reflecting on own learning and learning behaviours, developing vocabulary and independence.  Most of all, I'd like the children in my classes to be happy, confident and kind.  I'd like to develop the Modern Foreign Language teaching in collaboration with the high schools we feed to.  I'd like the garden club at school to develop our garden to make it a place that people are proud of and want to spend time.  I'd like to be viewed as somebody that people can turn to for help or advice when they need it.

Those are my ambitions for the year ahead.  Now I just need to rediscover my energy, which seems to have escaped me lately, and my willpower, to enable me to achieve any or all of these.

The Missing Blogger

This blogger has been decidedly absent.  I have good intentions.  Writing on the blog has been on my "to do" list for a long time.  I like blogging.  I love to write and this blog has been a creative endeavour since 2010, when my almost-eight year old was tiny.  

Life, however, has me spinning many plates, and inevitably one or two get dropped.  

Tonight I set aside the marking, though I may get back to that later as I'm quite enjoying marking beginning attempts at poetry.  I ignored my list and went straight for the blog.

Here's a quick summary of what's going on in my life:

• Home - I'm a bit on edge at the moment about my home.  We've been in Herefordshire now for almost three years, hoping to sell our lovely house in Scotland so we can put down roots here.  I've been getting a bit pot-bound in this rented house that was always supposed to be a temporary situation.  We finally had an offer on the house, and accepted.  In Scotland, once the missives are exchanged, which usually happens very early in the process, the deal is legally binding.  We went ahead and started looking at houses, an found one that we absolutely love, went ahead and made and offer and were accepted!  Now we're just waiting for everything to be finalised.  The missives in Scotland have NOT been exchanged yet, our buyers have their loan agreement, but are waiting for their buyers to get their loan agreement through (this week we've been told) so that they can exchange missives with them, and then with us.  Our buyers are hoping to move in July, so I'm very much hoping that this will be a simple process and then we can start asking about a completion date for our house - we have our loan agreed, and hopefully move in late August.  In the meantime, I'm thinking about starting to re-paint the magnolia walls here.  We carefully didn't put any pictures up to avoid having to repaint when we moved out, but after three years, two children and a dog, the walls need repainting, and in some cases a bit of polyfilla, so the sooner I get started on that (and then keep everybody away from the paintwork!) the sooner it's done.  I'm actually finally getting happier with how the garden is looking.  This year I decided it was time to stop waiting and to just plant stuff, so I bought a lot of cheap tubs and planters and ordered bulbs and perennial plants and just chucked everything in, and now I actually have flowers growing on my large patch of gravel.  I'm planning to make the most of this Summer of countryside living with some wild foraging, and lots of time outdoors for the children, as our new house will be in the city.  Yes, you read right.  From seven years living in a small village (lovely community) to three years living in the middle of nowhere (not even a pub to walk to!) to a house where you can walk or cycle all over the place and a top-up pint of milk is very literally just around the corner.  I can't wait! 
• teaching - I'm very much enjoying my teaching job.  I love teaching. The lady I'm job-sharing with is lovely and I think we work very well together. The class we're with at the moment are quite chatty and VERY untidy, but I think that's partly because I didn't set up expectations on that front very well in the first few weeks of the year.  We seem to be constantly chasing our tails just to keep up with the marking and planning, let alone getting the displays and things sorted out.  Next year I'm delighted to be in Year 4 again - The planning for all the topics and units is there, so I just need to rework it to make it work for me and the new class.  I'm going up to three days per week, and will probably have a different teacher working with me (to be appointed this week).  I'm looking already at what I can do during the Summer to get the classroom looking nicer.  

• Campervan - that's right.  We got ourselves a campervan.  We are beginning to get the hang of just jumping in for a weekend away, and are planning lots of trips around the place with it, and are working out the best way to store things.  It's a VW T6.
• Health - So I've still got microscopic polyangiitis.  Apparently Vasculitis doesn't go away.  I'll be on the immune suppressants and steroids and blood pressure meds for a long time.  Kidney function has stabilised at 50% which is good, and the Drs are quite happy to tell me how well I look, check my bloods and send me on my way again.  Apparently all the weird little oddities my body has come up with are nothing to worry about, so I'm just trying to ignore them and take them in my stride as long as the blood results are okay and nothing drastic happens.

• The family - The husband and kids are still gorgeous.  The kids of course drive me absolutely bonkers, and I occasionally have a crises of confidence that they aren't being very kind to one another, or are becoming selfish.  I am reassured by everybody else telling me how lovely they are, and wonder whether they just save it all for me.  Sadly, I am no longer wearing a wedding ring but it's not as bad as it sounds - Hubby is still putting up with me despite my careless ways, I just no longer have the rings!  A couple of years ago the diamond fell out of my engagement ring while I was doing housework, and I never found it.  Last Summer the sea at Durdle Door in Dorset sucked my wedding ring off (I've lost a bit of weight, and I think it must all have been on my fingers!) and that disappeared into the blue.  I was wearing a stand-in as I really wanted to be wearing a wedding ring still, but took it off the other day while making pizza dough.  One minute it was beside me on the counter, the next it wasn't.  I told everybody to look out for it in their pizza, but nobody found it.  I'm hoping to get a replacement at some point, but it's not really the kind of thing you are supposed to buy for yourself, is it?  We're also sad to have lost our dog Tara three weeks ago.  She was such a wonderful warm and loving pet, and we had her for nine years, so it's a bit strange to get home and not see her wagging tail in the back door, not to get up early and take her out for a walk, and not to have her warmth spread across my lap on the sofa or my feet under the table.

• Scouting - Having done a LOT of Scouting in the past, things are pretty quiet since we moved to Herefordshire.  We've both got lots of skills and experience, but nobody here seems very interested in what we have to offer.  This is probably a good thing since I was poorly last year, as I was able to give myself a bit of a break.  Now we're both working with the Group where Bear and Bug are Beaver Scouts, and hoping to help it grow and develop.
• Crafting and Writing - This will be a very short paragraph.  It's just not been happening.  Too tired.  Too busy.  Bug got a mini-sewing machine for her birthday in February, and I confess I only just got it out with her this weekend (and can't make it sew properly so need to take it to Hobbycraft for instructions) so that she can sew her own apron - I'll try to post about that in the next couple of weeks when we complete it!

So there we go.  A whistle stop update of where I am and what I'm doing and a promise that I'll try to blog again at least once a week.

What have you all been up to?  Anything exciting?  Do comment below.

Why the i-Scout brand has got it wrong

I'm a Scout, and I'm proud of it.  

In fact, I was delivering Module 1 of the Scout Adult Training Scheme this morning to ten new volunteers in my District.  I like Module 1 - Essential Information.  It's a huge amount of information for new Leaders to take in, but it covers vital stuff - safety, safeguarding, the structure of The Scout Association and... the fundamentals that underpin everything that Scouting stands for.  So as I was driving to this meeting I started to wonder about some of the branding that The Scout Association in the UK has opted for in the last decade.  Most of the branding is fine - there's this one:

and then there are brands for the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Network (which have just been updated, so make sure you're using the correct ones), and then there's this one:

and this is the one I think they've got wrong.  I can see what it's about - it's on-trend, it's snappy, it's great for marketing (you see i-kayak, i-camp etc so it's really selling the adventurous opportunities you get in Scouting), but it's too... well... it's too much "i".  It sends the message, to our young people and to everybody else, that we're about "what Scouting can do for me", and I think that misses a huge chunk of what Scouting is about.

Scouting is about reaching out, and as the World Scout Bureau strap-line has it, creating a better world:


In a world where pupils stab one another in classrooms because of gang rivalry, where kids throw bricks at fire-engines on the street just for a laugh, where a rogue gunman can walk on to a beach and shoot down random strangers because of ideological hatred, and where teenagers blow themselves up in crowded market places to make a point, then there's more need than ever for Scouts to reach out and build bridges in their communities.

"Doing a good turn every day" isn't about the past, it's a relevant part of an everyday attitude where Scouts are a central part of their community, forging links and promoting understanding and tolerance.

The Scout Association knows that.  This year sees the launch of the "Million Hands" initiative, calling on the half-million members of UK Scouting to work on community impact projects.  For several years now the Scout Community Week project has seen young people carrying out projects in their local communities.  Every week around the country Scouts are visiting fire stations, old people's homes and places of worship, are learning about poverty, homelessness and fair trade, and are carrying out litter-picks and pond-clearances and planting community gardens.

Scouting isn't all about "i".  Scouting is about looking outside, holding out our hands and trying to make the world we live in a better place.  So I guess ... if that's what Scouting is all about... then i-Scout.

Organising a District Scout Camp for over 400 people. A how-to guide (how I did it, anyway!).

 Around October or November the previous year:

• Get some agreement on venue.

November:

• The District Commissioner resigns, so as Deputy, you're now responsible for organising the camp
• Make a proposal, with some costings and put out to the Groups
• Based on feedback, amend proposal.
• Book the campsite and pay deposit, book lots of activities
• Apply for some funding to help with the cost

March:

• Leave ADCs to sort out the programme for their own Sections.  Except where there's no ADC
• Ask for a deposit from everybody for camping, so that you can pay the next installment to campsite, and can amend the activities you've booked once you know how many are coming.
• Get turned down for funding
• Break the bad news to everybody that you will want the full amount you've asked for.

April:

• Buy and book any equipment needed.
• Build a team - one person in charge of allocating camping spaces - not you!  New District Commissioner to be camp chief.  He starts chasing for volunteers for bases and for numbers and money.  Yay, you're not alone!

May:

• Get final numbers and money in from everybody.  Send next cheque to the campsite.
• Send out Leader briefing with programme, health and safety information and anything else you can think of that they might ask.
• While chasing up the final couple of Scout Groups for their money and numbers, expect the numbers to fluctuate a little over the last couple of weeks.
• Print out all paperwork to take with you, including programmes, activity sheets for Scouts, feedback forms, scavenger hunt sheets etc.
• Put in your order for sunshine (or at least no gales or rain/sleet/hail/snow) over the weekend.
• Gather your own camping kit (and for your two small children).

The camp:

• Get there early to set up the District Tent so that if you've left anything behind in District Stores, you've time to go and get it.
• Arrive.  Let the camp happen.
• Be there to make sure that everybody knows where to go, pick up and deal with any problems. 
• Take photos to upload to District website and Twitter feed.
• The sun is shining, everybody's happy
• Run the campfire.
• Drop into bed exhausted each night ... aahhh... not so easy, its got your three and four year olds in it.

After the camp:

• Litter sweep.
• Go home.
• Enjoy a glass of wine and a bubble bath, and an early night.
• Finalise all numbers and activity numbers with the campsite so that they can invoice the District the final amount.
• send out feedback homes.
• ensure that all bills are paid.
• Get photos up on website.
• Collate feedback forms.

Silent Sunday

InsideOut support day for Training Advisers - Forth Region

A couple of weeks in the life of a... Scout ADC Adult Training

You'll notice that I mostly blog on here about crafty and family oriented activities, but I also spend quite a lot of my time Scouting.  I've been a volunteer with The Scout Association since I was 21, and my current role is Assistant District Commissioner (Adult Training) for Clackmannanshire.

I think that the principles behind Scouting are sound - all about developing young people physically, mentally, spiritually - the whole deal.  Scouting sells itself on the outdoors and adventurous activities, but it does much more than that.  I was a Scout from the age of 15, and I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today without what Scouting offered me.  Most of my closest friends are those I made as a young Scout, and many of the friends I've made as an adult have been through Scouting.  Volunteering, as well as being fun and fulfilling for me, is also about increasing the opportunity for more young people to get the same thing from Scouting.

So what do I do as an ADC (AT)?  Here's a run down of some of the things I've been doing this last couple of weeks:

• I've delivered a course on "Valuing Diversity"
• The next night I delivered a course on "Skills of Leadership", which is a fun course involving lots of hands on activity (with toys!).
• I've updated my training spreadsheet for one of the Groups in the District, ensuring that my list of Leaders matches up with the District Directory and the membership database, updating my list of which modules Leaders have completed.
• I've been to visit a Leader who has been abandoned without a Training Adviser, and was able to validate a lot of Modules for her based on her previous experience and the knowledge and skills that she demonstrated in our discussion.
• I've spent an evening beginning the planning process for a training day/weekend that we'll be running for Assistant District and Region Commissioners, which will be held in February.
• I've started to review the new materials for Modules 11 and 20 (Administration).

Sound like the type of thing that you'd be interested in?  There are nearly half a million Scouts in the UK, and it wouldn't operate without the volunteer Leaders.  There are opportunities for people to be Leaders, administrators, to sit on committees, to occasionally help with activities.  Go to www.scouts.org.uk to get in touch with Scouting near you, and I'm sure that they'll be able to make use of whatever skills and time you have to offer.

Managing Together

I've mentioned on here before that I volunteer with The Scout Association.  I am Assistant District Commissioner (Adult Training) for Clackmannanshire in Scotland.  So I thought I'd post about a training initiative that's up and running at the moment.

It's called Managing Together, and is a collaboration between Scouts Scotland, Girlguiding Scotland, Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade Scotland.  It's a different way of delivering training for those in Management roles within the Scout Association, such as Group Scout Leaders and District Commissioners.


The first part is on-line, and involves learning about the different policies which a manager might need to be aware of, including delivering events, increasing diversity and recruiting new Leaders.  After that there is a one-day course with other Leaders taking part in the training, about building communication and relationships within the volunteer team.


Advantages:

• it's on-line, so that you can do it at a time and pace that suits you (which in some cases is a disadvantage, because it can take forever to get around to it);
• you get to compare the way we do things within our organisation with the way that it's done in other organisations, and sharing good practice can only be a good thing.

Disadvantages:

• while giving an overview of policies and procedures in the different organisations, you need to go and look up the specifics for your own organisation - you may as well go on the course that's part of The Scout Association training, and learn about the specifics there;
• the content doesn't quite match up to the contents of The Scout Association modules.  For example, the one about recruiting adults doesn't include anything about recruiting young people, which is half of the content of the "Growing the Movement" module in The Scout Association which it is supposed to match up with.  This means that while it makes sense to use the self-assessment answers from Managing Together as a way of validating your Module in The Scout Association training, it isn't a validation method in itself.  Completing the Managing Together Training should not validate you for your Manager Training with The Scout Association.

I have been guinea-pigging the Managing Together Training, which is still in early stages with relatively few Leaders signed up to it.  It's really got me thinking.  After all, the usefulness of any training should be in whether it helps a Leader to fulfill their role.  I'm stepping out of line a bit here, as my own role involves me promoting Managing Together as a method of delivering training to Managers within my area... but if I'm honest, I'm unsure how effective it is at improving on the training that The Scout Association already has in place.

A rush of mud to the head...

Woooshhhh!  Doesn't it feel wonderful when you've been really busy and really stressed, and then you complete a couple of things which have been hanging over you so you can relax a bit.  Then you feel all cosy but push yourself out into the wild blowy and rainy night for a run in the dark... and it's sooooo muddy, and you get wet and blown and mud soaked and you feel amazing... and then you come home and get in a hot shower for a really long soak.   

What an amazing evening to be out in the dark.  I seem to run faster when it's like this.  I just love it.  It seems all the better because I didn't really feel like going out.  After a while I just stopped looking out for the muddy puddles and started to enjoy the cold splash as I ran into them.  I think even the Waggy-tailed-one was shaking her head in despair.

I managed to complete a piece of work on Youth Involvement for the work group I'm on for Scottish Scouts before our meeting on Wednesday.  Then today our Scout Regional Training Team ran a support day for Trainers and Training Advisers, which went pretty well.  So I'm feeling pretty positive about the things which have been hanging over me lately.  Little Sis had to come with me to the course today.  She's been teething lately and feeding a lot.  I considered leaving her with Hubby for the day, but as the week went on she seemed to want more and more feeds, so I decided it wouldn't be fair on any of them.  She was good as gold.  

Priorities now are to get ready for Christmas... I'm sure that this time last year I had already made the Christmas Pudding and the Christmas Cake, had done most of my Christmas shopping and had all the Christmas Cards written and ready to post.  You've guessed it.  I've done none of that yet.

After that I can focus on a whole load more Scouting priorities, and making a birthday present for Little Sis.

Scouts

I've not posted on here about Scouts before (except maybe in passing), though volunteering for The Scout Association takes up a good deal of my time.  So here goes, I'll interview myself:


What do you do in Scouts?
I'm Assistant District Commissioner - Adult Training (ADC AT), which means that I make sure that all the adult volunteers in my District get the training that they need to do their role well.  I also encourage them to do the training on offer, and cajole them to do the bits that they have to do.


How long have you been in the Scouts?
I joined as a Venture Scout (Venture Scouting is a Section that was replaced in 2001) at the age of 15, back in 1994.  


Why do you volunteer for this organisation?
Until I joined the Venture Scouts I was a shy and quite boring teenager who spent weekends doing my homework.  Through Scouting I have made loads of friends, I went camping, kayaking, parascending, climbing and to the Alps.  I wanted to carry on in this great big family, and I wanted to give something back to an organisation that gave me so much, and help to give other young people those same opportunities.  But it isn't just about giving back, because as a volunteer I have developed leadership and team-working skills, I've been to on a team running an International event for 20,000 young people, I've developed and had the chance to hone and practise writing skills, I've been part of a team developing resources for the World Scout Bureau, I've been part of a UK team, I've made friends.  In short, I've had fun.  Now that I've been doing it for longer, I can see the bits of the organisation that are a bit rough around the edges, and so I choose roles that will make a difference, and try to make things even better.

How much time do you spend?
Actually I don't know.  There was a time (when I was single) when I worked out that I was spending at least 20 hours a week on Scouting.  That was when I was an Explorer Scout Leader, Assistant County Commissioner for Explorer Scouts, on the National Commissioner for Explorer Scouts' Support Team, and writing and editing the Explorer Scout Supplement of Scouting Magazine.  
Now my priorities have changed and family (and sanity) comes first.  I limit myself to a maximum of one evening a week and one weekend a month out at Scout meetings.  Time spent on the computer in the evenings depends on what time I have available, though I would like to say I limit that to a couple of hours a week (as if!) - if Little Sister is awake through the evenings then Scouts waits.  If not, well there's my current role - planning courses, keeping the database up to date, supporting people by newsletter, e-mail and so on; I'm also on the District Appointments Advisory Committee, the District Executive, the Search Party for the new District Commissioner, the work group looking at developing Youth Representation throughout Scouting in Scotland... hmmm... and this is all after deciding that I was going to take a break from Scouting until Little Sister was 6 months old.... ooopps!  


Do you recommend volunteering in The Scout Association?
Yes!  There are so many different roles, to fit with your interests, the time available and your skills.  You could be a treasurer, an occasional helper, a regular Leader with one of the youth Sections, an adult trainer, a skills trainer, a secretary or administrator, a commissioner (manager), a media/PR person... you name it, we've got the role for you (provided the District Commissioner is imaginative enough to use your strengths and agree to stick within whatever time you have to offer - and some haven't got the hang of this yet!).  Training is available too.  Basically, the more people volunteer for an organisation, the less everybody has to do.  Also, more and better volunteers mean more and better Scouting for more young people, and that can only be a good thing.


I'm gay / ethnic minority / disabled / old /  young / special needs / poor - can I still volunteer with The Scout Association?
Absolutely.  Scouting still has the image of being a white middle class organisation.  In fact, in many places it still is, but that isn't what we are or want to be.  The Scout Association very much wants to be representative of our society, to be more diverse and to give what Scouting has to offer to everybody.  The more diversity we get on board with our adult volunteers, the more we will be able to bridge the divide between what we are (or are perceived to be) and what we are aiming to be.


How do I sign up?
Here's The Scout Association website: www.scouts.org.uk - there's a button right there.


While I'm at it, here's my District website too.

Playdough, and writing and snow update

I made playdough!  First of all I got out the playdough that had been hanging around in the back of the toy cupboard at Toddlers, and to my delight Little C played with it without trying to eat it - result!

Here's the recipe I used.  I mixed 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tbsp vegetable oil and 2tbsp cream of tartare, and quite a bit of green food colouring (I just kept adding and stirring until it looked ok).  I put them all into a saucepan over a medium heat and stirred until it stopped being liquid and started to form into a dryish doughy mix, which scraped off the pan into a ball.