What a great year it’s been!
The scouts have enjoyed getting out in the fresh air and enjoying the local area. We have taken a few hikes up the hills and also played games down on the beach. It’s been fantastic to see the Scouts putting their new skills into practise, planning routes and navigating with maps. Using maps further we located contour lines and then created our own scaled down models of the hills.
We have a very creative bunch of scouts this year and they have demonstrated their talents in a variety of ways such as, t-shirt paint, pumpkin carving, creating wooden peg snowflakes, soap carving and painting Warhammer figurines. After our visit to Reinden Wood, the scouts made some amazing field journals, researching the local flora and fauna and illustrating their findings.
As we know, every scout is a pyromaniac at heart, and lighting fires is always exciting. The Scouts have been practising this skill, learning how to light fires safely. We have toasted marshmallows and also made our own dough to bake bread twists. Food is always a winner with the Scouts and a great motivator. The patrols worked well when challenged to, using only one hand each, make cookies. There was flour on the floor and a few broken eggs that missed the bowl but all managed to make something that was edible. Making rocky road was another evening enjoyed by all.
Pioneering and knotting has also been a big focus this year. The Scouts started by refreshing their knowledge of basic knots and lashings and just a few weeks back were able to work together to build a working catapult.
Trying to beat official world records was a great laugh. Seeing who could eat Jacobs crackers in the quickest time or stick the most post-it notes to their face in a minute was very entertaining. Although a competitive evening it was great to see them also cheering their friends on.
Archery was great fun. All scouts did so well, hitting the target became too easy so we introduced the challenge of hitting different coloured balloons, even the leaders and some parents got involved with some friendly competition at the end!
A big thank you to a member of the local Blood Bikes team from SERV Kent who shared first-hand stories and facts about what they do. The motorbike was on show and the demonstration of the lights and sirens made a few scouts jump, ha ha!
We are really looking forward to connect22, an adventure day at Lower Grange Farm Scouting Centre. We are also planning a camp to build up our nights away.
Beckie & the Scouts volunteer team
