Summer Silliness

This month has been rather slower on the badge front due to end-of-school-year exhaustion for one thing. However, on the penultimate week of term I accompanied a school Duke of Edinburgh's Award trip to the Brecon Beacons in Wales, with fellow rebel Rachel and two D of E leaders. Obviously we had to take Fred the houseplant with us and he accompanied us on several walks, stayed in tents and minibuses and played in an adventure playground. He also came to a cafe. The weather was generally awful, but he coped magnificently (as did we and the kids). While there I finished my Camper Badge, and started my Advanced Camper Badge. I only had the menu planning and camp kitchen to do for camping, as I had camped lots the previous year but hadn't needed to cater. Advanced camping should be finished after a festival next month and Rebel Camp. I highly recommend camping in the rain, and hiking in the Welsh hills on damp days. The woods and waterfalls were magnificent. There are also lots of nice warm cafes where leaders can warm up while waiting to rendezvous.

Big Kid Summer has been an ongoing theme, and while I haven't completed as much as I wanted to, I have still managed 12 clauses. There are still two days to complete more and I might just carry on into August. We took bubbles and a kite to Wales, and also found an adventure playground and played on the swings and the slide; I forgot that there is almost no friction on a wet metal slide while wearing waterproof trousers. Oops. I have also climbed a tree, drawn with chalks on a rock, jumped in puddles (lots of them in Wales), had a sleepover, coloured in, had a picnic, tried new ice-cream (lemon flavour. Yum!), fed the ducks and made s'mores on a campfire. We also played pooh sticks but that wasn't on the list.

Scrapbooking badge is complete now that my Rebel journal is up-to-date; it is a mixture of writing, stickers and printouts of activities, and will obviously continue to be added to. I have logged over 50 merit badges and several quarterly and monthly badges.

I am working on Craft Part 2, and this week have completed a Diamond Art butterfly picture. I am pleased with the end result but oh my goodness, what a tedious job it was. I shan't be doing that again. I made a chocolate sculpture for the Chocolate Challenge, so have counted that here too, and completed some visible fixing on a cardigan a few months ago.

Finally, I decided to have a go at writing a poem about my job. It's a good job I don't teach English!

Poem about work:

Days start quietly, contemplating emails
And organising resources.
The occasional , often pointless, meeting.

In the distance the growing whoops and shrieks of teenagers,
Clammering at the gate for a day of learning,
Or for a day disrupting everyone else. For some at least.
I gird my loins and saunter out to meet my tutor group,
To inspect uniform, hand out detentions and praise,
And to listen to their woes.

The rest of the day goes something like this:
"Tuck your shirt in",
"Listen when I am teaching",
"Show your working out",
"Why haven't you got a pen? It did not explode! Pay attention in physics"
Sometimes a Maths concept gets through.

So many think that Maths is mostly useless,
Having been fed this by the media and trusted adults,
And refuse to see the beauty of Algebra, Geometry, Numbers,
And can't get their heads around learning for the sake of it.
"When am I ever gonna need this Miss?" Is heard often.
So short-sighted. Such a shame.

When most leave at day's end,
I run clubs for the Nerd Herd,
And am known as The Empress of the Council of Doom.
I have been called much worse.
Often.

Thank goodness for holidays!