Wellllll....
Back, with very mixed results.
So mixed that I came home for a while on Wednesday to get my head showered.
Suffice to say that patience was lacking in the two youngest members of the party and their...ummm...volume controls were stuck at Spinal Tap levels. Irritating to one who sees the peacefulness of the outdoors as one of the more attractive features. However, nothing ventured.....
We did cover, in varying degrees, celestial navagation, knots, medicinal uses of common plants, cordage making & wild foods.
Other activities planned were set aside, for the sake of everyones sanity, the frisbee was deployed and the local family pub visited.
I know the old adage is that there are no bad pupils, only bad teachers and the boys mother seemed pleased with what they had learned, one of them was even persuaded to sip nettle soup, but can anyone suggest how one can explain that the point of a fire drill will never burst into flame and no matter where you are in the world sausage, beans and chips won't be found in the hedgerow?
I tried and failed, despite a background in facilitating primary education projects. I believe the major factor was a lack of patience, there was a seemingly genuine interest and both the lads have evidently watched a few of Mr. Mears shows. But no roaring fire in 90 seconds and my failure to produce four courses from the first hundred yards walk and we go back to beating each other with sticks and back to the tent for a blast on the game-boy.
I'm trying to take some inspiration from the positive aspects, the lads did learn a bit and the teenager loved most of it, but am a tad disheartened by the whole affair.
