Catch up on...Activity Week!

I haven't written on here for ....ooh, nearly a month.  Got out of the habit, out of touch, out of contact with my computer, out of ideas.... no, not the last actually. Too MANY ideas and not enough time or mental capacity to sort through them.  So I think I'll post catch-up points separately - as many as I remember.  This is the first one - Activity Week.  This is what I wrote for the school magazine, more or less:

Year 5 Activities Week: The Challenge

Challenge :
No 1: get 39 children and 5 adults safely to Manor Adventure Activity Centre in Shropshire. Achieved.
No 2 – from Rory Betley: estimate arrival time accurately, to the nearest three minutes. Achieved by Mrs P, much to Mr V’s chagrin.
No 3: get to sleep before 10.30pm. Achieved by the children. Not by the adults.
No 4: choose healthy menu choices. Hmmm… not many vegetables were seen on some plates, but many apples, bananas and oranges were consumed.
No 5: climb rope ladders, walk/crawl/jump up, along or down aerial walkways, poles, or scrambling nets. Achieved with varying degrees of agility, sometimes accompanied by screams, always with huge determination.
No 6: capsize Mr V. Spectacularly achieved. Did anyone remain dry in the kayaking and canoeing sessions? Hardly. Particularly the occupants of a canoe with a slow leak, which, despite energetic bailing, slowly filled up with water until it, too capsized.
No 7: hit the target in archery or rifle shooting. Achieved – with varying degrees of success.
No 8: work as a team to overcome difficulties in initiative exercises. Interesting. Very. Success required good listening and cooperation.
No 9: build a suitable survival shelter. Year 5 easily convinced their teachers that it would be quite safe to be marooned on a desert island together. The structures the children created were superb. Parents, keep a careful eye on your gardens – you may need to apply for retrospective planning permission.
No. 10: return to Guernsey just in time for the last week of school.
ACHIEVED!

It was an exhausting week - but provided me with so many laughs.  And what is better - the children had so much fun, they haven't stopped talking about it since. "That was the best week of my life!" said Harry to his mother. A dry 'Thanks, Harry!' as she mentally reviewed the previous ten years spent at home with his family...and the child who climbed along the aerial walkway, face screwed up in concentration, crying "I can't do it! I can't do it!" as he shimmied rapidly along the bars and then rushed back to the beginning for another go... I love it!