article by Aileen from South Lanarkshire

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Personal Experience

I was away for the weekend with the children from work to Lochgoilhead and we did some archery in the morning and after lunch we all went on a canoe.   It was a good time.   It was good to see the children’s faces in the boat and it was good that we had a water fight.   One of the children was the ring leader to use the oar to wet everyone with and she was shouting to me so that she could wet me.   She thought it was funny to see me get wet.   When we got back to shore I tried to get her back but it didn’t work as she got me instead.   It was fun as I was soaking and very wet and we all started to laugh about it.    We had to go back to the chalet to get a shower as we were wet through.   We had to put our jackets in the laundry to dry for the next day.

On Sunday we went to have a nature walk through the forest.   It was so funny as it was up and down. It was good to see the children’s faces when we went to see all the different things in the forest.   After lunch we went on a speed boat   All the children were loving it as it was a different experience for them when the boat was going very fast in the water.    All the children were laughing and smiling   

When we all went up the water to see the seals at the side of the water and we were throwing things to the seals it was nice to see them at the edge of the water and coming to the boat to see what we were putting in the water.   All the children were very excited to see all the seals and when we were in the boat the children saw a lovely rainbow over the top of us when we were to come back to the shore.   So we all started to sing “The Rainbow” (“Red and yellow etc.”).   All the children were laughing to hear us sing.

After dinner we had a bonfire.   Some of the staff went to get some wood for the fire.   Before we went up to the fire we went for a walk in the woods to get some sticks so we could toast all our marshmallows at the fire.   Some of the children had not seen a fire before so that the children could not keep their eyes off the fire.   We asked told all the children it was time to go in to get ready of bed.    They all said no, that they were wanting to stay at the fire a little longer, so we said it would be time to go to bed at 9.30 pm.   But no one wanted to go till the fire was just about finished.   Then we all went in to the chalets to have a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of cake for all the children before going to bed.

On Monday after breakfast we had to pack all our things to come back to the school.   We left at 10.00 am and we arrived back at the school at 1.30 pm.   Everyone was tired after the journey back so we saw that the children could get some lunch and after they had lunch the children went to go over to the bungalows to lie out, for a stretch out of their chairs after the long weekend.

Aileen

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