Badge work...

 Jake is back on a mission to earn as many cubs badges as possible in as short a time as he can manage.  He's handing in two tonight and took one last week.  He's busy with another bunch too, so while there's less homework and no sport on at the moment, he's keeping me plenty busy with his other little projects.

The one that he's had heaps of fun with was his boating badge.  He has helped his grandpa do a minor repair to his boat and has had to learn about boat safety and life jackets.  Yesterday he finished it off by paddling in a canoe.  He just had to go 50m and turn and come back, but it was quite daunting for a little guy who's never done that before.  Thankfully M, with is super cute dimples, was there to help us and I didn't need to get my feet wet.  The tide was low in the lagoon too, so it was actually a breeze for Jake.

Getting the technique right is most important...

 M walked with Jake, just in case he ran into any trouble on his route.  The wind was blowing quite strongly, but Jake did really well.  Here he's turning around to head back upstream towards me...

 An uneventful turn, just about perfect...

 But paddling upstream is far tougher than going with the current with wind behind you...

 Jake's quite a toughie though and once he sets his mind to doing something, he generally figures it out.  Especially with this kind of physical stuff...

 He was chuffed with his efforts and is very keen to do this again in the not too distant future...

 But just one last paddle before heading home.  We almost couldn't get him off the water once he'd started and I see me needing to add a canoe to Jake's Christmas wishlist...

 Whoo-hoo - you did it!!  Well done, Jake!

Jake has nearly filled both his sleeves with badges and I really must do a post on all his hard work and awesome ideas and crafts.

Thanks everyone who helped him get his boating badge!

Love

Sue XXX