Ady and Davies had a great time at the airport. It’s the second time in as many days that Ady has had the chance to see Davies in a different environment to usual so I quizzed him lots on that. He said Davies seems to stick with the adults still rather than be in the thick of the children – although I have to say that is not what I have observed particularly so perhaps that is specific to Ady being around and more of a novelty than me ;). He said Davies was really paying attention to what the speaker was saying about the planes and the airport, asking intelligent and thoughtful questions and really listening to the answers – he certainly came home full of knowledge and information about what they’d seen and showed a really good understanding of it rather than parroting back what he’d been told. Ady said that was really different to most of the other boys who either messed about or didn’t really seem interested in ‘learning’. His perception was that Davies views everything as a learning opportunity whereas the other boys consider they’ve done their learning during school hours and Beavers is their socialising time, which sort of makes sense in lots of ways. Ady also said there were more than a couple of references to ‘asking your teacher at school’ and ‘when you get to school tomorrow’ too, at which point Davies always went glassy eyed and Ady thought was a shame it wasn’t ‘when you get home’ or ‘ask your parents’ instead.
While they were gone Scarlett and I got out a pile of about 15 library books and read them all curled up together on the sofa. We did some singing, some chatting and as is always the case with Scarlett lots of stroking and cuddling, she is a very affectionate child when she is in the right mood and will sit for ages brushing my hair, stroking my hand or curled up touching skin somewhere. I finally spoke to the leader of the local Rainbows group tonight too after nearly a fortnight of leaving messages on each others answerphones. Davies’ Beaver group had quite a long waiting list so I wanted to ensure if there was one for Rainbows then Scarlett’s name is on it for when she is five. It turns out there is no waiting list and she can start as soon as she’s five, so the leader is ringing me back mid August to discuss her starting from the first week in December in order to get a few sessions in before they break for Christmas. She was keen to stress there was no waiting list and she has room for more girls too so if ‘Scarlett has any little friends from school who want to join…?’ I didn’t put her right just yet, I think I’ll wait and do that in person nearer the time. I’ve also got her name down to start going to Badgers with Davies in December too so I’m feeling good that we’ve got that side of things well covered now.