Little Adventures Challenge

I originally wrote this post in August 2013 for a Tots100 and Center Parcs challenge, but as we don’t get many chances for Little Adventures, due to son1’s chemotherapy, I thought I would share our adventure again for the Little Adventures Linky Challenge.

This post is an entry for BritMums ‘Little Adventures Challenge’ in partnership with Barny, the bear-shaped snack providing a little discovery in every bite. Find out more about Barny here.  I didn’t get any of the Barny snack samples, but they certainly sound tasty, so I’m sure my Little Adventurers would enjoy them.

Here is my original post …..

Tots100 and Center Parcs have challenged bloggers to make, decorate and sail a miniature sail boat.  See here for details.  This sounded like something that son1 could enjoy between his in-patient chemotherapy treatments.  There was a picture of a paper boat on the challenge and I remember hours of fun making origami fortune salt cellars as a child.  So I thought I would introduce my children to origami.

We decided that we would make four boats, so that there was one each for Mummy and Daddy too.  We only had printer paper, so we followed the top tip of crayoning our sheets of paper first to make them waterproof, remembering to do both sides, although Mummy had to fill in a few small gaps.  We then tried to fold son1’s boat first, but found it rather tricky trying to follow some of the silent video instructions.  So we unfolded it again and swapped to a different origami website which had both video and written instructions.  Much simpler to follow.  We quickly completed boats 2 and 3, but saved the last one, to challenge Daddy to make when he got home from work.

The plan was to take them out to sail at the weekend, but Saturday was rubbish weather so we deferred our trip until Sunday afternoon.  We headed to a nearby pond, where the ducks were disappointed when we produced boats out of our bag rather than bread.  We launched the boats in the water and initially they kept beaching within moments.  But we persevered, and eventually they caught the breeze and set sail.  We then wondered if someone would have to wade in to collect them, as we didn’t want to leave them as litter in the pond.  But the wind changed direction and they sailed back to where we had launched them.  It was a close finish, but son2’s boat was the winner.  And none had capsized.  We collected the boats up, waved goodbye to the heron on the island in the pond, and had a short stroll in the adjacent wood, sampling a few blackberries.

We then completed an enjoyable afternoon with a visit to the play area, followed by yummy cake at Teas on the Green.  We brought the boats home and they were still waterproof enough to float around in the paddling pool in the garden the next day.

Crayon designs

Origami

Some of the finished boats

Launching the boats

Sailing away

A close finish as the boats return