I thought in this session I would focus more on the dynamics and friendships of the older guys. There is a group of around 5 boys who when not participating in activities, stay together. Today the activities varied in accordance with who wanted to do what. One group would be cooking mushrooms on toast, another knot learning and another tree climbing. The girls decided to learn how to make knots with big rope, the younger boys decided to do tree climbing and the older guys stayed together to make mushrooms on toast. They all tend to joke with each other about another ones limitations. One of the boys doesn’t engage as much in the group. He tends to sit on the outside of the group and when a comment was made today, he got offended and decided to do his own thing. One of the boys commented on the way in which  he was cutting his mushrooms. This boy is one of the louder ones of the group and voices his opinions. The other boys just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

In the second session we were continuing to make the mallets. The boys were carving out their mallets from a piece of wood. They were chatting whilst they were carving. This week they were talking about their interests and asking more questions. The activity seemed to have captured their attention. They were concentrated this session and seemed to be interacting well with each other. They were talking about marriage today and friendships. They were describing what they thought about the. In terms of marriage, most of them agreed that they didn’t believe love could last, they avoided the topic of friendships.

It is interesting leading two completely different sessions. The children who are home schoolers, they have one approach to relationships. The other children in the second session have a different approach and perspective on frienships/relationships. Most of the children who are home schooled come from whole families, i have interacted with the parents. The children from the second sessions have grown up around broken families.