We have been back up to the Beacon for another junior rangers session.

I’m not sure who looks forward to these sessions more out of the two of us. We get there early so the munchkin can play on the park for a little while before the session starts.

This session was a petting zoo. There was a sheep and 2 goats and some smaller animals – A duck, 2 chickens, a rabbit and a guinea pig.

There were quite a lot of children there and although the handlers tried very hard to make sure all the kids got to stroke each animal and let them have a hold where possible, I own a very impatient 6-year-old. It’s not that she doesn’t mind waiting, she just likes to wait in an orderly fashion, it was a bit of a free for all and she isn’t that confident at pushing edging her way to the front so there was a little wobble where she thought she wasn’t going to get a stroke of the rabbit. She did, after another mum invited her in to the group of kiddies and she got to hold the guinea pig without waiting for too long.

This didn’t stop her quickly losing interest and asking to go back on the park. I thought all might be lost, then she realised that whilst the small animals were being passed around, there was another helper who was giving out food to feed the goats and the sheep.

Well she loved that bit and because everyone else was with the petting animals she was free to feed them without much interruption from other tiny hands trying to feed them too.

Eventually the goats and the sheep were full and didn’t want to eat anymore and she had decided she didn’t want to hang around, even though quite a few children had left at this stage.

We went back to the park for a few minutes before heading home.