Flat as a pancake

In honour of Pancake Day, I thought I'd share with you a couple of things that I've done over the years that didn't really go as planned. I'm a firm believer that any learning experience is a valuable one, just as any pancake tastes good even if it does end up a bit misshapen when you try and flip it in the frying pan.

Lesson #1: A boat isn't any fun unless you can race it (unless it's a pirate ship)

You've already read my experience with the coracles I'm sure, but that's not the only time we've had fun and games with boats. Last summer, we were making small bowl boats from polystyrene bowls as part of a transport event. I'd expected it to be really popular, and a good chance to talk about how wind on the sails makes the boat move. To my surprise, no-one seemed particularly interested. I'd got a little paddling pool out for them to try and float the boats on (so they could blow on the sails and move the ship) but the responses I got were very much of the "Are we going to race them? No? Oh. I won't bother then." type.

Eventually, I managed to persuade a little boy to have a go. He drew a big skull and crossbones on the flag, and was very proud of his little pirate ship. After that, I suddenly had a lot of requests to make 'pirate ships', and the small paddling pool (now one of the seven seas, of course) was immediately in great demand. Somehow, just by having that touch of fantasy, the same activity suddenly became a lot more attractive.

Lesson #2: Demand will sometimes be greater than supply

Conversely, sometimes you're a victim of your own success. You come up with an idea so fantastic that everyone wants to have a go. This can be a problem if the activity has limited resources, or is time dependant. Over the years I've gotten much better at predicting what the 'most-wanted' will be, but every now and then you'll still find something catches you out and proves to be madly more popular than you expected.

Most bizarre popular activity? A game called 'feed the ostrich' where you threw beanbags into buckets. I've still no idea why (I asked, but no-one seemed able to tell me why they liked it so much) but everyone wanted a go.



Have you got some flat-pancake-lessons you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!