Saturday mornings at the CYA - a parent/helper’s view!

The pleasure which parents derive from the eagerly anticipated monthly CYA meetings knows no bounds! It is bliss itself in that we can arrive, let our children loose into the capable care of Peter, Brian and the team of helpers and quietly read the newspapers so considerately left there by the Institute. We can watch with a sense of schadenfreude while others keep the youngsters in check, feel pleased that they are (possibly) learning something about one of the most fascinating subjects known to man, and all this while anticipating the break for coffee and biscuits.

Brian shows how.

While the children are in the lecture theatre watching the next installment of the film, the table are prepared for the activity session. It shows the card that Roger punched the hole in

However, there are times (brace yourselves) when you may be asked to help out.... it usually starts with a phone call from Brian a week or so before the meeting. How, you wonder, are you going to give a talk (which must last exactly eight minutes), on a specific theme on which you have no knowledge whatsoever? The ensuing panic involves tearing dusty books down from shelves and putting Internet Explorer into overdrive. Until asked to prepare a talk, one never realises just how long eight minutes can be and, where children are concerned, nobody gets away with padding. Always remember, some of them have been attending for a very long time..... (It may help to know that all this swotting up does pay dividends; I actually understand how a rocket engine works now, not to mention black holes, quasars and the formation of planets. Not bad for an artist who started off making the tea!).

Peter tries his hand at the project

A little corrective surgery is needed to fix Peter's model

With most of the gluing done, time to colour Jupiter. Note the parents creche in the background.

Preparation done, we turn up early to help put the table and chairs into position (the only physical exercise some of us get all month), prepare the refreshments and find out what extra little job Brian or Peter may have in store for the lucky helper who isn’t giving a talk, overseeing the game or serving the refreshments. Last month I was this lucky person and, as a result, have discovered the pure joy to be gained from using a hammer and special tool with a circular cutting edge and a portable anvil to cut holes in strips of black card which will form an element for one of Brian’s truly amazing concepts for the children to construct. This month a kind of astronomical viewfinder through which drawings of Jupiter can be observed revolving. How he comes up with such ingenious ideas time after time nobody knows and the fact that he isn’t a presenter on Blue Peter shows that there is no justice in this world. Clearing up afterwards had its own particular attractions, not least finishing off the biscuits and tidying up the room. And there’s more: helpers have the added bonus of being publicly humiliated at the annual CYA Christmas panto..... but that deserves a piece on its own. Finally though, it’s great fun and not all work. There is, after all, the half-time film in the lecture theatre shown whilst the tables are being prepared for the next activity. This month a sci-fi thriller that has left us all in suspense until next month’s episode. There’s a lot of laughter too; whether it’s making rockets or mobiles, dinosaur bones or stellarscopes, it’s always done with humour and infectious enthusiasm. We are eternally grateful, especially to Peter and Brian, as they pass on their extensive knowledge to the astronomers of the future. Who knows what genius might emerge and they heard it all here first!

Nearly done

Clive does his 8 minute presentation on Uranus as the theme for that months meeting was "The Gas Giants."