Duke of Edinburgh bronze in a pandemic and 14yr old, moan alert

[megletthesecond]

DS's school got them started on D of E bronze in March. They sorted out the 2 day hike which was a good start. He loves that sort of thing.

Since then DS has not been able to sort out anything physical, volunteering or a skill. His karate and army cadets haven't been helpful. All his mates have families and friends who have contacts to help and I have no one, a job and a violent younger sibling who consumes so much of my time. Parkrun would be every week but I can't commit to it we only do it a couple of times a month usually.

This is taking up so much of my time reminding him to sort stuff out and see what he can do. I can't drive him somewhere every week which rules out a lot. It does feel like the kids need a lot of support and time given to them to get them through this. I didn't realise I was signing myself up too .

Use the DofE opportunity finder - I'm DofE coordinator and loads of my cohort have used this. Opportunities online and in person.

Honestly - he needs to do it himself! If I had a student telling me repeatedly that they hadn't got replies I would simply say to try elsewhere!

My daughter is also 14 and only has the hike left to do (has done practise one though)
She contacted the local council and went litter picking every week which they signed off for her. She also did running every week for physical (recorded and signed ny her pe teacher) and online baking classes for skill (noted all of them and signed by food tech teacher).
We haven't had to drive her anywhere, she arranged and chose it herself. It is doable as her friends are all doing different things too. Just need to look at alternatives due to the current circumstances.

My ds has done an online science thing for his volunteering and really enjoyed it. He did a Joe Wicks DVD twice a week for physical, and coding for skill.
It didn't need anyone else to help him

Volunteering = litterpick. My DS did it for three months.

Skills = did a digital version of the DofE https://idea.org.uk/ for developing skills and employability

Physical = he was in a swimming club coach signed it off.

His friends have done walking and jogging. He’s now doing cycling for silver.

Agree with pp ideally he should be organising himself. In reality it will need a bit of input from you to start with on the bronze - now my DS is on silver he’s sorting it all himself.

Skills: online course

Sport: he takes his log book to karate every week for his teacher to sign

Volunteering: parkrun restarts soon and there are volunteering opportunities that don't require you to actually be there, e.g. writing the run report. Litter picking as PPs have said. Local community garden. The local council's parks department can sort him out with some digging. Listening to year 7 pupils read. The website justserve.com has local volunteering opportunities, big and small.