"If we can get the kids involved,

it would be really great."
Yes, it would be. I was talking to people yesterday about what we have called, "The Queen Victoria Challenge."
I can imagine Queen Victoria sitting there. She is busy at her spinning wheel because she wastes no time and she is issuing orders.
    "You will make...and you will make...."
Her Majesty rather likes the idea of encouraging the young to create, to be busy, to be active - and of course to be seen and not heard and keep out of all mischief.  What can they make?
I like the idea of children being creative, busy, active and keeping out of mischief. They will be seen and heard of course. There have been some around the showgrounds who have been seen and heard in very positive ways. They are showing animals they have helped to breed. They are showing others their technical expertise. They are talking about projects they are involved in. 
Occasionally they have come through the handicrafts area and looked at things other children have made...and what adults have made.
Next year in particular we want more of them to be involved. The convenors of the junior art and craft and then the junior textiles came and talked to me yesterday. They looked at some of the material I had gathered and asked me about other material. There is a lot of material out there on the internet. There are plenty of ideas that children can become involved. We want them to be involved.
    "We would love  it if we had the problem of too much rather than too little," the Convenor in charge of the Open Art and Craft told them. 
I have no idea what we would do or how we would do it but we would want to display everything that came in, especially anything made by a child.  They come looking to see if their work is there and then see other things.
    "How did they do that?" and "Look at that!" and "That is way cool!" 
Yesterday someone stopped and asked me where to find the junior textiles section. I was just about to show someone where to find her very elderly mother's work in an adjacent display cabinet so I took them all down there. I pointed out the relevant display cabinet to the adult who said she knew her mother's work and would show it to her friend. Then I took the mother and father and child to where the child's work was on display. Children don't get prizes as such but they do get commendations. 
And there was the little girl's work with a commendation on it. She looked at it and then her face broke into a smile. 
    "Pretty good?" I asked.
She nodded and whispered, "Thank you."
It gave her parents a moment to compose themselves. I could see why. She was sitting in a tiny wheelchair with an oxygen bottle on the back and her father told me as she and her mother went a little further down to find her sister's work,
     "Thank you. It is the only chance she had."
No, she won't be with us next year.
If we can do even just that much for one more child then it will be worth getting the children involved.