09/10/15
Today was the first day of Pack Holiday! Our theme is Superheroes, and the sixes are called 'Bat Girl', 'Wonder Woman' and 'Hulk'. This year we took 17 girls and 11 leaders (5 Adults, 3 YLs, 2 Guides and an extra Leader's daughter), so we were full to capacity!
We arrived at about 4:30 to set up. We put up all the posters that the girls had made and sorted out all the food. A couple of us then did some school work before the girls arrived, to get some of it out of the way.
The girls arrived at 6pm. Unusually, most of the girls arrived just before then, as they had travelled in convoy as a large group of friends. We only had a couple who were later than that, and no-one got hopelessly lost, which is pretty easy to do since the house is in the middle of some woods!
We got the girls settled in their beds and then started hinting to the parents that now would be a good time to leave. We had one of our newer girls who, once her mum had walked out of the door, started crying. Her mum came back in to comfort her, which possibly wasn't the best idea in the world. It transpired that her torch didn't work and the one mum had offered her instead wasn't good enough for her. I went and got my torch, because I knew I was unlikely to need it, since I have one on my phone too. This made her happy and we could finally start the evening as planned.
We did the usual safety talk about wearing slippers indoors and not running etc, and then gave out the booklets to the girls with some activities that they could do if they were bored, including a colouring page, a wordsearch, a page for all the girls to sign, and a space to write a diary of the weekend, if they wish to do their Brownie Holiday badge, as this is the only part they won't cover just by staying for the whole weekend.
We had a dinner of hot dogs, and the girls made name labels to put on the table. We always make name labels and then, for each meal, we shuffle them up and put them out randomly so that girls are sat next to someone different each meal.
Finally, we let the girls get ready for bed and attempted to get them to go to sleep. They were all really excited though, as usual, so took a long time to settle down. We had a couple who came out of their room because they were feeling unwell (probably the amount of sweets they had eaten!) and the girl who has my torch got a little homesick at one point. When the majority of us leaders went to bed at about 10:30, the girls were still talking a bit, and Brown Owl had to go in and tell them that enough was enough and go to sleep. After that, they were significantly quieter, and went to sleep!
Monday 26 October 2015
Friday 23 October 2015
Button Sewing
08/10/15
This week we started doing things towards the Brownie Skills badge. We have decided that if we do something every now and again for a few weeks then the girls will be able to earn the badge without making them sit down and do it in one evening (which we tried once, to many complaints)!
This week, we did button sewing and knot tying. Most of the girls started off sewing on buttons. We gave them each a square of felt, a choice of buttons, a piece of thread, and a needle. We then had an adult sat on each table to assist the girls - my job mostly consisted of re-threading needles and tying knots in the end of the thread! A couple of the girls had no idea how to start but. once I had shown them with mine, they went off by themselves and were fine. Lots of them, once they had done one button, asked if they could do more which we were quite surprised by. One girl even came up to me at the next meeting and proudly showed me the badge that she had sewn onto her sash by herself, really neatly I must add!
We decided to leave the knots to a future week because they were enjoying themselves too much.
This week we started doing things towards the Brownie Skills badge. We have decided that if we do something every now and again for a few weeks then the girls will be able to earn the badge without making them sit down and do it in one evening (which we tried once, to many complaints)!
This week, we did button sewing and knot tying. Most of the girls started off sewing on buttons. We gave them each a square of felt, a choice of buttons, a piece of thread, and a needle. We then had an adult sat on each table to assist the girls - my job mostly consisted of re-threading needles and tying knots in the end of the thread! A couple of the girls had no idea how to start but. once I had shown them with mine, they went off by themselves and were fine. Lots of them, once they had done one button, asked if they could do more which we were quite surprised by. One girl even came up to me at the next meeting and proudly showed me the badge that she had sewn onto her sash by herself, really neatly I must add!
We decided to leave the knots to a future week because they were enjoying themselves too much.
Wednesday 21 October 2015
Senior Section Trip to London
03/10/15
As some of you may be aware, this year is the Senior Section Centenary. Across the country, lots of events aimed at the Senior Section are being organised. One of these was our region's recent trip to London for a wide game. We weren't given any details, except that it would involve being in a team of 4 and travelling across London completing a mission. As we have 4 Senior Section members helping at our unit, we decided to sign up for it.
A few days before we were due to go, we were given our mission - take photos with as many modes of transport as possible (along with at least one team member), over the course of 5 hours. There were also bonus points for various landmarks and guiding buildings.
We got to the train station at 8:45, ready to get on the train. We managed to get a table seat and pulled out or maps to get planning our route and making a list of all modes of transport we could think of. When we got to the next station, we bumped into several other Senior Section members heading to the same event, who had the same idea as us - plan the route on the way there.
We arrived at London Paddington and, when the clock hit 11am, we were given the signal - let the competition begin! Almost immediately we spotted a teen on a skateboard so we accosted him and took a photo - he seemed a bit confused... We ran around in the station for a while, getting as many obscure pictures as possible - including scissor lifts, piggy backs, and our own feet!
We then headed out into the streets of London. We took a fair few of the obvious photos - London cabs, buses, vans, and cars. A few of our photos took a little more work to get though - notably, the police van who asked the criminals in the back if they were OK with the photo, despite us not being able to see them; the people in the back of a cab who posed too; and the woman in the elephant onsie who was protesting about elephants not being used in circuses..!
We also went to the transport museum to see if we could get in. The answer was, yes, under 15s could go in for free, so the other 3 went to do some speed photos, while I waited in the shop and took a few photos of my own - a child's pram, a wheelbarrow (bizarrely full of plushie moles), and a ride-on suitcase! The others did the whole museum in 15 minutes flat - a pretty impressive feat!
We paused for lunch in a MacDonalds and then our quest continued. We focused on the landmarks more in the second half of the day - heading first for Trafalgar Square. There was a pretty large festival type thing going on so we stood on a wall to get proof we had been near, if not quite in, to it. We then rounded a corner and found an ambulance and proceeded to try and persuade the driver to let us through the barrier to take a photo with it. He said he couldn't do that but he was happy to pass a wheelchair through the barrier so we took a photo of that too!
We then headed down towards Downing Street to see if we could take a photo outside number 10. Unfortunately the answer was no as we hadn't pre-booked but we took a photo of the gate and a police officer and hoped that would count! We also went to Baden Powell House, Horse Guards Parade, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace, before finally arriving at the Girlguiding HQ.
We sat down to work out how many point we had got (which took a long time) and came to 468! All the other teams were comparing obscure photos and looking round the shop before the winner was announced - it was us!
We were given a goodie bag which contained lots of sweets, a phone case and a Senior Section Spectacular badge for each of us. Everyone who attended was also given a LaSER London Challenge badge as we had completed it by taking part.
It was a great day out, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to do something similar! There isn't much time to stop and see much, but you get a pretty good overview of London.
A selection of our photos:
As some of you may be aware, this year is the Senior Section Centenary. Across the country, lots of events aimed at the Senior Section are being organised. One of these was our region's recent trip to London for a wide game. We weren't given any details, except that it would involve being in a team of 4 and travelling across London completing a mission. As we have 4 Senior Section members helping at our unit, we decided to sign up for it.
We got to the train station at 8:45, ready to get on the train. We managed to get a table seat and pulled out or maps to get planning our route and making a list of all modes of transport we could think of. When we got to the next station, we bumped into several other Senior Section members heading to the same event, who had the same idea as us - plan the route on the way there.
We arrived at London Paddington and, when the clock hit 11am, we were given the signal - let the competition begin! Almost immediately we spotted a teen on a skateboard so we accosted him and took a photo - he seemed a bit confused... We ran around in the station for a while, getting as many obscure pictures as possible - including scissor lifts, piggy backs, and our own feet!
We then headed out into the streets of London. We took a fair few of the obvious photos - London cabs, buses, vans, and cars. A few of our photos took a little more work to get though - notably, the police van who asked the criminals in the back if they were OK with the photo, despite us not being able to see them; the people in the back of a cab who posed too; and the woman in the elephant onsie who was protesting about elephants not being used in circuses..!
We also went to the transport museum to see if we could get in. The answer was, yes, under 15s could go in for free, so the other 3 went to do some speed photos, while I waited in the shop and took a few photos of my own - a child's pram, a wheelbarrow (bizarrely full of plushie moles), and a ride-on suitcase! The others did the whole museum in 15 minutes flat - a pretty impressive feat!
We paused for lunch in a MacDonalds and then our quest continued. We focused on the landmarks more in the second half of the day - heading first for Trafalgar Square. There was a pretty large festival type thing going on so we stood on a wall to get proof we had been near, if not quite in, to it. We then rounded a corner and found an ambulance and proceeded to try and persuade the driver to let us through the barrier to take a photo with it. He said he couldn't do that but he was happy to pass a wheelchair through the barrier so we took a photo of that too!
We then headed down towards Downing Street to see if we could take a photo outside number 10. Unfortunately the answer was no as we hadn't pre-booked but we took a photo of the gate and a police officer and hoped that would count! We also went to Baden Powell House, Horse Guards Parade, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace, before finally arriving at the Girlguiding HQ.
We sat down to work out how many point we had got (which took a long time) and came to 468! All the other teams were comparing obscure photos and looking round the shop before the winner was announced - it was us!
We were given a goodie bag which contained lots of sweets, a phone case and a Senior Section Spectacular badge for each of us. Everyone who attended was also given a LaSER London Challenge badge as we had completed it by taking part.
It was a great day out, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to do something similar! There isn't much time to stop and see much, but you get a pretty good overview of London.
A selection of our photos:
Monday 19 October 2015
Posters
Apologies for these being a bit behind - life has really got in the way these last few weeks. Stay tuned over the next short while though as I will be getting up-to-date which will involve Pack Holiday and another exciting adventure!
01/10/15
This week the girls coloured in posters for pack holiday. It was a fairly relaxed evening as all I needed to do was to sit with some of the girls and colour in my own picture.
When they were done, we played a quick game of 'Trains' and then sent them home - a nice easy meeting!
01/10/15
This week the girls coloured in posters for pack holiday. It was a fairly relaxed evening as all I needed to do was to sit with some of the girls and colour in my own picture.
When they were done, we played a quick game of 'Trains' and then sent them home - a nice easy meeting!
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