04/10/19
I returned to my old unit to help Mum with her pack holiday this year along with my husband. The theme for this years pack holiday was Civil Engineering and we did the 'AMEY Guiding Girls Into Engineering' Challenge badge (unfortunately not available any more). Me and my other half were in charge of running the activities as he is a Civil Engineer, Mum and the other leader cooked, and we had 1 more leader and a DofE student to help out.
On the Friday night, we all arrived earlier than the girls to the house we stay in so that we could set up posters, activities, and the food. We also had to pitch a tent outside for my husband as Girlguiding rules are that men must have separate sleeping arrangements when on an overnight stay with Girlguiding members.All the leaders also had a quick microwave meal for dinner so we had the energy for what was to come!
The girls all arrived at around 6:30 and hurriedly found themselves a bunk to share with their friend. It was absolute chaos for half an hour and the newer parents faces were a picture when they were helping their daughters bring in their stuff and set up their beds! Once the parents had all gone, we sat the girls all down and explained all the rules to them, such as not leaving the house wihout an adult, not leaving the paths in the woods, and not running down the corridors, especially past the kitchen door.
Then it was time for the first activity - a wide game that my husband had created. The aim was to teach the girls what a typical day in the life of a civil engineer was. He had bought a load of his work PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) - high-vis jackets and trousers, hard hats, safety specs, and gloves and we split the girls into their three sixes. We also had one leader with each six who had a torch so the girls could see what they were doing as, by this time, it was dark. The girls started in their 'office' with a design for a shape, made up of several flags that they had to mark and the distances between them. One at a time, they had to run up to the middle, the 'locker room' where the PPE was, put all the items on, pick up a flag and a tape measure, and then run to the 'site' where there was one flag already placed. They had to measure out where their flag needed to go, and put it in the ground before running back to the 'locker room' to take off the PPE and then returning to the 'office' for the next girls to have a turn. We explained to them that this is what my husband spends a lot of his time going between his office and site to set out the next thing which the workers are going to build. He then went and measured each of the sixes creations and awarded the winner to the most accurate design who finished quickest - his explanation being that if you do it wrong in the real world then you have to repeat yourself which loses more time. The girls got quite into the game, although they did need some help using the tape measure - we had kept the measurements to 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m but some of them couldn't even manage that. A few girls complained that it was too dark and they were a bit cold (they were all wearing coats) until he explained that he can sometimes be doing this at 2 in the morning! I'm not sure if we impressed them or put them off with that comment!
After we had finished the wide game, which took a bit longer than we anticipated, the girls all went in for a snack tea. They should all have eaten a proper dinner before they came but we make a few pizzas so they can warm back up after being outside in the dark. We also made the place name cards which we use to jumble up all the girls at the table each time we eat. They then had some hot chocolate and mini marshmallows before going and changing into their pyjamas and brushing their teeth ready for bed. They took a very long time to settle, but that usually happens as they are excited and there are a lot of them in one room. Brown Owl went in a few times to get them to settle down and clam the girls who were a bit homesick and they eventually fell asleep just after midnight.
It was a good first evening to pack holiday this year, and the girls seemed to enjoy the game my husband had created.
Monday 14 October 2019
Monday 7 October 2019
New Year, New Unit
I moved house in May this year and I decided to hold off finding a new Brownie unit until now so I would have time to settle in to my new routine and the new area. I got in contact with the local Division Commissioner through a friend and she pointed me towards a unit which was desparately in need of an extra pair of hands. The leader who has been running it lost her second leader a few years back and has been struggling with the admin side of things a lot, although she is a very good leader and all the girls love her. The unit currently meets on a Monday night from 5:00-6:30 but I am going to join a local orchestra on Mondays and 5:00 is too early for me to be able to get home from work for so it has been suggested that the unit move to Tuesdays from 5:45-7:15 after half term so that it can stay open. Most of the parents seem to be on board with this, and there is even one girl who can no longer make Mondays but can make Tuesdays so she doesn't need to move unit.
I have been along to two halves of meetings so far (the absolute earliest I can arrive is around 5:35) and have thoroughly enjoyed myself so far. The unit has 18 girls of a variety of ages and they are all really nice. In the first meeting, they all got to tell the unit what they had done during the summer holiday and then they played a game of Dodgeball and a game of Ladders. In the second meeting, they made loom band bracelets as there were lots of the bands left in the cupboard. Some of the older girls made fancy looking ones, and I helped some of the younger ones make a simpler kind.
The unit is really nice and I am going to look forwards to helping run the meetings - it will be nice to be able to put my own twist on how to run a meeting eventually. I am also going to help teach the other leader about the new programme - we have a few Skills Builder cards which are borrowed from District which we are going to make a start on and then try and slot in some of the UMAs too.
And you can look forwards to this blog picking back up again, starting with pack holiday with my old unit!
I have been along to two halves of meetings so far (the absolute earliest I can arrive is around 5:35) and have thoroughly enjoyed myself so far. The unit has 18 girls of a variety of ages and they are all really nice. In the first meeting, they all got to tell the unit what they had done during the summer holiday and then they played a game of Dodgeball and a game of Ladders. In the second meeting, they made loom band bracelets as there were lots of the bands left in the cupboard. Some of the older girls made fancy looking ones, and I helped some of the younger ones make a simpler kind.
The unit is really nice and I am going to look forwards to helping run the meetings - it will be nice to be able to put my own twist on how to run a meeting eventually. I am also going to help teach the other leader about the new programme - we have a few Skills Builder cards which are borrowed from District which we are going to make a start on and then try and slot in some of the UMAs too.
And you can look forwards to this blog picking back up again, starting with pack holiday with my old unit!
Monday 9 September 2019
I'm Back! | Update
My apologies for not posting detailed blogs about the last 2 meetings I went to at my old unit, life got a bit hectic and I forgot I hadn't even written the posts, let alone posted them. I have since got married, been on my honeymoon, moved house, and am settling into my new job! At one of my last meetings, we did a Skills Builder mop up where we worked out what activities girls had missed from the Skills Builder they had chosen. Those girls who had finished the whole Skills Builder did an activity from the Skills Builder they hadn't chosen, to save them repeating the same activitiy twice. It was a bit of a juggling act but we managed to get every girl who was missing one activity to complete it and therefore gain their badge and those girls who had missed more than one meeting got one more activity towards their Skills Builder and can catch up another activity at another mop up session. In the other meeting we simply played games and the girls voted on their next Skills Builder.
I have now settled down in my new house and am in the process of finding a unit to help at. One unit has been suggested, but they meet on a day that I am busy. I am going along to the end of one of their meetings to meet the other Leader and the girls and then they will look into moving it to a different day in the week, as otherwise the unit is likely to close fairly soon. The other Leader enjoys being amongst the girls (and apparently is a very popular leader) but does not enjoy the planning and admin side of things and her other Leader stopped helping recently. Hopefully I will be able to step in and help her out, providing they can persuade the parents that moving the day is the best option. Fingers crossed!
I have now settled down in my new house and am in the process of finding a unit to help at. One unit has been suggested, but they meet on a day that I am busy. I am going along to the end of one of their meetings to meet the other Leader and the girls and then they will look into moving it to a different day in the week, as otherwise the unit is likely to close fairly soon. The other Leader enjoys being amongst the girls (and apparently is a very popular leader) but does not enjoy the planning and admin side of things and her other Leader stopped helping recently. Hopefully I will be able to step in and help her out, providing they can persuade the parents that moving the day is the best option. Fingers crossed!
Monday 22 April 2019
Be Prepared Avon
A month ago, on March 22nd, a group of BUGS (Bath University Guides and Scouts), ex-BUGS, and local Scout Leaders gathered at Cleeve Hill campsite in Bath for a weekend of survival skills in the form of Be Prepared Avon. Important things first, we got a campfire going and some food in the oven! We had a nice relaxing evening sat around catching up with friends and drinking a bit before heading to our tents for the night.
We were woken bright and early by a call for breakfast (bacon rolls!) and a staff briefing. We then grabbed radios and split off into various tasks - several people donned high vis and headed out to the road to direct parents and leaders, some people went off to build fires and set up various bases, and I ended up at the bag drop tent. At 9:00 the Scouts (and a few Guides!) started arriving in dribs and drabs. They were walked up from the nearby school by volunteers and brought up to my tent where they could put all their bags for the day. I then sent them back down to the large tent we had set up in the car park with benches and a projector in. Once all the kids had arrived (close to 100!) they were briefed on the situation for the day - there has been an earthquake and you need to survive in your family (all the kids were muddled up into groups of about 8). There were points on offer for completing the task successfully and also for teamwork and leadership, as well as the potential for volunteers to deduct points for bad bahaviour. All the leaders were taken into the hut and also briefed on their role for the day - they were assigned a base for 3 sessions at a time to assist the volunteer who was running it.
Once everyone had been briefed, the kids all headed out into one of the fields to meet their new family. They also did the 'suitcase activity' - they had a large bag of various items and a smaller bag which they could take with them. They had to decide, as a family, which items were important enough to take with them and then make them fit in the bag. They would get points at each base for having the correct item in their bag. They were also told that they needed to look after the bag very well - if it was found unattended, it would be taken and they would lose points for that, along with not being able to gain the points at each base.
Having selected their items, the kids were released into their first base. On the Saturday I was running the water base. They had to make a pipeline for some rice, retrieve a ping pong ball from the bottom of a pipe with holes in, and throw a rope to someone on a boat. It was quite an entertaining base, resulting in a few kids getting soaked when they dropped the pipe with holes in it! I did end up deducting a few points for kids who thought it would be funny to throw a bottle of rice at me, throw rice at the other team, or splash leader helpers with water..! I also confiscated 2 bags that were left on my base - one of which was at one of the breaks when the whole group ran off manically towards the biscuits and never even returned for their bag!
Each base had a radio, along with the control who were doing scores and there were some entertaining conversations taking place, including a bout of karaoke at one point, and lots of brie puns as we had a large one in the kitchen for us to eat later. We also had a megaphone with a siren feature which we used to simulate an aftershock - when it went off the kids had to crouch and cover their heads and points were deducted for not doing it well enough which meant that there were lots of deductions flying around on the radio. At one point the guy who was doing the scores wasn't near his laptop so he was stood in the middle of the field with his phone trying to write them all down as they came flying in!
When the kids were in their final base, we had to hand out a Golden Ticket to the quietest person in each family. I won't spoil the reason for the Golden Ticket but there is an activity to end the day which involves them. Once this activity had been completed, it was time for scores and a debrief. We announced the overall winner, and the winners in the 3 categories, leadership, teamwork, and strategy. Then it was time to get the kids back to their parents or into the minibusses. Several volunteers escourted the kids back to the school, once they had picked up their bags, and waiting for the parents there while we loaded up the minibusses in the car park. By 4pm, all of the kids had left site and the volunteers had free reign! We reset all the bases ready for the next morning and moved things into tents for the night. We then headed down to the campfire and set up the BBQ! Dinner was burgers, sausages, and halloumi skewers. We then spent the rest of the night sat round the campfire, chatting and drinking. Lots of stories were shared about resedentials that had gone wrong and trips that had gone well with each of our units, as well as the obligatory campfire songs. I taught everyone "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea". When it started getting late, we all retired to our tents again, ready to do it all again tomorrow!
We were once again woken up by a call for breakfast, although this time it came with a personalised talking clock who told us what time it was every 30 seconds, and added observations about the weather and temperature (including the phrase "it is 47 degrees Farenheit for those of you who measure temperature wrong"!)! We all grabbed breakfast and our radios again before heading out to manage traffic. Today, I decided to go up to the road and do something different. I stood in the entrance to the campsite, pointing parents in the right direction to park at the school. One woman claimed she couldn't see the people by the school (who were all wearing high vis jackets!) so I asked over the radio if they could make themselves any more visible and they all started dancing and sent someone to collect the big campsite sign to wave around! This morning a large number of the Guides were coming on a coach so my other task was to coordinate that. Our plan was the same as last years - have the coach stop directly outside the campsite and direct traffic around it while unloading the kids. This worked perfectly this year too - it stopped on the other side of the road and I waved cars past in each direction while they all got off onto the pavement and then several of us stood in the road to stop the traffic while everyone crossed over and walked down onto the campsite. The road isn't too busy but there is enough traffic to need a few people to manage the cars, especially as the campsite entrance is just round a bend. It went very smoothly this year, as it did last year.
On the Sunday, I was on the first aid base. We keep a volunteer on a base for the whole day so that scoring is consistent across all the groups but we all swap around for the second day as you start going a bit crazy doing the same activity over and pver again! On this base, I had set up 5 hazards for them to spot before they came into the tent, and then one of my extra leaders lay down in the middle of the tent to be a casualty. Once the kids had spotted all the hazards, we talked about how to check if a person is responsive and breathing. I then demonstrated the recovery position and let the girls have a go in pairs while we all walked around making sure they all had the right technique. Once they had all had a go, we discussed what you should do if the person was unresponsive and not breathing. I then demonstrated CPR - chest compressions and rescue breaths before letting the girls have a go at that too. I was very surprised at the number who didn't want to give the rescue breaths a go - I stressed that in a real situation, you don't have to do them if you don't feel comfortable and that the chest compressions are more important but that this was a good opportunity to practice the technique in case they did need it at some point. A lot of the girls did eventually have a go once they realised there were points up for grabs too (points on my base were awarded for willingness to get stuck in as much as they were given for actual ability to do the tasks) but they weren't all that happy about it. A lot of the points that I deducted from this base were for abusing the Annie's, including peeling their faces off and bending them backwards in half! I was very surprised though that one of the girls in the last group had actually used her CPR knowledge before and had saved a persons life after they collapsed at a train station. Her parents were paramedics so they had taught her how to do it from a young age but it was still an impressive feat for a teenager. I did have to giggle slightly though whenI was explaining that if you do CPR correctly then you will probably break a few ribs and this girls pipes up from next to me "yeah, I broke 3 when I did it"!
The departure went much the same as Saturday, except we made sure that the coach group came out first and loaded up before we let anyone else walk past it to the school. Other than that, 15 minutes after finishing, all the girls were with parents and no longer our responsibility. All that remained was for us to pack down all the tents and equipment we had used and return it to the various Scout huts and houses that it lives in year round. It only took us just over an hour to pack down several large tents and then we were on the way home.
This was a very enjoyable weekend, as it was last year too, although I wasn't aware it was possible to ache so much the morning after! Even the heel of my right hand was sore from the amount of CPR I was demonstrating! I was utterly exhausted for the week afterwards, but it was absolutely worth it to run an activity for Guides and Scouts which they wouldn't necessarily get to do at any other time. Even though I am moving further away soon, I have pencilled in the provisional date in my calendar and will be returning once more. It is a great place to catch up with friends from university as well as meet new leaders from the area and learn new things. Also, next year is the 10th anniversary of the event so it should be a big one.
(Note: all young people in photos have social media permissions, all photos available on the Be Prepared Facebook page)
Once everyone had been briefed, the kids all headed out into one of the fields to meet their new family. They also did the 'suitcase activity' - they had a large bag of various items and a smaller bag which they could take with them. They had to decide, as a family, which items were important enough to take with them and then make them fit in the bag. They would get points at each base for having the correct item in their bag. They were also told that they needed to look after the bag very well - if it was found unattended, it would be taken and they would lose points for that, along with not being able to gain the points at each base.
Having selected their items, the kids were released into their first base. On the Saturday I was running the water base. They had to make a pipeline for some rice, retrieve a ping pong ball from the bottom of a pipe with holes in, and throw a rope to someone on a boat. It was quite an entertaining base, resulting in a few kids getting soaked when they dropped the pipe with holes in it! I did end up deducting a few points for kids who thought it would be funny to throw a bottle of rice at me, throw rice at the other team, or splash leader helpers with water..! I also confiscated 2 bags that were left on my base - one of which was at one of the breaks when the whole group ran off manically towards the biscuits and never even returned for their bag!
When the kids were in their final base, we had to hand out a Golden Ticket to the quietest person in each family. I won't spoil the reason for the Golden Ticket but there is an activity to end the day which involves them. Once this activity had been completed, it was time for scores and a debrief. We announced the overall winner, and the winners in the 3 categories, leadership, teamwork, and strategy. Then it was time to get the kids back to their parents or into the minibusses. Several volunteers escourted the kids back to the school, once they had picked up their bags, and waiting for the parents there while we loaded up the minibusses in the car park. By 4pm, all of the kids had left site and the volunteers had free reign! We reset all the bases ready for the next morning and moved things into tents for the night. We then headed down to the campfire and set up the BBQ! Dinner was burgers, sausages, and halloumi skewers. We then spent the rest of the night sat round the campfire, chatting and drinking. Lots of stories were shared about resedentials that had gone wrong and trips that had gone well with each of our units, as well as the obligatory campfire songs. I taught everyone "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea". When it started getting late, we all retired to our tents again, ready to do it all again tomorrow!
We were once again woken up by a call for breakfast, although this time it came with a personalised talking clock who told us what time it was every 30 seconds, and added observations about the weather and temperature (including the phrase "it is 47 degrees Farenheit for those of you who measure temperature wrong"!)! We all grabbed breakfast and our radios again before heading out to manage traffic. Today, I decided to go up to the road and do something different. I stood in the entrance to the campsite, pointing parents in the right direction to park at the school. One woman claimed she couldn't see the people by the school (who were all wearing high vis jackets!) so I asked over the radio if they could make themselves any more visible and they all started dancing and sent someone to collect the big campsite sign to wave around! This morning a large number of the Guides were coming on a coach so my other task was to coordinate that. Our plan was the same as last years - have the coach stop directly outside the campsite and direct traffic around it while unloading the kids. This worked perfectly this year too - it stopped on the other side of the road and I waved cars past in each direction while they all got off onto the pavement and then several of us stood in the road to stop the traffic while everyone crossed over and walked down onto the campsite. The road isn't too busy but there is enough traffic to need a few people to manage the cars, especially as the campsite entrance is just round a bend. It went very smoothly this year, as it did last year.
This was a very enjoyable weekend, as it was last year too, although I wasn't aware it was possible to ache so much the morning after! Even the heel of my right hand was sore from the amount of CPR I was demonstrating! I was utterly exhausted for the week afterwards, but it was absolutely worth it to run an activity for Guides and Scouts which they wouldn't necessarily get to do at any other time. Even though I am moving further away soon, I have pencilled in the provisional date in my calendar and will be returning once more. It is a great place to catch up with friends from university as well as meet new leaders from the area and learn new things. Also, next year is the 10th anniversary of the event so it should be a big one.
(Note: all young people in photos have social media permissions, all photos available on the Be Prepared Facebook page)
Monday 15 April 2019
Planning Thinking Day | Queen's Guide Update #3
This blog is going to detail the planning process of District Thinking Day 2019, which I planned as part of my Queen's Guide.
It had been suggested to me by my mentor that I could volunteer to assist with the planning as my Service In Guiding Element 3. I brought it up at a District meeting and somehow ended up being asked if I would plan the whole thing..! At this meeting, we also gathered a few ideas from other leaders which I went to investigate. I pulled up a shortlist and found out the various prices. I also contacted a few local coach companies to get quotes for travelling to each of the chosen venues. From this information, I created a Google Form questionnaire, asking leaders which of the options they wanted to do, and what dates they were available. I also asked them whether they wanted to have 3 separate coach meeting points, as we usually do, or whether they wanted a single central meeting point. It had been suggested by a fellow leader that a single central point would make much more sense as it would mean that parents with girls in different sections would only have to drop off at one place, rather than 2 as has happened in the past (and parents have previously not registered this and dropped both girls off at one stop, incorrectly).
I gave the leaders 2 weeks to reply to my questionnaire and the results were clear cut - and almost unanimous vote to visit Techniquest in Cardiff and there were 2 dates which had equal votes so I chose one of them, Saturday March 9th. The coach situation was more puzzling, almost all the leaders had voted to continue as we had been doing, with 3 separate coach pickups, even though to me this was more work for the parents. I put this on the back burner for now, and emailed out the date, location and price for the trip. I asked for a £10 deposit for each girl, to secure their place, and then the final balance closer to the time, of £5 per girl and £9 per adult.
I collected the deposits and kept track of the numbers over the course of the month we allowed for deposits to be paid. At the end of this time, we had 116 girls and 28 adults booked on the trip across 9 units! I also made a decision on the coach company and confirmed our booking with them. I then returned to thinking about the coach pickup location. I still thought it would be a good idea for all the girls to be picked up from the same place so I consulted another leader and she also agreed. I decided that we would give it a go, even though a large proportion of leaders didn't think it was a good idea. My logic was that we could trial it this year and, if they didn't think it went well then they could go back to their original method next year, when I will have moved out of the district! I also asked my Queen's Guide mentor if she would be able to be our home contact for the day as she doesn't run any units. She said she was more than happy so I got some contact details for her to send to all the leaders.
As it got closer to the trip date, I sent out more final details, relating to where we would be stopping for dinner, how much spending money girls should bring, and exact pick up and drop off times. I then visited Techniquest with my fiancé so that we could gather information for my risk assessment. He writes lots of risk assessments at work so I thought he would be best placed to help me with that as I have never written one for a large scale event before. Techniquest were very nice and allowed us to visit free of charge. We were there for about 2 hours, although part of that was us having a go at some of the activities! We made lots of notes about areas which would need to be covered on the risk assessment, such as a dark area with flashing lights and the coach drop off area.We also stopped on our way home at the services where we will be having dinner, to assess what options were available, their prices, and what was available for gluten free girls, which was a concern raised by several other leaders.
Once we had completed our visit, I wrote up a detailed risk assessment which was emailed out to all the leaders. I also spent some time creating details sheets for all the leaders to carry on the day. I made an A5 sheet, one for each unit, giving details of the number of girls expected to be on their coach, a timetable of the day (including lunch slot and times of the free show that they could book onto on arrival), and the phone numbers of me, the District Commissioner, and the Home Contact. Finally, I created myself some sheets with important information on, including phone numbers for all the units, which unit was on which coach, a detailed timetable with additional notes where needed, and a signup sheet for visiting the shop (it is a small shop so we spread the units out throughout the day).
The full blog on the details of the trip is here. The trip went incredibly smoothly, several leaders came up to me to tell me I had done a great job of organising it. The single coach pickup point worked perfectly, hopefully they will continue to do it that way as I think it was a great idea, and made life so much easier for the parents. Organising a large scale trip was more stressful than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
It had been suggested to me by my mentor that I could volunteer to assist with the planning as my Service In Guiding Element 3. I brought it up at a District meeting and somehow ended up being asked if I would plan the whole thing..! At this meeting, we also gathered a few ideas from other leaders which I went to investigate. I pulled up a shortlist and found out the various prices. I also contacted a few local coach companies to get quotes for travelling to each of the chosen venues. From this information, I created a Google Form questionnaire, asking leaders which of the options they wanted to do, and what dates they were available. I also asked them whether they wanted to have 3 separate coach meeting points, as we usually do, or whether they wanted a single central meeting point. It had been suggested by a fellow leader that a single central point would make much more sense as it would mean that parents with girls in different sections would only have to drop off at one place, rather than 2 as has happened in the past (and parents have previously not registered this and dropped both girls off at one stop, incorrectly).
I gave the leaders 2 weeks to reply to my questionnaire and the results were clear cut - and almost unanimous vote to visit Techniquest in Cardiff and there were 2 dates which had equal votes so I chose one of them, Saturday March 9th. The coach situation was more puzzling, almost all the leaders had voted to continue as we had been doing, with 3 separate coach pickups, even though to me this was more work for the parents. I put this on the back burner for now, and emailed out the date, location and price for the trip. I asked for a £10 deposit for each girl, to secure their place, and then the final balance closer to the time, of £5 per girl and £9 per adult.
I collected the deposits and kept track of the numbers over the course of the month we allowed for deposits to be paid. At the end of this time, we had 116 girls and 28 adults booked on the trip across 9 units! I also made a decision on the coach company and confirmed our booking with them. I then returned to thinking about the coach pickup location. I still thought it would be a good idea for all the girls to be picked up from the same place so I consulted another leader and she also agreed. I decided that we would give it a go, even though a large proportion of leaders didn't think it was a good idea. My logic was that we could trial it this year and, if they didn't think it went well then they could go back to their original method next year, when I will have moved out of the district! I also asked my Queen's Guide mentor if she would be able to be our home contact for the day as she doesn't run any units. She said she was more than happy so I got some contact details for her to send to all the leaders.
As it got closer to the trip date, I sent out more final details, relating to where we would be stopping for dinner, how much spending money girls should bring, and exact pick up and drop off times. I then visited Techniquest with my fiancé so that we could gather information for my risk assessment. He writes lots of risk assessments at work so I thought he would be best placed to help me with that as I have never written one for a large scale event before. Techniquest were very nice and allowed us to visit free of charge. We were there for about 2 hours, although part of that was us having a go at some of the activities! We made lots of notes about areas which would need to be covered on the risk assessment, such as a dark area with flashing lights and the coach drop off area.We also stopped on our way home at the services where we will be having dinner, to assess what options were available, their prices, and what was available for gluten free girls, which was a concern raised by several other leaders.
Once we had completed our visit, I wrote up a detailed risk assessment which was emailed out to all the leaders. I also spent some time creating details sheets for all the leaders to carry on the day. I made an A5 sheet, one for each unit, giving details of the number of girls expected to be on their coach, a timetable of the day (including lunch slot and times of the free show that they could book onto on arrival), and the phone numbers of me, the District Commissioner, and the Home Contact. Finally, I created myself some sheets with important information on, including phone numbers for all the units, which unit was on which coach, a detailed timetable with additional notes where needed, and a signup sheet for visiting the shop (it is a small shop so we spread the units out throughout the day).
The full blog on the details of the trip is here. The trip went incredibly smoothly, several leaders came up to me to tell me I had done a great job of organising it. The single coach pickup point worked perfectly, hopefully they will continue to do it that way as I think it was a great idea, and made life so much easier for the parents. Organising a large scale trip was more stressful than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Monday 8 April 2019
Decorating Easter Eggs
04/04/19
This was our last meeting before Easter so we decided to do one of the girls favourite Easter activities - decorating Easter eggs. We had been out and bought a Cadbury's Buttons egg for each girl and then provided them with various sprinkles and writing icing with which to decorate their egg. They always have great fun doing this (although we do say that they cannot eat anything until they have got home and their parents say they can!). It is always interesting to see how the girls choose to decorate their egg - the leaders circulate to make sure no one is just putting as much as they possibly can on to their egg but usually they come up with some really interesting designs. The eggs usually have a pattern on them so some girls choose to go over the various patterns and pictures with the icing pens and other girls design their own scene using the sprinkles and mini buttons.
This year we stopped them after about 50 minutes as a few girls had got bored and started squirting writing icing over the top of everything. We had them put all their eggs safely on the window sills and tidied up a bit before playing 2 games, chosen by the girls (we pull lolly sticks with names on out of a pot and that girl can choose what we play). We started with a game of Pirates and then played the Iranian Smiling Game (Alternative version).
The girls were all slightly hyper tonight as they break up for the holidays tomorrow so we spent a lot of the evening asking them to stand still and listen, but that is understandable at their age! It did make me smile though that one girl was upset she couldn't come to our sponsored swim because she was going to be on holiday...in Malta!
As it is now the Easter holidays, we have 2 weeks break from our regular meetings. I have 2 blogs lined up for you over the holidays though, one on the process of organising our Thinking Day trip last month and the other on a Scout and Guide survival weekend that I volunteered at recently.
This was our last meeting before Easter so we decided to do one of the girls favourite Easter activities - decorating Easter eggs. We had been out and bought a Cadbury's Buttons egg for each girl and then provided them with various sprinkles and writing icing with which to decorate their egg. They always have great fun doing this (although we do say that they cannot eat anything until they have got home and their parents say they can!). It is always interesting to see how the girls choose to decorate their egg - the leaders circulate to make sure no one is just putting as much as they possibly can on to their egg but usually they come up with some really interesting designs. The eggs usually have a pattern on them so some girls choose to go over the various patterns and pictures with the icing pens and other girls design their own scene using the sprinkles and mini buttons.
This year we stopped them after about 50 minutes as a few girls had got bored and started squirting writing icing over the top of everything. We had them put all their eggs safely on the window sills and tidied up a bit before playing 2 games, chosen by the girls (we pull lolly sticks with names on out of a pot and that girl can choose what we play). We started with a game of Pirates and then played the Iranian Smiling Game (Alternative version).
The girls were all slightly hyper tonight as they break up for the holidays tomorrow so we spent a lot of the evening asking them to stand still and listen, but that is understandable at their age! It did make me smile though that one girl was upset she couldn't come to our sponsored swim because she was going to be on holiday...in Malta!
As it is now the Easter holidays, we have 2 weeks break from our regular meetings. I have 2 blogs lined up for you over the holidays though, one on the process of organising our Thinking Day trip last month and the other on a Scout and Guide survival weekend that I volunteered at recently.
Monday 1 April 2019
Mother's Day
28/03/19
This evening we did some Mother's Day activities. All the girls were making cards which they could give to their Mum or someone else if they had already made a card at school. We provided 4 colours of card (left over from when I made my wedding invites!) along with some patterned and plain paper. For our example, we stuck a sheet of the patterned paper to the front and then cut out hearts in plain paper to stick on top. We gave the girls free reign to do whatever they wanted.
We also took a group at a time into the kitchen to make some coconut ice. We have made this lots of times before and it is nice and easy to do without having access to much equipment. We used to make is with sweetened condensed milk but then we had a girl who was dairy free and couldn't have it. We bought her some coconut milk to mkae hers with and all the girls said it tasted better so this time we just used coconut milk. We used the following proportions which made about 30 balls:
This was a chaotic evening, but I do enjoy letting the girls do something that some of them don't get a chance to do at home.
This evening we did some Mother's Day activities. All the girls were making cards which they could give to their Mum or someone else if they had already made a card at school. We provided 4 colours of card (left over from when I made my wedding invites!) along with some patterned and plain paper. For our example, we stuck a sheet of the patterned paper to the front and then cut out hearts in plain paper to stick on top. We gave the girls free reign to do whatever they wanted.
We also took a group at a time into the kitchen to make some coconut ice. We have made this lots of times before and it is nice and easy to do without having access to much equipment. We used to make is with sweetened condensed milk but then we had a girl who was dairy free and couldn't have it. We bought her some coconut milk to mkae hers with and all the girls said it tasted better so this time we just used coconut milk. We used the following proportions which made about 30 balls:
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup desicated coconut
- 2 cups (approx) icing sugar
This was a chaotic evening, but I do enjoy letting the girls do something that some of them don't get a chance to do at home.
Monday 25 March 2019
Final Skills Builder Evening
21/03/19
This evening we did the fifth and final part of the two Skills Builders we have been working on, Innovate and Lead Stage 2. The girls who were doing Lead did "Design Time" and the girls doing Innovate did "Made to Measure". I was with the Lead group. Our task was to create a zoo. The girls first had to think of 5 animals that they would like to put in their zoo, on their own. We provided lots of books on animals to give them some ideas and they could be as rare and unique as they wanted (we even had a few dragons!). I then paired the girls up by pulling names out of a hat. In their pairs they had to create their zoo but there was only space for 5 animals. They had to discuss which animals they would like and why. Finally, the pairs had to join up into 4s and do the same thing again so they were left wth 5 animals from the 20 each 4 would have started with. I had an odd number of pairs so I had one group with 3 pairs in who were allowed 7 animals in their zoo instead. Once they had narrowed down their choice, they could draw a picture of their zoo and give it a name. I was quite impressed with most of the girls - when narrowing down their animals, lots of them said they could each choose 2 and then the 5th one would be a joint decision, and the same happened when they got into bigger groups - they all chose 1 and the last one was a group decision. That was a suggestions written on the card but we stopped giving the girls the card as it just caused confusion so I was quite proud that they came up with that idea all by themselves!
The group doing Innovate were making sponge boats. We had bought lots of the scourer sponges (the yellow ones with a rough green side) and the girls could make a sail for their boat which was stuck on a cocktail stick in the sponge. They then had a straw and they blew their boat in a tub of water. We measured the distance that it travelled 3 times and they worked out the average (we provided calculators!). They could then look at the boats that went the furthest and redesign their sail based on the best ones.
Once we had finished the activities, we all sat in a Brownie circle and the Lead girls showed the pictures of their zoo and explained what animals they had in them. The girls who had been doing Innovate then voted on what they thought was the best zoo. We then handed out the badges to those girls who had been at all 5 meetings. We had 17 of our 26 girls get a badge. Of those who didn't get a badge, 5 were new starters who joined after we started and the other 4 have only missed 1 meeting each. We have told those girls that we are going to do a catch up session soon and that we haven't forgotten about them! This was quite a good evening, and I was very surprised that my group got along without arguments this week! Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that we muddled them up and they weren't working with their friends for once.
This evening we did the fifth and final part of the two Skills Builders we have been working on, Innovate and Lead Stage 2. The girls who were doing Lead did "Design Time" and the girls doing Innovate did "Made to Measure". I was with the Lead group. Our task was to create a zoo. The girls first had to think of 5 animals that they would like to put in their zoo, on their own. We provided lots of books on animals to give them some ideas and they could be as rare and unique as they wanted (we even had a few dragons!). I then paired the girls up by pulling names out of a hat. In their pairs they had to create their zoo but there was only space for 5 animals. They had to discuss which animals they would like and why. Finally, the pairs had to join up into 4s and do the same thing again so they were left wth 5 animals from the 20 each 4 would have started with. I had an odd number of pairs so I had one group with 3 pairs in who were allowed 7 animals in their zoo instead. Once they had narrowed down their choice, they could draw a picture of their zoo and give it a name. I was quite impressed with most of the girls - when narrowing down their animals, lots of them said they could each choose 2 and then the 5th one would be a joint decision, and the same happened when they got into bigger groups - they all chose 1 and the last one was a group decision. That was a suggestions written on the card but we stopped giving the girls the card as it just caused confusion so I was quite proud that they came up with that idea all by themselves!
The group doing Innovate were making sponge boats. We had bought lots of the scourer sponges (the yellow ones with a rough green side) and the girls could make a sail for their boat which was stuck on a cocktail stick in the sponge. They then had a straw and they blew their boat in a tub of water. We measured the distance that it travelled 3 times and they worked out the average (we provided calculators!). They could then look at the boats that went the furthest and redesign their sail based on the best ones.
Once we had finished the activities, we all sat in a Brownie circle and the Lead girls showed the pictures of their zoo and explained what animals they had in them. The girls who had been doing Innovate then voted on what they thought was the best zoo. We then handed out the badges to those girls who had been at all 5 meetings. We had 17 of our 26 girls get a badge. Of those who didn't get a badge, 5 were new starters who joined after we started and the other 4 have only missed 1 meeting each. We have told those girls that we are going to do a catch up session soon and that we haven't forgotten about them! This was quite a good evening, and I was very surprised that my group got along without arguments this week! Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that we muddled them up and they weren't working with their friends for once.
Monday 18 March 2019
Easter Bookmarks and Promises
14/03/19
One of our older Brownies has been asking for a while if she can run an activity so she can tick off the last part of her More Adventures badge before she turns 11 in May. This week we finally had time to slot that in and she chose to make Easter Chicken Bookmarks.
The Brownie showed everyone how to fold the main shape (you can also find the instructions online) and then the girls went and did that bit while the Brownie handed out all the extra bits that she had pre-cut for them to stick on. Once they had finished their chicken bookmark, she had also bought some patterned paper so they could make fortune tellers.
Tonight we also had 4 new girls making their promises, so about 30 minutes before the end, any members of their family who wanted to watch showed up - there were loads of them this time! Some girls just bring one parent, tonight we had grandparents, siblings, and lots of parents! We always ask the parents to come a bit earlier than they need to so they can watch us doing an activity - this time we chose to play 2 games of Pirates, at request of the girls. We did have to remove Starboard as that is where all the parents were sat, and we banned hiding under the tables with tea and coffee on too!
We then proceeded to enrol all 4 new girls and then sang two songs to finish (for once we finished early!) - we sang Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, and Cecil is My Caterpillar.
This was a great evening - the girl who ran it is very mature for her age and was very good at explaining the steps to the girls and going round helping them all.
One of our older Brownies has been asking for a while if she can run an activity so she can tick off the last part of her More Adventures badge before she turns 11 in May. This week we finally had time to slot that in and she chose to make Easter Chicken Bookmarks.
The Brownie showed everyone how to fold the main shape (you can also find the instructions online) and then the girls went and did that bit while the Brownie handed out all the extra bits that she had pre-cut for them to stick on. Once they had finished their chicken bookmark, she had also bought some patterned paper so they could make fortune tellers.
Tonight we also had 4 new girls making their promises, so about 30 minutes before the end, any members of their family who wanted to watch showed up - there were loads of them this time! Some girls just bring one parent, tonight we had grandparents, siblings, and lots of parents! We always ask the parents to come a bit earlier than they need to so they can watch us doing an activity - this time we chose to play 2 games of Pirates, at request of the girls. We did have to remove Starboard as that is where all the parents were sat, and we banned hiding under the tables with tea and coffee on too!
We then proceeded to enrol all 4 new girls and then sang two songs to finish (for once we finished early!) - we sang Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, and Cecil is My Caterpillar.
This was a great evening - the girl who ran it is very mature for her age and was very good at explaining the steps to the girls and going round helping them all.
Wednesday 13 March 2019
Thinking Day Trip
09/03/19
Today was our annual District Thinking Day trip which I organised as part of my Queen's Guide (full post on the process of organising this trip will come soon!). We took 3 coaches of Rainbows, Brownies, and Guides to Techniquest in Cardiff. We all met in a car park and each unit met all their girls and waited for the coaches. The coaches turned up perfectly on time and we loaded everyone up quickly as it was raining pretty heavily. We only had one unit who were missing one girl by the time we were all on the coach but they managed to contact her and found out she had misread the drop off time but was only across the road so arrived very quickly.
We then set off, in convoy. The girls were remarkably well behaved on the coach, although we did have a near constant chorus of 'are we nearly there yet'..! The drive isn't too bad, about 90 minutes, so we were there pretty quickly. Once we arrived, we got all the girls off the coach and lined them up against the wall while we paid and figured out where they needed to go. Each coach had been assigned a different lunchslot and they put their lunchboxes in big bins so they didn't have to carry them around all day. We then went into the centre - all the leaders were responsible for their own girls during the day, some units just let their girls loose and wandered round keeping an eye on them (there are 2 floors and only one way out) and other units assigned girls to a leader and they had to stay together. Our unit took the latter approach, to a certain extent, in that each leader was responsible for 3/4 girls but we generally let them roam around as long as they were always within eyesight.
The girls had great fun there, with one girl even commenting that is 'wasn't very sciency' so it was great! Each coach was called over the tannoy to go and have their lunch - we had a half hour slot in a cabin round the back of the centre. I also had a list of 15 minute slots that the leaders could go to the gift shop in, as the shop was way too small for us all to descend on it at the end of the visit! Our unit opted to go to the shop just before lunch so the girls could then leave their purchases in their bags. When our lunch slot was called, we all headed across to the cabin and walked in just as a Guide opened her water bottle of lemonade and it squirted straight up, hit the ceiling, and sprayed down over several girls nearby! All the other leaders were staring, gobsmacked at the situation, and then the Guide was stood on the table, wiping it off the ceiling with a paper towel! We sat and ate with our girls and then headed back into the centre.
Each unit also had the option of booking onto the show for the day, Fire vs Ice. There were several showings through the day and we chose the last one. There were two presenters who did a 30 minute show about Fire and Ice through various science experiements, including dropping a bouncy ball in liquid nitrogen to turn it into a 'marble' (it lost all elasticity so just thunked into the ground, instead of bouncing!) and setting alight liquid oxygen. The girls all really enjoyed that part.
Once it was over, we headed to the cabin one last time so we could remake our promises. We got that over and done with very quickly and then dismissed the units one coach at a time to go to the toilet and get on the coaches. Once a coach was full, it headed off. All the coaches then stopped at a services on the way home and the girls bought dinner there (or a second packed lunch in the case of girls with allergies). This is something that all the girls love to do so, even though it is a bit chaotic for the leaders, we tend to do it anyway. It worked quite nicely that we had staggered the coach departures from Techniquest though as it meant we were a bit more spread out at the services as there are not actually enough tables at the one we stopped at for all the girls to be sat down at once. The coaches then headed home once they had finished eating and the leaders handed their girls back to their parents.
The trip went incredibly smoothly and lots of the girls and leaders came up to congratulate me and say it had gone great. Now I just need to write it up and get my District Commissioner to sign me off for that part of my Queen's Guide and I'm one step closer!
Today was our annual District Thinking Day trip which I organised as part of my Queen's Guide (full post on the process of organising this trip will come soon!). We took 3 coaches of Rainbows, Brownies, and Guides to Techniquest in Cardiff. We all met in a car park and each unit met all their girls and waited for the coaches. The coaches turned up perfectly on time and we loaded everyone up quickly as it was raining pretty heavily. We only had one unit who were missing one girl by the time we were all on the coach but they managed to contact her and found out she had misread the drop off time but was only across the road so arrived very quickly.
We then set off, in convoy. The girls were remarkably well behaved on the coach, although we did have a near constant chorus of 'are we nearly there yet'..! The drive isn't too bad, about 90 minutes, so we were there pretty quickly. Once we arrived, we got all the girls off the coach and lined them up against the wall while we paid and figured out where they needed to go. Each coach had been assigned a different lunchslot and they put their lunchboxes in big bins so they didn't have to carry them around all day. We then went into the centre - all the leaders were responsible for their own girls during the day, some units just let their girls loose and wandered round keeping an eye on them (there are 2 floors and only one way out) and other units assigned girls to a leader and they had to stay together. Our unit took the latter approach, to a certain extent, in that each leader was responsible for 3/4 girls but we generally let them roam around as long as they were always within eyesight.
The girls had great fun there, with one girl even commenting that is 'wasn't very sciency' so it was great! Each coach was called over the tannoy to go and have their lunch - we had a half hour slot in a cabin round the back of the centre. I also had a list of 15 minute slots that the leaders could go to the gift shop in, as the shop was way too small for us all to descend on it at the end of the visit! Our unit opted to go to the shop just before lunch so the girls could then leave their purchases in their bags. When our lunch slot was called, we all headed across to the cabin and walked in just as a Guide opened her water bottle of lemonade and it squirted straight up, hit the ceiling, and sprayed down over several girls nearby! All the other leaders were staring, gobsmacked at the situation, and then the Guide was stood on the table, wiping it off the ceiling with a paper towel! We sat and ate with our girls and then headed back into the centre.
Each unit also had the option of booking onto the show for the day, Fire vs Ice. There were several showings through the day and we chose the last one. There were two presenters who did a 30 minute show about Fire and Ice through various science experiements, including dropping a bouncy ball in liquid nitrogen to turn it into a 'marble' (it lost all elasticity so just thunked into the ground, instead of bouncing!) and setting alight liquid oxygen. The girls all really enjoyed that part.
Once it was over, we headed to the cabin one last time so we could remake our promises. We got that over and done with very quickly and then dismissed the units one coach at a time to go to the toilet and get on the coaches. Once a coach was full, it headed off. All the coaches then stopped at a services on the way home and the girls bought dinner there (or a second packed lunch in the case of girls with allergies). This is something that all the girls love to do so, even though it is a bit chaotic for the leaders, we tend to do it anyway. It worked quite nicely that we had staggered the coach departures from Techniquest though as it meant we were a bit more spread out at the services as there are not actually enough tables at the one we stopped at for all the girls to be sat down at once. The coaches then headed home once they had finished eating and the leaders handed their girls back to their parents.
The trip went incredibly smoothly and lots of the girls and leaders came up to congratulate me and say it had gone great. Now I just need to write it up and get my District Commissioner to sign me off for that part of my Queen's Guide and I'm one step closer!
Monday 4 March 2019
St. David's Day
28/02/19
Given it is St. David's Day tomorrow, we thought we would do some activities to celebrate this week. We started with the limited edition UMA, 'Make Your Snake' which we modified to be a dragon instead. The first comment that our girls had was 'Cecil can't be a dragon, Cecil is a caterpillar...'! We split them into the sixes and gave them a bag with 6 different coloured tokens in (we didn't want to faff around finding them hidden around the room!). The girl pulled a token out of their bag and came up to a leader to get post-it notes in that colour. A leader then read them the question and made sure they understood it before leaving them to write their answer on their post-it note and stick it in the right area of Cecil. I helped a few of the younger ones with their spelling and understanding of the question. My favourite conversation was with one of our newest girls:
We then spent the remaining 30 minutes making daffodils. You cut some daffodil petals out of yellow craft foam ad cut a hole in the centre - Brown Owl had drawn them out already so the hole was the right size. You then took a strip of slightly darker yellow foam and cut some wiggles out of one long edge. You take a pipe cleaner and roll the long piece around the end of it, with most of the pipe cleaner sticking out the flat edge of the foam. Push this through the hole in the other piece of foam. Make some leaves from green foam and twist them into the bottom of the pipe cleaner. They end up looking like these ones, from Baker Ross.
The girls all enjoyed the UMA more than we thought they would, and we got lots of interesting comments from them - from the sounds of it, a cake/pudding night would go down very well! They also liked making the daffodils, although a few of them struggled rolling the centre tight enough to fit through the hole. This meeting flew by really quickly!
There may not be a blog next week as I have to go on a work trip and am not sure if I'll be back in time, although we are also going on our Thinking Day trip on Saturday so I might get that typed up in time instead.
Given it is St. David's Day tomorrow, we thought we would do some activities to celebrate this week. We started with the limited edition UMA, 'Make Your Snake' which we modified to be a dragon instead. The first comment that our girls had was 'Cecil can't be a dragon, Cecil is a caterpillar...'! We split them into the sixes and gave them a bag with 6 different coloured tokens in (we didn't want to faff around finding them hidden around the room!). The girl pulled a token out of their bag and came up to a leader to get post-it notes in that colour. A leader then read them the question and made sure they understood it before leaving them to write their answer on their post-it note and stick it in the right area of Cecil. I helped a few of the younger ones with their spelling and understanding of the question. My favourite conversation was with one of our newest girls:
Me: The yellow question is "what would you miss if you weren't a Brownie?"Once all the sixes had done all 6 questions, we all sat around Cecil and discussed the remaining question - how would you encourage Cecil's sister, Cecilia, to join Brownies. We first asked the girls why Cecilia might think she can't be a Brownie and one of the girls, completely deadpan, just said "because she's a dragon"!! We then discussed why Cecilia might want to join Brownies (if she wasn't a dragon!). My favourite comment we had for this question was "to give your parents a break!". Here is our whole dragon (his head is the pale pink end!)
Her: You!
Me: Awww, that's very sweet, thank you
Her: No, actually, Brown Owl
Me: Oh, so you wouldn't miss me then?
Her: OK, both of you! What's your name? *struggles to spell my name*
Me: What about <other leader>?
Her: Who's she?
Me: *points at other leader*
Her: Oh yeah, how do I spell her name?
We then spent the remaining 30 minutes making daffodils. You cut some daffodil petals out of yellow craft foam ad cut a hole in the centre - Brown Owl had drawn them out already so the hole was the right size. You then took a strip of slightly darker yellow foam and cut some wiggles out of one long edge. You take a pipe cleaner and roll the long piece around the end of it, with most of the pipe cleaner sticking out the flat edge of the foam. Push this through the hole in the other piece of foam. Make some leaves from green foam and twist them into the bottom of the pipe cleaner. They end up looking like these ones, from Baker Ross.
The girls all enjoyed the UMA more than we thought they would, and we got lots of interesting comments from them - from the sounds of it, a cake/pudding night would go down very well! They also liked making the daffodils, although a few of them struggled rolling the centre tight enough to fit through the hole. This meeting flew by really quickly!
There may not be a blog next week as I have to go on a work trip and am not sure if I'll be back in time, although we are also going on our Thinking Day trip on Saturday so I might get that typed up in time instead.
Monday 18 February 2019
Skills Builders Part 4
14/02/19
This week we continued with the 2 Skills Builders we have been working towards - we are now on activity 4 of 5. The girls doing Lead were teaching each other dance moves, and the girls doing Innovate were building towers from fruit and veg. I was assisting the girls doing Lead. They had to split into 4 teams (ours had 3/4 girls in each). They had to choose a song in their team and then each come up with 2 dance moves to it. They had to teach their dance moves to the rest of their team and then combine them all into a routine which they then performed. We had a wide range of songs, from A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman, to Katy Perry's Firework - all of which were sung by the girls as they performed because we had no way to play a recording. The girls worked pretty well in their teams, although we had one that split into two because they couldn't decide on a song. They didn't fully grasp the concept of all choosing moves so one of the groups had the older girl teach the two younger ones a routine to a song she knew instead. As leaders, we had to observe the groups and award each team one of 4 awards:
The girls doing Innovate were first given slices of various fruits and veg and asked to try and build the tallest tower they could with them. When they started struggling a bit, they were then given large slices of apples and cocktail sticks - the foundations and support beams - and then they could try again. The aim was to try and show them why buildings don't fall over, although we found that the girls didn't really care about the specifics, they just wanted to build towers and then eat the food! We had some quite impressive structures by the end though:
Once we had finished, we then played 2 games of Pirates before doing the Brownie circle and sending the girls home. This meeting was fairly laid back as we did not have to plan too much. The girls also seemed to enjoy the activity they were doing, and we had very few girls ask if they could swap to the other one.
Next week is half term so I am taking week off from blogging (so I can focus on finalising things for our Thinking Day trip in a few weeks!).
This week we continued with the 2 Skills Builders we have been working towards - we are now on activity 4 of 5. The girls doing Lead were teaching each other dance moves, and the girls doing Innovate were building towers from fruit and veg. I was assisting the girls doing Lead. They had to split into 4 teams (ours had 3/4 girls in each). They had to choose a song in their team and then each come up with 2 dance moves to it. They had to teach their dance moves to the rest of their team and then combine them all into a routine which they then performed. We had a wide range of songs, from A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman, to Katy Perry's Firework - all of which were sung by the girls as they performed because we had no way to play a recording. The girls worked pretty well in their teams, although we had one that split into two because they couldn't decide on a song. They didn't fully grasp the concept of all choosing moves so one of the groups had the older girl teach the two younger ones a routine to a song she knew instead. As leaders, we had to observe the groups and award each team one of 4 awards:
- Leadership Star: for the team that gives the best directions to each other
- Teamwork Champions: for the team that works the best together
- Top Encouragers: for the team that's most encouraging towards each other
- Best Listeners: for the team that listened best to each other
The girls doing Innovate were first given slices of various fruits and veg and asked to try and build the tallest tower they could with them. When they started struggling a bit, they were then given large slices of apples and cocktail sticks - the foundations and support beams - and then they could try again. The aim was to try and show them why buildings don't fall over, although we found that the girls didn't really care about the specifics, they just wanted to build towers and then eat the food! We had some quite impressive structures by the end though:
Once we had finished, we then played 2 games of Pirates before doing the Brownie circle and sending the girls home. This meeting was fairly laid back as we did not have to plan too much. The girls also seemed to enjoy the activity they were doing, and we had very few girls ask if they could swap to the other one.
Next week is half term so I am taking week off from blogging (so I can focus on finalising things for our Thinking Day trip in a few weeks!).
Monday 11 February 2019
Charity Shop Game/Jigsaw Checking
07/02/19
Near to our meeting place is a charity shop, and Brown Owl knows some of the people who work there. They get lots of donations of items to sell, but can only sell those which are complete. Brown Owl helps them out by frequently collecting jigsaws and checking they have all the pieces. We decided once a few years ago to collect some kid-friendly jigsaws and games and have the Brownies check them instead. Tonight we did that again. We had 3 large bags of jigsaws and games and the girls were told to collect an item from the bag, check all the pieces were there for the games and do the jigsaws to make sure there weren't any missing pieces. If it had all the pieces, then we taped it shut and made a pile, and if there were pieces missing then we made a pile to be binned (as they cannot sell those). The girls all got stuck in with this really quickly and our pile of complete items grew rapidly. There were a couple of jigsaws which were missing a piece, and a game which needed batteries so we couldn't check it at the meeting but other than that it was quite a successful evening. I ended up helping a group of girls who had picked up a box of jigsaws. There were 9 jigsaws, with a variety of number of pieces, all split into bags but with no indication of which one was in which bag. Once you had made the jigsaws, they then joined together into three long thin jigsaws, which had silly little end pieces (which we gave up trying to put on and just counted!). The girls all enjoyed making the jigsaws, but it was quite painful watching some of them trying to put pieces in completely the wrong places (non-edge piece in an edge spot etc.)!
Once we had done all the charity shop items, we had some spare time so we played a game on Tomato (as suggested by a Brownie) - it is like Fish and Chips but instead of a girl saying "Fish and Chips", they say "Tomato" in a funny voice and the girl at the front has to guess who said it. We only had time for a couple of rounds as the girls took ages guessing!
The last thing we did this evening was to hand out the new anniversary badges. We are lucky in that we have a decent sized budget and so we could buy all the previous badges for our girls too. We had loads of them getting 1 year, quite a few getting 2, a handful getting 3 and one girl who had done 5 years (although she ticked over after Brown Owl bought the badges so she didn't get them all tonight)!
This meeting was a nice relaxed one as I just got the opportunity to sit and chat with the girls and do some jigsaws. They all seemed to like being given the responsibility of making sure all the pieces were in everything too, and seemed to grasp the fact that they would be sold to make money for children with disabilities to go on a holiday/trip somewhere. I will definitely be trying to bring this tradition to the unit I join when I move house.
Near to our meeting place is a charity shop, and Brown Owl knows some of the people who work there. They get lots of donations of items to sell, but can only sell those which are complete. Brown Owl helps them out by frequently collecting jigsaws and checking they have all the pieces. We decided once a few years ago to collect some kid-friendly jigsaws and games and have the Brownies check them instead. Tonight we did that again. We had 3 large bags of jigsaws and games and the girls were told to collect an item from the bag, check all the pieces were there for the games and do the jigsaws to make sure there weren't any missing pieces. If it had all the pieces, then we taped it shut and made a pile, and if there were pieces missing then we made a pile to be binned (as they cannot sell those). The girls all got stuck in with this really quickly and our pile of complete items grew rapidly. There were a couple of jigsaws which were missing a piece, and a game which needed batteries so we couldn't check it at the meeting but other than that it was quite a successful evening. I ended up helping a group of girls who had picked up a box of jigsaws. There were 9 jigsaws, with a variety of number of pieces, all split into bags but with no indication of which one was in which bag. Once you had made the jigsaws, they then joined together into three long thin jigsaws, which had silly little end pieces (which we gave up trying to put on and just counted!). The girls all enjoyed making the jigsaws, but it was quite painful watching some of them trying to put pieces in completely the wrong places (non-edge piece in an edge spot etc.)!
Once we had done all the charity shop items, we had some spare time so we played a game on Tomato (as suggested by a Brownie) - it is like Fish and Chips but instead of a girl saying "Fish and Chips", they say "Tomato" in a funny voice and the girl at the front has to guess who said it. We only had time for a couple of rounds as the girls took ages guessing!
The last thing we did this evening was to hand out the new anniversary badges. We are lucky in that we have a decent sized budget and so we could buy all the previous badges for our girls too. We had loads of them getting 1 year, quite a few getting 2, a handful getting 3 and one girl who had done 5 years (although she ticked over after Brown Owl bought the badges so she didn't get them all tonight)!
This meeting was a nice relaxed one as I just got the opportunity to sit and chat with the girls and do some jigsaws. They all seemed to like being given the responsibility of making sure all the pieces were in everything too, and seemed to grasp the fact that they would be sold to make money for children with disabilities to go on a holiday/trip somewhere. I will definitely be trying to bring this tradition to the unit I join when I move house.
Monday 4 February 2019
Paper Plane Evening
31/01/19
This evening we started the meeting with a UMA - "Lend a Hand" from the Know Myself theme. We tweaked the card slightly by just writing the items on pieces of card instead of finding the physical items to bring in. We then shuffled them all and pulled one out randomly. The girls then had 30 seconds, in their sixes, to come up with a way they could lend a hand with that item. We then went round the sixes asking them for their idea and the winner (or two occasionally) got a token. Some of the girls seemed to understand the point of this, but others got a bit confused and started thinking of ways other people could help them with the item instead. My personal favourite ideas were the girls who were going to decorate a hammer and use it as a door stop when the door broke, and the girls who were going to use a duster to catch a spider when their friend was scared of it! By doing this activity, quite a few of the girls will now have completed an hour of the Know Myself UMAs and will get a sticker on our wall chart.
We then did our paper plane evening. We had found a book over Christmas which contained instructions for making paper planes, coloured paper to make them, and a variety of games to play once you had. We chose 2 designs for the girls to make - a simple one and a slightly more complex one and they could choose which to make. I ended up helping a group of girls with the more complex one as they were struggling to follow the written instructions. When they had finished, we set up some boxes in the four corners which they could try and throw their plane into in the fewest number of throws. We also set up two games from the book - there was a fold out hangar and a runway and they had to throw their plane along the runway into the hangar at the end. A couple of girls managed, although their planes were generally upsidedown! We also had a piece of card with three holes in it, one underneath the other, which they could try and throw their planes through. That one was quite difficult as the holes were not much bigger than the planes but we didn't have anything bigger to use instead. The girls just got closer until they were able to do it more often!
We finished up the meeting by handing out a few badges - an advanced swimmer, and 3 fire safety ones. The girls seem to have got a burst of energy to do interest badges, having been told that the old ones are stopping at the end of the year! It's almost like they enjoy doing those ones and want to get in as many as they can before they go..! We haven't had a single girl ask about the new badges yet, despite telling them about them on multiple occasions. The girls all seemed to really enjoy this evening too - it was nice to be able to do whatever we wanted, instead of having to follow the new programme and the girls don't seem to know the difference so no problems there!
This evening we started the meeting with a UMA - "Lend a Hand" from the Know Myself theme. We tweaked the card slightly by just writing the items on pieces of card instead of finding the physical items to bring in. We then shuffled them all and pulled one out randomly. The girls then had 30 seconds, in their sixes, to come up with a way they could lend a hand with that item. We then went round the sixes asking them for their idea and the winner (or two occasionally) got a token. Some of the girls seemed to understand the point of this, but others got a bit confused and started thinking of ways other people could help them with the item instead. My personal favourite ideas were the girls who were going to decorate a hammer and use it as a door stop when the door broke, and the girls who were going to use a duster to catch a spider when their friend was scared of it! By doing this activity, quite a few of the girls will now have completed an hour of the Know Myself UMAs and will get a sticker on our wall chart.
We then did our paper plane evening. We had found a book over Christmas which contained instructions for making paper planes, coloured paper to make them, and a variety of games to play once you had. We chose 2 designs for the girls to make - a simple one and a slightly more complex one and they could choose which to make. I ended up helping a group of girls with the more complex one as they were struggling to follow the written instructions. When they had finished, we set up some boxes in the four corners which they could try and throw their plane into in the fewest number of throws. We also set up two games from the book - there was a fold out hangar and a runway and they had to throw their plane along the runway into the hangar at the end. A couple of girls managed, although their planes were generally upsidedown! We also had a piece of card with three holes in it, one underneath the other, which they could try and throw their planes through. That one was quite difficult as the holes were not much bigger than the planes but we didn't have anything bigger to use instead. The girls just got closer until they were able to do it more often!
We finished up the meeting by handing out a few badges - an advanced swimmer, and 3 fire safety ones. The girls seem to have got a burst of energy to do interest badges, having been told that the old ones are stopping at the end of the year! It's almost like they enjoy doing those ones and want to get in as many as they can before they go..! We haven't had a single girl ask about the new badges yet, despite telling them about them on multiple occasions. The girls all seemed to really enjoy this evening too - it was nice to be able to do whatever we wanted, instead of having to follow the new programme and the girls don't seem to know the difference so no problems there!
Monday 28 January 2019
Skills Builders Part III
24/01/19
This evening we started off by naming our new Polar Bear who arrived a few weeks ago. We wrote all the suggested names on pieces of paper and spread them out around the room on chairs. Each girl was then given 2 tokens with which to vote for her favourite. Once everyone had voted, we removed the names which got no or very few votes and everyone took back their 2 tokens and voted again. This time there was a very clear winner so we accepted it as his name - Snowy. If the votes had been more spread out, we would have removed the lower few again and repeated until a winner was found.
Now we had named our polar bear, the 5 new girls were given the opportunity to choose which of our two Skills Builders groups they wanted to join. I then took the Innovate group and we did the 'I Have an Idea' activity. We started off with Kim's game - we had a variety of different items which we hid under a blanket. We then uncovered the items and the girls had 30 seconds to look at them all and remember as many as they could. They then had to go and write down all the ones they could remember in small groups. We then came back to the pile and went through all the different items. I was quite impressed - one group managed to get 16 of the 17 items! The girls then split off into their groups again and thought of an invention they wanted to make. They had to draw a picture of their idea, label it, and give it a name. We had varying degrees of success with that activity - one group, with the help of the Young Leader, came up with a hob which you could set a maximum temperature for an it would turn off if it went over that temperature, so your food didn't bubble over. The second group designed a robot that would do anything you asked it to. They ended up with 4 slightly different designs of the same thing, as each girl wanted to do it 'her way'! The third and final group ended up with 3 completely different inventions - a pizza maker, a toy maker, and a tree house maker. We then had all the girls present their ideas to the rest of the groups and then we voted on the girls favourite one - this time they had 3 tokens and placed them on the ideas they thought were the best. The winner, by 1 point, was the pizza maker, followed by the hob.
The Lead group were doing the 'Leader Goals' card. They had to think of all the qualities a good leader should have and then think about a role model (real or fictional) who was a good leader. They had to draw a picture of them and write all their leadership traits around them. They then had to draw a picture of themselves and write their leadership traits around their picture. Finally, they had to compare the role model with themselves and see where they could improve to become a better leader.
The girls all seemed to enjoy this evening, although the girls who chose Innovate back when we chose got the better deal tonight in my opinion. I think the activity the Lead girls were doing was by far the least interesting of the 5 but at least they have got it out the way and can have fun for the remaining sessions.
This evening we started off by naming our new Polar Bear who arrived a few weeks ago. We wrote all the suggested names on pieces of paper and spread them out around the room on chairs. Each girl was then given 2 tokens with which to vote for her favourite. Once everyone had voted, we removed the names which got no or very few votes and everyone took back their 2 tokens and voted again. This time there was a very clear winner so we accepted it as his name - Snowy. If the votes had been more spread out, we would have removed the lower few again and repeated until a winner was found.
Now we had named our polar bear, the 5 new girls were given the opportunity to choose which of our two Skills Builders groups they wanted to join. I then took the Innovate group and we did the 'I Have an Idea' activity. We started off with Kim's game - we had a variety of different items which we hid under a blanket. We then uncovered the items and the girls had 30 seconds to look at them all and remember as many as they could. They then had to go and write down all the ones they could remember in small groups. We then came back to the pile and went through all the different items. I was quite impressed - one group managed to get 16 of the 17 items! The girls then split off into their groups again and thought of an invention they wanted to make. They had to draw a picture of their idea, label it, and give it a name. We had varying degrees of success with that activity - one group, with the help of the Young Leader, came up with a hob which you could set a maximum temperature for an it would turn off if it went over that temperature, so your food didn't bubble over. The second group designed a robot that would do anything you asked it to. They ended up with 4 slightly different designs of the same thing, as each girl wanted to do it 'her way'! The third and final group ended up with 3 completely different inventions - a pizza maker, a toy maker, and a tree house maker. We then had all the girls present their ideas to the rest of the groups and then we voted on the girls favourite one - this time they had 3 tokens and placed them on the ideas they thought were the best. The winner, by 1 point, was the pizza maker, followed by the hob.
The Lead group were doing the 'Leader Goals' card. They had to think of all the qualities a good leader should have and then think about a role model (real or fictional) who was a good leader. They had to draw a picture of them and write all their leadership traits around them. They then had to draw a picture of themselves and write their leadership traits around their picture. Finally, they had to compare the role model with themselves and see where they could improve to become a better leader.
The girls all seemed to enjoy this evening, although the girls who chose Innovate back when we chose got the better deal tonight in my opinion. I think the activity the Lead girls were doing was by far the least interesting of the 5 but at least they have got it out the way and can have fun for the remaining sessions.
Monday 21 January 2019
Pantomime time (oh no it isn't!)
17/01/19
Tonight we went to the local amateur pantomime production with the Brownies. As usual, there was another unit there at the same time as us so we found ourselves a table and stared gathering in the consent forms and ticking off our girls on the register. We also started a ticklist of which ice creams the girls wanted and then handed it in to the bar before we went in. We got the girls ensconced in their seats and then it started. This year was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves performed by the local amateur dramatic society. Some of our ex-Brownies are in the dance group and we have been going for so many years now that the leaders recognise a lot of the cast (and the girls do on occasion too).
This years performance was very good, although each year there seem to more adult jokes and less that the kids understand - even some of the more kid-friendly ones the girls sat near me didn't quite get. They seemed to enjoy themselves either way though. We did a quick toilet run in the interval and then handed out all the ice creams. The girls were very well behaved during the performance - the only shouting was done where it was appropriate and I only had to tell one or two to sit down during the whole 2 hours.
Once the second half was over, we all trooped out into the foyer to wait for the parents, who for once were all on time picking up and shortly later we were on our way home too. It was a good evening, the girls always look forwards to coming, and the first question we get from girl who have to leave at Christmas is "can I still come to panto?" - the answer is always "yes!".
Tonight we went to the local amateur pantomime production with the Brownies. As usual, there was another unit there at the same time as us so we found ourselves a table and stared gathering in the consent forms and ticking off our girls on the register. We also started a ticklist of which ice creams the girls wanted and then handed it in to the bar before we went in. We got the girls ensconced in their seats and then it started. This year was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves performed by the local amateur dramatic society. Some of our ex-Brownies are in the dance group and we have been going for so many years now that the leaders recognise a lot of the cast (and the girls do on occasion too).
This years performance was very good, although each year there seem to more adult jokes and less that the kids understand - even some of the more kid-friendly ones the girls sat near me didn't quite get. They seemed to enjoy themselves either way though. We did a quick toilet run in the interval and then handed out all the ice creams. The girls were very well behaved during the performance - the only shouting was done where it was appropriate and I only had to tell one or two to sit down during the whole 2 hours.
Once the second half was over, we all trooped out into the foyer to wait for the parents, who for once were all on time picking up and shortly later we were on our way home too. It was a good evening, the girls always look forwards to coming, and the first question we get from girl who have to leave at Christmas is "can I still come to panto?" - the answer is always "yes!".
Monday 14 January 2019
First Meeting Back - Life Skills
10/01/19
Tonight was our first meeting back after Christmas. We had 5 new girls down to start tonight, 4 of which came (the last was ill). It was quite a challenge to remember all of their names, especially when 2 of them were already in uniform - one is a transfer and another has taken the place of her sister so is wearing her old uniform! They all got stuck in quite quickly though, and joined in the slightly crazy game of tag going on before we started.
Our first order of business was the introduction of our new sponsored animal - the polar bear. Before the summer (while I was away), the girls had raised money for Winston's Wish and WWF and we had then voted to sponsor a polar bear. We had sent the money off and, over Christmas, the polar bear toy came. However, all the other animals we have sponsored have come with a name, but the polar bear's certificate just said 'Thank you for sponsoring the Svalbard Polar Bears' so we asked the girls for suggestions for his name and we will vote (again!) in 2 weeks. We had lots of suggestions, including 'Fluffy', 'Snowball', and 'Misty' and now we need to work out the fairest way of voting for the winning name.
We then started by playing a nice running around game, to try and burn off some of the girls energy! We bought out a game we haven't played for a long while, so long so that it doesn't feature in my blog! Split the unit roughly into 3 and have the three groups line up against the wall, one behind the other. The leaders throw 4 or 5 bouncy balls from behind the girls at the wall opposite and the front row of girls run after them and try and catch them. All those girls then line up behind the rest of the unit and the girls who caught a ball can then throw it for the next group. Keep cycling through until you are bored! Our girls find it really fun, although we did learn the hard way that clear bouncy balls are not a great idea, especially when you have a girl with limited peripheral vision... Lesson learnt for next time though! When we stopped and asked for the balls in though, there was one missing so all the girls went running around looking under all the chairs but it was no where to be seen.
Now the girls had burnt off all their energy, we split into two groups to do some Skills for my Future Unit Meeting Activities. Half the girls did the 'In a Fix' one, and the other half did 'Coin Hunt' and then they swapped over. The girls doing 'In a Fix' were provided with some screws and nails, and some polystyrene boxes saved from Christmas presents. The two leaders with them supervised each girl hammering a nail and screwing a screw into the boxes. The girls were then allowed to practice more with the rest of the screws and nails. I ran the 'Coin Hunt' one - I split the girls into two teams, trying to get them split pretty evenly by age. I gave each group one of each coin (plastic ones bought on Amazon, including the new pound coin) and got them to line them up in order from smallest value to largest. All the girls did very well at that, and I then got them to tell me what values each coin was. A few of them tripped up after 1p and 2p and said 3p! We got a few giggles out of that. I then tipped the coins in a heap at one end of the hall (we decided hiding them around the hall was way too convoluted and we would just end up losing coins). I shouted out an amount to the girls and they had to run to the pile, one at a time, and get a coin until they had made the amount needed. I started off with some simple amounts, like 11p or £1.50 and then slowly increased the difficulty unti we were doing ones such as £1.89, and £3.52. We had a couple of confusions between 1p and 2p coins, but other than that I was very impressed by the girls ability to do mental maths, especially some of the younger girls.
Once the girls had had a chance to do both of the activities, we tidied up the bits of polystyrene from all over the floor and then it was time to hand out the various toys and some new sixer and seconder badges. In the process of tidying up, the lost bouncy ball made a reappearance too, apparently it "just rolled across the floor"... This was one of the better 'new programme' meetings we have done and the girls seemed to really enjoy all of it.
Tonight was our first meeting back after Christmas. We had 5 new girls down to start tonight, 4 of which came (the last was ill). It was quite a challenge to remember all of their names, especially when 2 of them were already in uniform - one is a transfer and another has taken the place of her sister so is wearing her old uniform! They all got stuck in quite quickly though, and joined in the slightly crazy game of tag going on before we started.
Our first order of business was the introduction of our new sponsored animal - the polar bear. Before the summer (while I was away), the girls had raised money for Winston's Wish and WWF and we had then voted to sponsor a polar bear. We had sent the money off and, over Christmas, the polar bear toy came. However, all the other animals we have sponsored have come with a name, but the polar bear's certificate just said 'Thank you for sponsoring the Svalbard Polar Bears' so we asked the girls for suggestions for his name and we will vote (again!) in 2 weeks. We had lots of suggestions, including 'Fluffy', 'Snowball', and 'Misty' and now we need to work out the fairest way of voting for the winning name.
We then started by playing a nice running around game, to try and burn off some of the girls energy! We bought out a game we haven't played for a long while, so long so that it doesn't feature in my blog! Split the unit roughly into 3 and have the three groups line up against the wall, one behind the other. The leaders throw 4 or 5 bouncy balls from behind the girls at the wall opposite and the front row of girls run after them and try and catch them. All those girls then line up behind the rest of the unit and the girls who caught a ball can then throw it for the next group. Keep cycling through until you are bored! Our girls find it really fun, although we did learn the hard way that clear bouncy balls are not a great idea, especially when you have a girl with limited peripheral vision... Lesson learnt for next time though! When we stopped and asked for the balls in though, there was one missing so all the girls went running around looking under all the chairs but it was no where to be seen.
Now the girls had burnt off all their energy, we split into two groups to do some Skills for my Future Unit Meeting Activities. Half the girls did the 'In a Fix' one, and the other half did 'Coin Hunt' and then they swapped over. The girls doing 'In a Fix' were provided with some screws and nails, and some polystyrene boxes saved from Christmas presents. The two leaders with them supervised each girl hammering a nail and screwing a screw into the boxes. The girls were then allowed to practice more with the rest of the screws and nails. I ran the 'Coin Hunt' one - I split the girls into two teams, trying to get them split pretty evenly by age. I gave each group one of each coin (plastic ones bought on Amazon, including the new pound coin) and got them to line them up in order from smallest value to largest. All the girls did very well at that, and I then got them to tell me what values each coin was. A few of them tripped up after 1p and 2p and said 3p! We got a few giggles out of that. I then tipped the coins in a heap at one end of the hall (we decided hiding them around the hall was way too convoluted and we would just end up losing coins). I shouted out an amount to the girls and they had to run to the pile, one at a time, and get a coin until they had made the amount needed. I started off with some simple amounts, like 11p or £1.50 and then slowly increased the difficulty unti we were doing ones such as £1.89, and £3.52. We had a couple of confusions between 1p and 2p coins, but other than that I was very impressed by the girls ability to do mental maths, especially some of the younger girls.
Once the girls had had a chance to do both of the activities, we tidied up the bits of polystyrene from all over the floor and then it was time to hand out the various toys and some new sixer and seconder badges. In the process of tidying up, the lost bouncy ball made a reappearance too, apparently it "just rolled across the floor"... This was one of the better 'new programme' meetings we have done and the girls seemed to really enjoy all of it.
Monday 7 January 2019
Queen's Guide Update #2
Here is another update of my progress towards completing my Queen's Guide. It's been going slowly since the last update, but I have just bought a house and am still planning the last bits of my wedding too, so that's understandable! You can keep up with what I
have done on my Queen's Guide page too. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers!
We finally got the keys for our new house on Friday and I have put some feelers out into the District I will be moving to. There is a Brownie unit there who will be closing if they don't find a new Leader to take over so I have put my name into the mix as a possibility (although the current Leaders want to leave by Christmas and I won't be moving until April). If I take over that unit, that should quite quickly tick off the 40 hours of volunteering that I need to do!
Residential
I have not looked into this any further yet, as you would have to be absolutely nuts to go camping at this time of year!
Event for 2 Units
I am in the process of organising District Thinking Day 2019. I am going to do a full blog on the trip and all the planning that went into it, after it has happened, but currently I am waiting on numbers and deposits from all the Leaders in the District.
Working Group/Committee
I am still no further forwards with this either.
Service in Guiding
Regular VolunteeringWe finally got the keys for our new house on Friday and I have put some feelers out into the District I will be moving to. There is a Brownie unit there who will be closing if they don't find a new Leader to take over so I have put my name into the mix as a possibility (although the current Leaders want to leave by Christmas and I won't be moving until April). If I take over that unit, that should quite quickly tick off the 40 hours of volunteering that I need to do!
Residential
I have not looked into this any further yet, as you would have to be absolutely nuts to go camping at this time of year!
Event for 2 Units
I am in the process of organising District Thinking Day 2019. I am going to do a full blog on the trip and all the planning that went into it, after it has happened, but currently I am waiting on numbers and deposits from all the Leaders in the District.
Working Group/Committee
I am still no further forwards with this either.
Outdoor Challenge
Again, this is something which has been put on the back burner for now, it is in my plan for Summer 2020 so I have plenty of time!Personal Skill
I have been carrying on with my clarinet lessons. I am now up to 16 hours of the 60 I need to complete the clause. I am still finding it quite hard to fit in practice during the week as, when I get in from work, I just want to crash out and do very little! I also missed a few weeks in the run up to Christmas as I was busy one week, my teacher was busy the next, and then I got horrendously ill with a cold (luckily I recovered before Christmas itself). I have still been steadily improving though, and we're starting to get really nitpicky over little things. I am also picking up lots of tips and tricks for nailing rhythms and speeding up playing runs and scales which will help me once I have passed my Grade 8 and can join an orchestra (currently I don't have time in the week for lessons and a group).Community Action
Hopefully I can start planning this in the New Year, once all the craziness associated with buying a house calms down!Residential
I'm still waiting on the dates for my fiancé's next Beaver camp and then this one can be ticked off.
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