Pack Holiday 2019 - Friday

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.

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!