02/07/15
First off, apologies for this being late!
This week was our sale to raise money for Vale Wildlife who came and visited us a few weeks back. The girls had all planned a stall in small groups and they all arrived and set up their stalls on the tables we had laid out round the hall. We had a large variety of stalls, including a tombola, face painting, drawing competition, hook-a-duck, darts, and much more. I was impressed at the range of ideas the girls had come up with, particularly considering we have a large number of new girls who haven't been at one of our sales before.
Once the girls had all set up, Brown Owl declared the sale open for business and all the parents, grandparents, and friends started spending their money. I was on the refreshments stall, as usual, which meant I could spend a fair amount of time just watching the girls running their stalls. They were all doing a very good job, although I did have to help one group work out how much change they needed to give (they didn't know £1 was 100p so were confused). I was particularly impressed by the group doing hook-a-duck. They were all new girls and we were a bit concerned because the last time we had a stall outside (can't get the hall floor wet) they didn't raise much money as no-one knew they were out there. However, this time the girls took it in turns to walk round the hall holding a poster and shouting about their stall so more people would know they were out there.
As we were drawing close to the end of the meeting, Brown Owl stopped the sale and got the girls to count up how much money they had made and write it on the piece of paper they had been given so we could do a rough count of the money to tell them before they left. Once we got home, we counted it all up accurately and removed the float.
In total, we raised £151.30 for Vale Wildlife!
Tuesday, 7 July 2015
Monday, 29 June 2015
Fayre Planning, Banana Animals, and Promises
25/06/15
This week we had two activities for the girls to do. The first was to draw the posters for their stalls at our fayre next week. The other was to make banana penguins. Our two Young Leaders, and an Adult helped with that, by melting the chocolate in the microwave and allowing girls in a few at a time as we only have a small kitchen to do it in. I helped in the main hall by supervising the girls doing their posters.
We also had 2 more girls make their promises, and I helped the hostess again. This time we only had to make 2 black teas, which made my life slightly easier! Our only issue was that the girl doing her badge wasn't strong enough to lift the kettle so I had to pour the water for her. Other than that, she was one of the better ones I've helped, and was particularly thorough when it came to washing and drying up!
It was a fairly relaxed evening, the last of those we're going to have this term..!
In other news, I have been going through some more of my Look Wider Qualification and typing up parts I've done. I'm getting close to finishing a few more Octants, I think, and have plans for how to complete a few more Phases so keep an eye out for that! I have updated the Look Wider page so you can see how close I am to completing each Octant.
This week we had two activities for the girls to do. The first was to draw the posters for their stalls at our fayre next week. The other was to make banana penguins. Our two Young Leaders, and an Adult helped with that, by melting the chocolate in the microwave and allowing girls in a few at a time as we only have a small kitchen to do it in. I helped in the main hall by supervising the girls doing their posters.
We also had 2 more girls make their promises, and I helped the hostess again. This time we only had to make 2 black teas, which made my life slightly easier! Our only issue was that the girl doing her badge wasn't strong enough to lift the kettle so I had to pour the water for her. Other than that, she was one of the better ones I've helped, and was particularly thorough when it came to washing and drying up!
It was a fairly relaxed evening, the last of those we're going to have this term..!
In other news, I have been going through some more of my Look Wider Qualification and typing up parts I've done. I'm getting close to finishing a few more Octants, I think, and have plans for how to complete a few more Phases so keep an eye out for that! I have updated the Look Wider page so you can see how close I am to completing each Octant.
Monday, 22 June 2015
Mosaic Coasters
18/06/15
This week we did the craft that we were supposed to do last week, mosaic coasters.
Each girl had been given the choice of blue or pink and then Brown Owl had attempted to order the right numbers of each (however they didn't have enough in stock for last week). We then gave the girls the one they had asked for, but told them they could swap with someone if they both wanted to. Each kit came with the board to put the tiles on, which had a piece of paper to peel off and reveal the sticky side. However, several of the girls managed to peel off the sticky and the backing too so we ended up going round and fixing a lot of them!
Finally, they settled down and started making them. Each pack comes with a suggested pattern to follow, and a few girls followed that, while others made up their own designs. We spent the whole meeting doing these because the girls didn't want to stop! For those who still hadn't finished when the meeting ended, we put the spare tiles back in the bag and covered over the remaining sticky so they could finish it off at home.
This was a nice quiet meeting, and I ended up sat at a table with a handful of girls, just talking to them which was nice.
This week we did the craft that we were supposed to do last week, mosaic coasters.
Each girl had been given the choice of blue or pink and then Brown Owl had attempted to order the right numbers of each (however they didn't have enough in stock for last week). We then gave the girls the one they had asked for, but told them they could swap with someone if they both wanted to. Each kit came with the board to put the tiles on, which had a piece of paper to peel off and reveal the sticky side. However, several of the girls managed to peel off the sticky and the backing too so we ended up going round and fixing a lot of them!
Finally, they settled down and started making them. Each pack comes with a suggested pattern to follow, and a few girls followed that, while others made up their own designs. We spent the whole meeting doing these because the girls didn't want to stop! For those who still hadn't finished when the meeting ended, we put the spare tiles back in the bag and covered over the remaining sticky so they could finish it off at home.
This was a nice quiet meeting, and I ended up sat at a table with a handful of girls, just talking to them which was nice.
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Father's Day and Promise Ceremony
11/06/15
This week, although Father's Day isn't until June 21st, we did our Father's Day crafts as the craft for this week didn't arrive in time (we're doing it next week instead).
The girls coloured glass jars and made cards. We bought some pens that would draw on glass and some small jars and then the girls were given free rein on what they wanted to draw on them. Here is mine:
The girls then filled them with mint imperials, and took them home to give to their Dads (or any other man in their life).
We also bought some white card and some stickers of cars. Each girl was allowed 3 vehicle stickers and 2 wordy stickers which they could stick on the card and then draw/write anything else they wanted around it. I spent a lot of time sat on a table with some of the younger girls, peeling stickers off their backing as the stickers were quite hard to get off!
We had 6 girls making their promise tonight, and two girls doing their hostess badge so it was a little crazy for the second part of the meeting. While most of the pack were tidying up, a YL and I helped the hostesses set up their decorations and cakes on some tables. The rest of the pack then sang a few songs to entertain the parents while I supervised the hostesses to make tea and coffee for the parents. It went relatively smoothly and then the 6 girls made their promise.
To end the meeting, the District Commissioner also came to visit, to present me with my Independent Living badge and certificate! We had a chat afterwards about how much I've done for the other Octants and it's inspired me to knuckle down and type up some more sections I've done to see if I can get any more badges before I go back to uni.
All in all, this was a pretty successful meeting, if a little chaotic - but who wants a boring meeting!?
This week, although Father's Day isn't until June 21st, we did our Father's Day crafts as the craft for this week didn't arrive in time (we're doing it next week instead).
The girls coloured glass jars and made cards. We bought some pens that would draw on glass and some small jars and then the girls were given free rein on what they wanted to draw on them. Here is mine:
The girls then filled them with mint imperials, and took them home to give to their Dads (or any other man in their life).
We also bought some white card and some stickers of cars. Each girl was allowed 3 vehicle stickers and 2 wordy stickers which they could stick on the card and then draw/write anything else they wanted around it. I spent a lot of time sat on a table with some of the younger girls, peeling stickers off their backing as the stickers were quite hard to get off!
We had 6 girls making their promise tonight, and two girls doing their hostess badge so it was a little crazy for the second part of the meeting. While most of the pack were tidying up, a YL and I helped the hostesses set up their decorations and cakes on some tables. The rest of the pack then sang a few songs to entertain the parents while I supervised the hostesses to make tea and coffee for the parents. It went relatively smoothly and then the 6 girls made their promise.
To end the meeting, the District Commissioner also came to visit, to present me with my Independent Living badge and certificate! We had a chat afterwards about how much I've done for the other Octants and it's inspired me to knuckle down and type up some more sections I've done to see if I can get any more badges before I go back to uni.
All in all, this was a pretty successful meeting, if a little chaotic - but who wants a boring meeting!?
Monday, 8 June 2015
Visitor from Wildlife Hospital
04/06/15
I am finally home from university so I can go to Brownies again!
This week we had a visitor from Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre come and speak to the girls as part of the Friends to Animals badge which they started before half term. I was 15 minutes late as I got stuck in traffic on the way home from work and when I got there, the girls were all sat around the woman, who was talking through the different animals they see come through the hospital at this time of year and what is usually wrong with them. She was very good at engaging the girls by asking them little questions as she went, such as 'what kind of bird is this a picture of' (owl), 'what do you think happens to deer if they walk on a road' (they get run over), and 'what animal do you think laid this egg' (one girl answered dragon!).
When she was done talking about the animals, she got them to sit in a circle and then brought out a hedgehog that they've been looking after. He has just reached what they call release weight which means they are going to release him back into the wild in the next few days so he was a pretty chunky fellow! She carried him round the circle while he was curled up and let all the girls get a glimpse of his little nose poking out and then she put him down in the middle of the circle to let him run around a bit. He spent a bit of time sniffing the air to make sure it was safe and then walked towards one of the girls (coincidentally a girl who is leaving tonight!). Our visitor scooped him back up before he reached her and put him back in the box before letting the girls have a look at her table of things which included some skulls, a snake skin, a dissected owl pellet, and a tarantula skin.
She then packed up and left and we played a game of Fishes before finishing the meeting and sending the girls home.
It was a good meeting to come back to, but it feels odd to be back as there's a lot of new girls who I don't recognise. It's going to take some time for me to get my head round all their names!
I am finally home from university so I can go to Brownies again!
This week we had a visitor from Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre come and speak to the girls as part of the Friends to Animals badge which they started before half term. I was 15 minutes late as I got stuck in traffic on the way home from work and when I got there, the girls were all sat around the woman, who was talking through the different animals they see come through the hospital at this time of year and what is usually wrong with them. She was very good at engaging the girls by asking them little questions as she went, such as 'what kind of bird is this a picture of' (owl), 'what do you think happens to deer if they walk on a road' (they get run over), and 'what animal do you think laid this egg' (one girl answered dragon!).
When she was done talking about the animals, she got them to sit in a circle and then brought out a hedgehog that they've been looking after. He has just reached what they call release weight which means they are going to release him back into the wild in the next few days so he was a pretty chunky fellow! She carried him round the circle while he was curled up and let all the girls get a glimpse of his little nose poking out and then she put him down in the middle of the circle to let him run around a bit. He spent a bit of time sniffing the air to make sure it was safe and then walked towards one of the girls (coincidentally a girl who is leaving tonight!). Our visitor scooped him back up before he reached her and put him back in the box before letting the girls have a look at her table of things which included some skulls, a snake skin, a dissected owl pellet, and a tarantula skin.
She then packed up and left and we played a game of Fishes before finishing the meeting and sending the girls home.
It was a good meeting to come back to, but it feels odd to be back as there's a lot of new girls who I don't recognise. It's going to take some time for me to get my head round all their names!
Monday, 11 May 2015
A Walk in the Park (or not)
07/05/15
This week is revision week at university so I decided to come home for a couple of days for the peace and quiet, cheaper printing and, of course, Brownies! As it was also election day, we couldn't use our usual hall so we went to a local park instead.
The girls were split into their sixes and given a quiz to do as they walked around. Each six took 1 or 2 leaders with them. I was quickly snapped up by one of our older girls to go with her six, much to the dismay of her sixer who wanted one of the Young Leaders instead. As we have 5 sixes (we've added Gnomes since I left) and 7 Leaders, I ended up on my own with this six of 2 older girls and 3 new girls who I hadn't met before. Before we'd even left, the Sixer and Seconder were arguing because the Seconder had organised the 3 younger ones while waiting for the Sixer to stop messing with her friends. I smoothed that one out quite quickly by saying that the Seconder was in the right and if the Sixer wanted to be in charge she needed to do what she was told by Brown Owl and not mess around. However, this set the tone for the rest of the evening.
While answering the first question, which involved the girls counting pillars around a building, the arguments started again because they couldn't decide on an answer. This carried on for several questions, to the point where the six had basically split in two with the Sixer and 2 younger girls in one 'half' and the Seconder and another girl in the other and they weren't telling each other the answers. This may have been partly my fault as at one point the Sixer and her group were refusing to answer the questions and so I told the Seconder that she could still answer them, even if her Sixer didn't want to. She apparently took this to mean that if she'd gone to the trouble of answering a question that her Sixer hadn't then she didn't need to tell her the answer. I tried to explain that that wasn't a nice way to behave and that she should at least help the rest of her six work out the answer even if she didn't want to tell them straight off but she was having none of it.
In all this commotion, we also managed to take a wrong turn as I was preoccupied mediating arguments and didn't check my own set of directions. This meant that we missed out a couple of questions and, instead of leaving them and continuing on, the six decided to loop back and do it 'properly'. When we got back to where we were supposed to have gone, they decided that their feet hurt and they needed to stop and watch the pond skaters for a while. Eventually I convinced them to keep going and we made it through a few more questions before things kicked off again, this time in the form of the group of 3 heading off on their own ahead of us or lagging behind, so I had to keep asking them to stick together. We then came across a squirrel, which caused even more delays as the girls wanted to stop and watch it. I had to cut it short when they tried to see who could get closest to it though.
Eventually we got back on track and moved onto the next two questions which involved them reading an information board to find out when the park had been opened and how much the boathouse cost to build. The Seconder took one look at the board, announced that she knew the answer and started to walk off. I asked her to stop and wait for the rest of her six to work out the answer, to which the Sixer said 'what's the point, the Seconder knows, she can just tell us all'. I could see that the Seconder hadn't actually written anything down and so I asked her to share her answer with the rest of her six. When she couldn't produce an answer, I asked of we needed to go back and have another look and she said yes. The rest of the six were too busy arguing about who was going to read the board to cotton on to the fact that she'd lied so I let it be. The girls were all getting more frustrated because they couldn't find the answer that I pointed out the paragraphs that had the answers in and we finally moved on.
We eventually made it into the second half of the park which contained a natural playground which was a trail of stones and logs that the girls could climb over. At this point, I had given up trying to persuade them to answer the questions and just let them go and play. To start with, they were all fairly close together but the group of 3 girls were going faster and slowly got further and further from me. As I could still see them and my voice was starting to go, I didn't bother shouting at them to stay closer. However, this decision came back to bite me when the shout went up, 'Flossie's fallen over and she's crying'. I left the two slower girls where they were, making their way across some logs, and ran down to the injured girl. She'd slipped when climbing onto a net and hit her shin on the metal supporting bar. She had quite an impressive bruise there already and I suspected that there was no damage, just pain from hitting the bruise so I did the usual 'can you move your toes? Can you stand on it?' to which the answers were yes to both.
Me: Well there's nothing else I can do about it then
Her: That's what the teachers always say
Me: But the only thing I have on me is a phone
Her: Hmmph
Me: I can call an ambulance if you want me to...
Her: Nope, I'm fine!
She then ran off again and carried on playing with her friends so I left her to it.
When the faster group finished, they ended up in a playground at the end and we eventually caught up with them. When we did, I realised that it was 7:20 and the parents were picking up at 7:30 so I started heading back with the girls, trying to make them walk as fast as possible so we wouldn't be too late but the more I tried, the slower they were walking, complaining of sore feet and thirst. None of my tactics were working, including telling them that I would have to leave them behind for their parents to find (they were perfectly happy for this to happen)!
Half way back, we were met by Brown Owl who'd come looking for us when they realised they were a couple of girls short. Apparently she'd seen what she thought was a Brownie on the opposite side of the lake but had assumed it wasn't one of ours because her group should have been the last group. But what she didn't know was that our loop back meant we had ended up being the last group. When she got to the playground at the end, she did a quick scan and couldn't see me with the other leaders so she asked if any of them had seen me, to which the answer was no. On her way back out of the playground to find us, she made a comment to the Mum of one of the girls in my group about how we'd lost a few girls. It then dawned on her, looking at the confusion on the Mum's face, that this Mum had never met me and must have thought the girls were on their own in the park as she could see all the leaders in the playground. She reassured her that they were with a suitable adult and then came to find us. When we eventually made it back, she made a point of introducing me to this Mum so she knew that her daughter had been in safe hands. As it turned out, this was the Mum of the girl who'd fallen over so I think I put myself in her good books by telling her exactly what had happened and what I'd done about it.
Overall, this was an interesting meeting to come back to, and definitely tested my ability to control a group of girls by myself but I would happily do it again, purely because I miss Brownies so much while at uni that any time I get to come home and help is a blessing. And, in between the arguments, I did manage to get to know one of the newer girls relatively well. Only 3 more weeks of university though and I will be home for the final term of Brownies!
I just want to add, I am in no way complaining about these girls and I don't want this to come across as a rant; I thoroughly enjoy everything that happens at Brownies. If anything, it has helped me develop my skills in smoothing out arguments without taking sides and I am now a lot more confident in my ability to control a group of girls by myself. I also hope that this post will help show other Leaders that they're not alone when it comes to tricky groups of girls. Feel free to share any experiences you've had below.
This week is revision week at university so I decided to come home for a couple of days for the peace and quiet, cheaper printing and, of course, Brownies! As it was also election day, we couldn't use our usual hall so we went to a local park instead.
The girls were split into their sixes and given a quiz to do as they walked around. Each six took 1 or 2 leaders with them. I was quickly snapped up by one of our older girls to go with her six, much to the dismay of her sixer who wanted one of the Young Leaders instead. As we have 5 sixes (we've added Gnomes since I left) and 7 Leaders, I ended up on my own with this six of 2 older girls and 3 new girls who I hadn't met before. Before we'd even left, the Sixer and Seconder were arguing because the Seconder had organised the 3 younger ones while waiting for the Sixer to stop messing with her friends. I smoothed that one out quite quickly by saying that the Seconder was in the right and if the Sixer wanted to be in charge she needed to do what she was told by Brown Owl and not mess around. However, this set the tone for the rest of the evening.
While answering the first question, which involved the girls counting pillars around a building, the arguments started again because they couldn't decide on an answer. This carried on for several questions, to the point where the six had basically split in two with the Sixer and 2 younger girls in one 'half' and the Seconder and another girl in the other and they weren't telling each other the answers. This may have been partly my fault as at one point the Sixer and her group were refusing to answer the questions and so I told the Seconder that she could still answer them, even if her Sixer didn't want to. She apparently took this to mean that if she'd gone to the trouble of answering a question that her Sixer hadn't then she didn't need to tell her the answer. I tried to explain that that wasn't a nice way to behave and that she should at least help the rest of her six work out the answer even if she didn't want to tell them straight off but she was having none of it.
In all this commotion, we also managed to take a wrong turn as I was preoccupied mediating arguments and didn't check my own set of directions. This meant that we missed out a couple of questions and, instead of leaving them and continuing on, the six decided to loop back and do it 'properly'. When we got back to where we were supposed to have gone, they decided that their feet hurt and they needed to stop and watch the pond skaters for a while. Eventually I convinced them to keep going and we made it through a few more questions before things kicked off again, this time in the form of the group of 3 heading off on their own ahead of us or lagging behind, so I had to keep asking them to stick together. We then came across a squirrel, which caused even more delays as the girls wanted to stop and watch it. I had to cut it short when they tried to see who could get closest to it though.
Eventually we got back on track and moved onto the next two questions which involved them reading an information board to find out when the park had been opened and how much the boathouse cost to build. The Seconder took one look at the board, announced that she knew the answer and started to walk off. I asked her to stop and wait for the rest of her six to work out the answer, to which the Sixer said 'what's the point, the Seconder knows, she can just tell us all'. I could see that the Seconder hadn't actually written anything down and so I asked her to share her answer with the rest of her six. When she couldn't produce an answer, I asked of we needed to go back and have another look and she said yes. The rest of the six were too busy arguing about who was going to read the board to cotton on to the fact that she'd lied so I let it be. The girls were all getting more frustrated because they couldn't find the answer that I pointed out the paragraphs that had the answers in and we finally moved on.
We eventually made it into the second half of the park which contained a natural playground which was a trail of stones and logs that the girls could climb over. At this point, I had given up trying to persuade them to answer the questions and just let them go and play. To start with, they were all fairly close together but the group of 3 girls were going faster and slowly got further and further from me. As I could still see them and my voice was starting to go, I didn't bother shouting at them to stay closer. However, this decision came back to bite me when the shout went up, 'Flossie's fallen over and she's crying'. I left the two slower girls where they were, making their way across some logs, and ran down to the injured girl. She'd slipped when climbing onto a net and hit her shin on the metal supporting bar. She had quite an impressive bruise there already and I suspected that there was no damage, just pain from hitting the bruise so I did the usual 'can you move your toes? Can you stand on it?' to which the answers were yes to both.
Me: Well there's nothing else I can do about it then
Her: That's what the teachers always say
Me: But the only thing I have on me is a phone
Her: Hmmph
Me: I can call an ambulance if you want me to...
Her: Nope, I'm fine!
She then ran off again and carried on playing with her friends so I left her to it.
When the faster group finished, they ended up in a playground at the end and we eventually caught up with them. When we did, I realised that it was 7:20 and the parents were picking up at 7:30 so I started heading back with the girls, trying to make them walk as fast as possible so we wouldn't be too late but the more I tried, the slower they were walking, complaining of sore feet and thirst. None of my tactics were working, including telling them that I would have to leave them behind for their parents to find (they were perfectly happy for this to happen)!
Half way back, we were met by Brown Owl who'd come looking for us when they realised they were a couple of girls short. Apparently she'd seen what she thought was a Brownie on the opposite side of the lake but had assumed it wasn't one of ours because her group should have been the last group. But what she didn't know was that our loop back meant we had ended up being the last group. When she got to the playground at the end, she did a quick scan and couldn't see me with the other leaders so she asked if any of them had seen me, to which the answer was no. On her way back out of the playground to find us, she made a comment to the Mum of one of the girls in my group about how we'd lost a few girls. It then dawned on her, looking at the confusion on the Mum's face, that this Mum had never met me and must have thought the girls were on their own in the park as she could see all the leaders in the playground. She reassured her that they were with a suitable adult and then came to find us. When we eventually made it back, she made a point of introducing me to this Mum so she knew that her daughter had been in safe hands. As it turned out, this was the Mum of the girl who'd fallen over so I think I put myself in her good books by telling her exactly what had happened and what I'd done about it.
Overall, this was an interesting meeting to come back to, and definitely tested my ability to control a group of girls by myself but I would happily do it again, purely because I miss Brownies so much while at uni that any time I get to come home and help is a blessing. And, in between the arguments, I did manage to get to know one of the newer girls relatively well. Only 3 more weeks of university though and I will be home for the final term of Brownies!
-----------------------------------------------------
I just want to add, I am in no way complaining about these girls and I don't want this to come across as a rant; I thoroughly enjoy everything that happens at Brownies. If anything, it has helped me develop my skills in smoothing out arguments without taking sides and I am now a lot more confident in my ability to control a group of girls by myself. I also hope that this post will help show other Leaders that they're not alone when it comes to tricky groups of girls. Feel free to share any experiences you've had below.
Monday, 20 April 2015
Swimarathon
11/04/15
Today was the annual swimarathon at the local pool. We had 7 girls who came this year, 2 older ones and a bunch of younger ones. This post from last year explains how it works. One of the younger girls had a Nemo swimming hat with a fin on the top which provoked quite an amusing discussion about how animals without fins wouldn't be able to swim to which we pointed out they could swim and they didn't have fins and tadpoles could swim (to which one girl said 'but they have legs like us' and didn't believe us when we said they didn't!)
The girls started off swimming a length each, in turn but some of the younger ones started tiring pretty quickly. We don't force them to keep swimming, only to do their best, but we do encourage them to do one more, and the look on their faces when they complete that next length is the best!
This year the girls did 61 lengths which was pretty good for a very young team and was exactly the same as the other Brownie unit two lanes over.
Today was the annual swimarathon at the local pool. We had 7 girls who came this year, 2 older ones and a bunch of younger ones. This post from last year explains how it works. One of the younger girls had a Nemo swimming hat with a fin on the top which provoked quite an amusing discussion about how animals without fins wouldn't be able to swim to which we pointed out they could swim and they didn't have fins and tadpoles could swim (to which one girl said 'but they have legs like us' and didn't believe us when we said they didn't!)
The girls started off swimming a length each, in turn but some of the younger ones started tiring pretty quickly. We don't force them to keep swimming, only to do their best, but we do encourage them to do one more, and the look on their faces when they complete that next length is the best!
This year the girls did 61 lengths which was pretty good for a very young team and was exactly the same as the other Brownie unit two lanes over.
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