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Gearing Up Again
May. 5th, 2017 02:25 pmWe started back at Brownies last week, with our customary games night. We had two new girls, one the younger sister of one of our current Brownies, the other a transfer, as the family have just moved back from Gibraltar (which is a first for us). Another new girl joined us this week, bringing us up to 21 girls.
This week we opted for a simple craft, since Sparkly Owl was on holiday. We asked the Brownies what was special about May, and after some thought, one of them said, 'Isn't it Star Wars Day?' so I gave the correct greeting of 'May the fourth be with you' and we carried on trying to get someone to say May Day celebrations. They didn't, but nevertheless we did our May Day craft - a thin hairband to be decorated with paper flowers. Very simple and very popular.
Last week we'd said we would be running another badge night and asked the Brownies to think which badge they wanted to work for. So this week, while they were working on their craft I went round to each of them to discuss what they wanted to do. They've chosen a wide variety of badges, so we're very hopeful as to what will be produced.
On Sunday afternoon, one of the mothers had phoned Brown Owl to rant that her daughter wasn't to do any badges, because she found it too stressful. We were completely unimpressed, and I was all geared up to say something when she came in to continue her reasoning as she had promised to do. In fact all she did was drop her daughter off and stand as far as possible from the door to make sure she came in. I spoke to the daughter, came up with a solution which she was happy with (we have all sorts of ways of enabling the girls to achieve badges) and then when the daughter told her mother she said to me 'and she's happy with that?' By and large we can cope with problem Brownies, problem parents are another matter.
Brown Owl has decided she wants to retire, having spent over 30 years leading Brownie packs. Although sad, I can understand her feelings. I'm not taking on the running of the pack, although intend to continue helping. Unfortunately support from county headquarters to find someone to take over is limited to 'here are places you can try to get help'. Which always annoys me - the reason for stopping doing something is generally need for the time, so it isn't helpful to say 'continue what you're doing and do more'.
And finally, a request to my non-UK flist. If you know it, could you point me to your national Girlguiding/Girl Scout website so I can look at uniforms and a few basic details, like the different groups and their age ranges. It's for an activity I'm planning for next month.
This week we opted for a simple craft, since Sparkly Owl was on holiday. We asked the Brownies what was special about May, and after some thought, one of them said, 'Isn't it Star Wars Day?' so I gave the correct greeting of 'May the fourth be with you' and we carried on trying to get someone to say May Day celebrations. They didn't, but nevertheless we did our May Day craft - a thin hairband to be decorated with paper flowers. Very simple and very popular.
Last week we'd said we would be running another badge night and asked the Brownies to think which badge they wanted to work for. So this week, while they were working on their craft I went round to each of them to discuss what they wanted to do. They've chosen a wide variety of badges, so we're very hopeful as to what will be produced.
On Sunday afternoon, one of the mothers had phoned Brown Owl to rant that her daughter wasn't to do any badges, because she found it too stressful. We were completely unimpressed, and I was all geared up to say something when she came in to continue her reasoning as she had promised to do. In fact all she did was drop her daughter off and stand as far as possible from the door to make sure she came in. I spoke to the daughter, came up with a solution which she was happy with (we have all sorts of ways of enabling the girls to achieve badges) and then when the daughter told her mother she said to me 'and she's happy with that?' By and large we can cope with problem Brownies, problem parents are another matter.
Brown Owl has decided she wants to retire, having spent over 30 years leading Brownie packs. Although sad, I can understand her feelings. I'm not taking on the running of the pack, although intend to continue helping. Unfortunately support from county headquarters to find someone to take over is limited to 'here are places you can try to get help'. Which always annoys me - the reason for stopping doing something is generally need for the time, so it isn't helpful to say 'continue what you're doing and do more'.
And finally, a request to my non-UK flist. If you know it, could you point me to your national Girlguiding/Girl Scout website so I can look at uniforms and a few basic details, like the different groups and their age ranges. It's for an activity I'm planning for next month.
