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It's just a matter of drawing a picture
Feb. 4th, 2022 05:39 pmThis week the Unit Leader couldn't come, as she's got covid. (I had it last week, but was symptom free and wasn't due to go anyway, since I should have been in London). Which meant we had to run the meeting without her. Fortunately, she had been able to send us the instructions for the activity, and Flamingo took charge.
We were looking at how paintings can tell a story, and I had found some postcards of art by Goncharova, plus a larger picture in an Art Quarterly magazine, so Flamingo could use them to illustrate the idea. Then the Brownies were told to draw their own picture which told a story. And we had a very peaceful 45 minutes as they all happily chatted and drew. It's so obvious that they rarely get the opportunity to do so - school artwork is very exact - and we had some good pictures. They showed their pictures at the end, and we asked what the story was - some of them simply said 'it's my imagination' which was great - why else would there be night and day and a flying wedding cake?
There's one Brownie who we all find very difficult - she makes silly comments and is constantly interrupting, so that she's the centre of attention. Yesterday she made a lot of noise about what they'd done, then refused to show her drawing. We accept that some don't want to share, and the other girls are in general good about this, but in this particular case they tried to force her, and she got upset. I tried to explain that in part she had brought it on herself, but she seemed unable to understand that certain actions will have reactions. While this might be reasonable for one of the younger girls just starting Brownies, she's almost ten and I would have expected more.
I've now written to give formal 'notice' that I shall be finishing at the end of the summer term. In some ways I wouldn't mind staying in contact, but I really don't want the commitment of the weekly meeting.
We were looking at how paintings can tell a story, and I had found some postcards of art by Goncharova, plus a larger picture in an Art Quarterly magazine, so Flamingo could use them to illustrate the idea. Then the Brownies were told to draw their own picture which told a story. And we had a very peaceful 45 minutes as they all happily chatted and drew. It's so obvious that they rarely get the opportunity to do so - school artwork is very exact - and we had some good pictures. They showed their pictures at the end, and we asked what the story was - some of them simply said 'it's my imagination' which was great - why else would there be night and day and a flying wedding cake?
There's one Brownie who we all find very difficult - she makes silly comments and is constantly interrupting, so that she's the centre of attention. Yesterday she made a lot of noise about what they'd done, then refused to show her drawing. We accept that some don't want to share, and the other girls are in general good about this, but in this particular case they tried to force her, and she got upset. I tried to explain that in part she had brought it on herself, but she seemed unable to understand that certain actions will have reactions. While this might be reasonable for one of the younger girls just starting Brownies, she's almost ten and I would have expected more.
I've now written to give formal 'notice' that I shall be finishing at the end of the summer term. In some ways I wouldn't mind staying in contact, but I really don't want the commitment of the weekly meeting.
