smallhobbit | More Zooming Brownies

The good news is that although we were missing two of our Zoom Brownies before half term, we've had all eleven for the last two meetings, so clearly they're enjoying it, even if it's not the best way to run a Brownie meeting.

First week back was UK Parliament Week. We've taken part for the last couple of years, so gave it a go again. I ran a couple of activities where I told a little story and they had to do basic actions - making an X with their arms for voting, running on the spot for 'in the running' etc. There was a quiz to see what they knew - not that much, but I didn't expect they would - it was quite funny hearing them calling out to whichever parent was around (one of the conditions is that there is an adult in the vicinity) to see if they knew the answers. We had sent out a Spot the Difference sheet in advance, which most of them had printed off, so they tried that. Every year we've had a vote, with a ballot box - sadly we couldn't do that this year, but I had prepared a ballot paper, which again most had printed and the one who hadn't was able to write down their choice. This year was to select the Brownie Christmas gift and they would all receive the item with the most votes: Brownie cup, 2 Brownie pencils, rubber pin badge, cloth badge. The overwhelming vote went for the teddy bear pin badge. We always try to vote on something relevant and how they vote makes a difference.

This week Doodles was running an activity to help them obtain their Brownies Have Adventures badge, which was the one we'd been working on last spring before everything shut. So they were making hedgehog homes out of a cardboard box and part of a plastic drinks bottle. It was quite funny watching the various assistant adults having to do the role we'd normally be doing. I'm not convinced the hedgehog holmes were very successful, but that didn't matter - they tried which is what counts to get their badge.

We've found that even an hour is hard to fill and keep their interest. Normally we'd run a game or something similar if we had some spare time, but that's not practical, so we tend to finish a few minutes early. The Brownies remain enthusiastic so that's good.