Brownie centenary in 2014

Just as Guides were 100 in 2010 (what did we do to mark this? Have a look here), 2014 is Brownies turn to turn 100. The Big Brownie Birthday will run from Jan to summer 2014.
We already have one plan, 2 of us leaders and 9 of our girls are going on a pack holiday with other girls in May 2014, but that's quite expensive and not everyone can afford it, so we always knew we'd plan less expensive things too.
Plans have started to filter down from Region and County, and the opportunities on offer will include:

• A county launch in Feb 2014 at a multicultural celebration on Thinking Day in February
• A county sleepover (two nights available) in a very exciting place in March
• A county scavenger walk in May
• A Brownie Revels (fun day) in June
• Alien disco finales in division in July
• A 4 night Brownie camp for the region in August

We are thrilled to have so many opportunities on offer and so grateful to the county and region volunteers setting them up!

There will also be two national challenges, one for Brownies and one for all other sections including leaders.
One thing I haven't noticed is how much of the events other than the national challenge the Guides will be able to take part in.

Because the 100 years of Guides was the 100 years of Guiding as well, there were many opportunities offered to all sections and I know some Guide leaders felt Guides didn't properly benefit from celebrating their own section level centenary in the way that Rainbows did have when they celebrated 25 years a while ago. So while I am so so grateful that so many events are being staged for us, and we hope to take part in as many as possible, when we are planning events at a unit level I think we will work hard to include our sister Guide unit in what we are doing so that they feel part of everything.

Where I live: Indoors

An off Guiding post...

The American Resident did a post with a linky about Where I Live: Indoors, and I was compelled to join in.

There's a pretty clear pattern to what's on our walls. Pre kids and post kids...

A lino print of the Florence rooftops, bought in the UK not long after returning from an Italian trip taken on a whim.

A print of the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow - even more reflective of pre-9/11 actually, as we also bought a mirror with a Mackintosh style ladder frame and were able to carry that back as hand luggage on the plane.

A chalked painting of Venice, bought from an artist while we were there, carefully rolled up and carried home.

 

 

 

 

A painting of the park bandstand where we were married, purchased for us on our wedding day by my parents and though small, greatly treasured.

(Sorry this is sideways, I cannot persuade it to rotate). Then we get to post-kids, their wall of glory in our kitchen where I add particularly good paintings or certificates of achievement - both kids have their 2000m swimming and daughter has her Taekwondo black belt certificate there so you can see the paintings are a little out of date but I so clearly remember how proud daughter was of the rabbit being in a hutch (or a pink line she painted round it), son laboured for ages over the Power Rangers he no longer remembers and I can't quite remember which kid did the picture at the top but I do remember that they had just discovered their belly button so added it very clearly!

And finally husband's pride and joy, a signed Tour of Britain top and a picture of him with Mark Cavendish.

Over the years we've gone from carefully selected beautiful original work, to lovingly created original work of a different type, so I see it as an evolution!

Girl-led planning leads exactly where you'd think!

Lots of girl-led planning last night, there were post-it notes and shouted out ideas and flights of fancy and scribbled down points.

And how can we summarise what the girls would like to do if given the chance to pick?

Be outdoors a lot and camping.

:-)

Sounds about right, doesn't it!

Halfway through the summer term

So, Guiding is girl-led and our girls decided they wanted to earn as many badges as possible this term, to fill up their sleeves!
We've scheduled a couple of easy to do badges: Agility and Craft, we've already completed Road Safety over a couple of weeks and we've completed two out of three weeks on Disability Awareness. We did try for Fire Safety but our local fire station isn't doing visits just now, so we have put that on hold for a while.
Disability Awareness is going really well, it's being led by a Guider whose son has autism, and his autism assistance dog made a star appearance at Brownies last week - he's so gentle, and focused that even the Brownie whom we were warned is terrified of dogs held his harness for a few seconds, a real "mountaintop moment" for her. This week the girls learned finger spelling and also tried a range of activities with one sense removed - I was on the table where the girls had to butter a slice of bread blindfolded, and I was liberally buttered on the arm by one girl!
We still have a big weekend away with the majority of the Brownies to come, a division dance workshop, promise ceremony for the new girls, girl-led planning for the next term, and our end of term fun at the local campsite. On top of that, I have offered to organise a district trip to a theme park early next term, so it's busy busy, as ever!

Excellent post

Excellent post on Guiding, really could not put it better.

http://www.aguidinglife.co.uk/2013/05/it-is-essence-of-individual.html?m=1