This week the Guides got stuck into planning their year and organising their patrols. We started with a scavenger hunt, I cannot take credit for the list as I found it online but it did keep them amused for a good 20 mins.
| 1. Prickly and tickly |
| 2. hard and soft |
| 3. rough and smooth |
| 4. long and round |
| 5. white and yellow |
| 6. thin and fat |
| 7. tiny and rough |
| 8. curly and straight |
| 9. shiny and dull |
| 10. feathery and hard |
One group arrived in with a mop for curly and straight, I was very impressed with their ingenuity! Lots of daisies for white and yellow and plenty of twigs and feathers for everything else.
This year we are trying to put the girls in charge of more, we want them to choose their own patrols and Patrol Leaders and Seconders. This is twofold, one, gives them the opportunity to have some independence and two, if they form their own patrols, hopefully they will want to work in them and I won’t have to spend all of my time chasing Guides back to their own patrol.
Some of our Guides who are a few months from Senior Section have decided to set up a Senior Patrol and work with Sheetbend since we don’t have a Senior Section at this time. I think this is going to be a good thing, they are all the Guides who were getting a bit restless at the end of last year. I think giving them a separate space will really help them grow.
Our largest patrol is formed of our eldest Guides, most of them were together last year and I know that one of them is particularly good at keeping them on track and entertained. I asked them who was going to be patrol leader and was surprised and impressed that they have decided their quietest member is going to be their PL. I think they want her to step up and come out of herself a bit. She was very surprised herself. I’m not worried about the Daisy Patrol.
The Roses are made up of our 3 last year’s new Guides, a transfer Guide and 2 new Guides. They seem to be getting on well but are a bit boisterous. Their Patrol Leader is a younger sister to one of our new Senior Patrol and I think it will be good to get her out of her shell.
The Poppies are all new Guides who have all moved up from Brownies and they are full of enthusiasm. They haven’t chosen a PL yet and are each going to try it out and see who suits best. They will need more of an eye kept on them since they are so new but I think they will do alright.
With that settled, we gave them a planning sheet and got them to write down their ideas for the year.
The Poppies got super excited about badges, so hopefully the unit as a whole may start taking an interest in completing interest badges! One of our older Guides turned up with 3 badges completed over the summer but she is the first Guide in 2 years to do so.
They wanted to continue with the Patrol Nights so that obviously went down really well last year.
Then Barrel took the PLs for a Patrol Leader’s Council and planned the rest of the term while the other patrol members chose a GFI and started planning for it.
Through all of this I was being observed to see if I’m acceptable as a prospective trainer. One of the trainers came to see if we were following the program correctly and that I was interacting with the other leaders and girls in a good manner. I passed muster and will now be passed on to the shadowing stage.
In another entertaining turn of events, I finally completed everything for my Chief Guides Award and am trying to figure out how to receive it. Sheetbend has no idea, she contacted the District Commissioner, who doesn’t know and who is going to ring the County Commissioner. I don’t think anyone in our district has done this in a while!
The Guide Life 