Sweet Week

Well, there goes another busy week, another week of guiding complete. 

On Monday the Senior Section girls got crafty and created a range of bracelets for themselves. They were given a wide array of beads, wires, elastics, clips and other materials to create bracelets with, and there were some beautiful results, some lovely bead & chain mixtures. The girls put some real thought and effort into the activity and came out with some great pieces.

While they were occupied with this we were able to get on and complete the term plan. Again, some great activities were thought of, Volleyball on the beach, S/S girls v District Leaders rounders competition, clothes designing among many other things. Should be a great term with lots of outdoor activities in the sunshine . . . hopefully!

The Guides had a sugar filled evening on Thursday playing games, making sweet pizzas and slush puppies. It was a fun filled noisy evening and the girls certainly went home buzzing. . . One thing I noticed was that Dolly Mixtures are not popular! I personally love them, the girls however do not!

At the weekend I attended a Changing Sections & Safe Space Training day. This was for my Adult Leadership Qualification for Senior Section. A couple more things to do and this will be complete :) It was a good day and great to see a friendly face as the Senior Section trainer (my old Brown Owl :)) I also made a 'new friend' and hopefully a new contact. A lovely 'girl' who is taking over a Ranger Unit. Hopefully we will continue this contact and be able to swap ideas etc.

I have had a busy day updating my folder work for my Q.G award, things are coming together nicely and I'm happy with the development. As the regular readers will know, I have now taken on the role of Division PR Rep and was so happy to see that Pip McKerrow - Chief Commissioner for our region (LASER) is now following us :D Thanks Pip!!

I hope you are all having a great start to your summer terms.

xx

Hello Summer Term!

This week saw us return to weekly meetings. Senior Section on Monday and Guides on Thursday. A nice gentle, easing back in week with both units playing games. The S/S girls had a choice of board games to play and had a nice casual catch up evening. The Guides played a variety of games including bench ball, running games and a little bit of improvised acting with a variety of props - needless to say there were some interesting skits with relay batons, high vis vests and cones . . . .

We also saw three new Guides join our unit, three new characters to add to the group, let hope they enjoy themselves and are happy with us :)

Term plans are coming together nicely, with the Guide one nearly being complete, and what a fantastic term they've got. Lots of activities outdoors in the sunshine hopefully :)

In reference to my previous articles about upcycling, sustainability etc; while I was working at my internship this week, I wrote an article on how the Government are planning to cut environmental education from the National Curriculum for children aged 5-14 years. This made me really quite angry. . . How are children supposed to learn to respect the environment, to look after it and care for it for future generations if they aren't taught about it at School. It was very impressive to see that 65,000 people had signed a couple of petitions to try and stop this happening. It would be such a huge mistake, because as cliche as it sounds, young children today will carve the future and teach other generations how to be sustainable and so on . . . too important to cut in my eyes. 

xx

A little Investigation . . . Update

Firstly I'd like to thank the huge number of you who read 'A little investigation . . .'. It was really great to see such a huge number of you reading it, I really hope you enjoyed it - it was by far my most popular post to date. I'd like to say a big thank you to those who sent me a reply, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about 'Green Fashion Shows' for Brownies and other such activities. I think teaching them at a young age about this topic is incredibly important.
Now I know that Recycling, being environmentally friendly and so on is a hugely important topic at the moment, so I find it hard to believe there aren't more of you out there with great stories to share. It would be amazing if this research could be the start of something for Guiding.
So please if you can spare a couple of minutes, please share your stories, it would be a huge help not only to this investigation but also for my Queens Guide Award.

Many Thanks xxx

p.s It is great to see that this blog is now being read in 8 different countries. Keep it up guys :)

p.s.s. Dont forget to follow my Division updates on Twitter at @SeahavenDivisn

A slight change in direction . . .

I come bearing a little bit of news for all you readers out there. . . I have officially taken up the role of Division PR person for the Seahaven division down here on the South East coast.

Due to my love of blogging and social media, it was felt that I would be suitable for the role - so it is with great honour I can now introduce myself as Division PR 'Guru'. This blog will no longer be just about the Guide and Senior Section units I volunteer with but I aim to also bring you some great stories from the division as a whole, from rainbows and brownies, to Guides and Senior Section. 

I am also using this role for the New Skills and development module for my Queens Guide Award . . . an exciting year lays ahead I hope :)

It would be great if you have Twitter if you could follow the division - @SeahavenDivisn :)

xx

A little investigation

A combination of things has led to me writing this blog. I want to carry out a little investigation to see whether any of you leaders out there get the girls involved in Upcycling or DIY work or a combination of the two.
Firstly, for my Queens Guide Community Action module, I am looking to investigate the hazards of litter found on beaches and in the seas and the danger it can bring to wildlife and environments. I'm looking to get involved with a beach litter picking team which will be a huge step into investigating the different types of litter found. 
Also, one day a week I am fortunate enough to carry out an internship for Eco Designer Oliver Heath - researching and writing for his blog articles. We were chatting yesterday and I was telling him a few things about this blog, about what I'm doing for my Queens Guide etc and its led on to this. Olivers influence has changed the way my brain works. Maybe using some of the waste collected during the litter picking (when I get round to it) I could take it back to the Guides (clean of course!) to help them to understand the harm it causes, get them involved in Upcycling (similar to recycling) the waste and creating something beautiful out of it... So firstly do any of you out there carry out any activities with your groups that can help them to understand Upcycling and create new things from old unwanted items, if so what are these activities?

Items like this water bottle chandelier, I think, are really beautiful and it could teach the girls a valuable lesson about using waste to make new things.

Secondly, how prepared do you think the girls in your unit are for running a home, coping with simple DIY chores, repairing broken items, know how to hang a picture frame and other such tasks?
A great way to teach the girls new skills would be to pick up some second hand furniture and let them loose with it. You can easily collect some furniture at great prices from charity shops, furniture recycling centres and so on. Teaching them how to use simple tools to repair broken items, to bring a second lease of life to an old unwanted piece of furniture.
I personally think things like this could be a great little project among units perhaps starting at Guides age + but what do you all think? Do you think it could work and would help the girls to be independent? Please leave your comments on this article and to help my survey it would be great if you could let me know where you are in the world?

Many thanks 
xx

A brief Update

As you know we were very fortunate last week to offer an evening of Kickboxing lessons to the Girls. We were lucky enough to have two teachers join us for the evening from Sama Brighton who were both really great with the girls. 
The girls were taught a mixture of kicking and arm techniques after a grueling warm up. They all thoroughly enjoyed it and the hour and a half session flew by - there were cries of disappointment when they realised time was up!!

I have had the time to finally crack on with my Queens Guide Award this week, making a good start on both the Community project & New Skill modules - so full steam ahead now - only 20 months left to complete it before I'm too old. . . 

Hope you're all having great, well deserved Easter Breaks.

xx