Guiders Staff Room Part 3

Right, we're making pancakes over camping stoves and I think we will do a Great Egg Race type challenge too with the Guides for our next meeting.

We should have plenty of junk in the cupboard but has anyone done this/got any ideas? Also if we have less than 4 Guides at the meeting (completely possible given our recent attendance/numbers) should we challenge them to make 2 machines and see which works better? Give them a few eggs and some cloths and see if they can better their own distance? If we have 4 we can have 2 teams.

Happy Thinking Day ladies :)

Groovee, did you design the picture yourself? I'm very impressed with it!

We dug out one of our favourite game at Guides tonight which I'd forgotten about but thought you might like it:

The Speed Dating Game:
-Girls split in to pairs & sit on opposite sides of a long table
-One side of the table are the askers & one side are the answerers
-All the askers have the same list of questions, like what are your top 5 favourite foods, what do you think makes a good friend, what did you do this summer, etc
-The askers ask their first question & the answerers answer, then every 10 seconds the leader shouts CHANGE and the answerers have to move to the next person & answer the next question
-Once they've done that they switch teams so everyone gets a chance to ask / answer
-Then there's a 5 second round with much shorter questions like what did you eat for breakfast, describe yourself in one word, what superpower would you choose, etc.

This is such a good icebreaker game especially if you've got new girls. They love it.

Snap!

Sent an email about getting tickets for something and so far 2 parents out of 30 have responded.

Ooh good luck Inflagrante!

My Rainbows parents are good! It's just the Guides ones leave a lot to be desired at the moment.

Fast enough to complain 1st week after Christmas that badges weren't being given out...um no, I need a 2nd signature to order the blummin' things & haven't seen my co-signatory for 3 weeks due to work/no meetings. But when it's the chance to do something...no answer from most.

You sure the emails aren't for our amusement? I'm very lucky, my parents are all pretty good.

I've managed to stitch myself up with a school assembly next Wednesday. I'm terrified!

Ah but Ria, we must do ...at least you'd think so.

I've had two replies, out of 9. They can't make it. Not a clue about the rest.

I'll just go with dd1 if none of them want to.

We don't send the emails for our own amusement

That sounds like a great trip lucysmam I hope you get enough interest to do it.

Heh, I think I might

Do you mean Astronomical?

We have a Thinking Day event on Sat. Publicised by email and on our unit FB page. Reminded parents on FB of a minor need for help/junk that they could bring. No responses except one saying "I've only just heard about this".

My Guides have been invited star gazing with the local SS at the local Astrological Society. I've text round everyone to see what interest there is as I'll need a lift with the SS leader...NOT ONE PARENT HAS REPLIED ffs & they could do with an answer so it can be offered to another unit if not.

Well, the missing money has turned up...somehow despite the Post Office putting the right sort code/account number in their system, it has ended up processed into the Rainbows account once it reached Lloyds! DC says I can split it between both units since Lloyds covered it for the Guides :)

I'm in the market for a new printer once subs are paid for both units. Mine went "ping" today and I can't get it to work now :( I'm thinking Epson this time, rather than HP, as they mostly seem to come with individual cartridges rather than tri-colour like the HP.

My new YL (to be) is enthusiastic...she's shopping for an activity for the Guides tomorrow and going to lead it.

When we first started our Guide unit they absolutely loved doing tunnels in the dark. So they'd line up all the tables in to a maze shape, cover all the sides with bin liners to make it a dark tunnel you had to crawl through and then they would put obstacles like toilet paper streamers inside & stick prizes inside like chocolate coins that you'd have to find (on a timer). But our current lot aren't that in to this game, they prefer going to pottery painting and cooking.

Sharpie tie dying has probably been the overall favourite activity though. We've done t-shirts twice & they just love it & make great stuff.

Once we did a leaflet drop around the village & they raved about it!

And of course, if they could they would go doing outdoor activities like abseiling every day!

My Rainbows really loved 'painting' all over the walls and car park in the summer, we gave them a bucket of water and a selection of old brushes and sponges. Anything that involves mud is always a success too, although always seems to involve them painting my face with it sooner or later.

I just asked DD her favourite thing at Brownies, she said international food nights because "Brown Owl is an amazing cook and gives us new things to try and teaches us cool recipes and we learn about the countries too"

What do you think your girls would say is/has been their favourite activity?
My lot have said that they would do a night walk every week in winter as long as it isn't raining 'too hard'. We are really well placed, being semi-rural, to have a 4 mile round walk through woods and fields between villages so we can use our torches and also see the glow of the village streetlights and understand/visualise light pollution. I literally route march them round the circle, stopping a couple of times to talk about the lighting or if any bats whizz by. it's always freezing so it's good to keep moving! They just love it!
What are your groups' favourites?

I laughed when I saw that thread. All our Guides ever want to do is bake (seriously - why on earth is there a cake baking activity in the Football GFI) but they make such a terrible mess that we only do it about once a year. Demonstrating how to peel a carrot at a recent residential felt much more guide-y.

Saw that on Facebook before I saw it here. Mighty different tone to many other recent threads.

missis that sounds jolly frustrating!

Becles I saw that thread. Good to see some people understand the logistical difficulties. The most ambitious thing we've tried to cook is tin can pancakes

Hi,can I join you? I've been lurking a while. I do Guides and Senior Section (simultaneously!) Have done for about 18 months, was a Brownie leader in a previous life.
Finding it a bit of a struggle at the minute as I'm pregnant and not feeling great. The other Guide leader (in charge) is the most disorganised woman known to man but has somehow kept the unit going for 16 years. Despite me working twice as many hours as her, and us having a unit helper this year, it nearly always seems to fall to me to organise activities for both groups.

The Guides have been doing GFIs recently which is light on planning from my point of view so that is good, and the Rangers are quite keen to run some Guide nights themselves which helps. One has just done her peer educator training and is going to do Think Resilient with them. The Rangers were having a movie night this week, all the other leader had to do was dig out the projector. She came in and said "I hope you've got something planned for Guides, I've been sorting out the Seniors all week!"

Sorry, this has become a bit of a rant! I'm not normally this grumpy

Oh look at this, some people who sort of understand that we don't go back I not a cupboard after the meeting.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2851008-to-think-Guides-should-be-able-to-make-cakes?msgid=66868532#66868532

Lots of previously hidden Guiders popping up

Can I say hello, we re-started our rainbows group with a couple of friends last April and so far (apart from having a too full waiting list) everything is going well.
Our first girl leaves to go to Brownies at the end of the term.
I have to say all our parents are pretty good too, I only have one that doesn't pay on time, but even she had paid by the second week this term.

Dear leader at another unit, when I ask for Thinking Day numbers by 1st Feb, it wasn't for the good of my health. Your girls you told me about yesterday will have to take their chances with badges and I'm not telling them why.