Guiders' staff room - tea, wine, chat and optional dancing around the toadstool

where has everyone gone

I have a few more of these if you think they would help

scissors...

guiders sit on the floor with the brownies with their legs out in front. The guider has a pair of scissors

tell the girls you are going to pass the scissors round the circle . They can pass them to person next to them either open, closed or crossed .. by saying I pass these scissors to you eg open

show them scissors in the 3 postions (open is kind halfway open .. crossed is as open as you can get the scissors ifyswim)and then
pass them on

the secret being that if the scissors are crossed your legs will be crossed and so on. You will of course have showed them this in the demo but they will be so busy watching the scissors they wont notice what your legs are doing

just watch the frustration .. they are crossed brown owl!!!

hi slubber

welcome aboard... well done you on starting a new unit.. howis it going so far?

mr moon.. brownies all sit in a circle.. guider has a pencil or pen in her right hand

Guider pretends to draw on the floor and says :

this is mr moon (big circle)
he has 2 eyes (2 dots)
a nose (a small circle)
and a big smiley face (big semi circle)

guider then moves the pen from right hand to left hand and then passes the pen/pencil on to person on their left saying please may I join the moon club.

Tell the girls if they do exactly what you do they can join the moon club..if they dont then they cant

The girls will be so busy worrying about drawing mr moon they wont notice that your pen swapped hands and 99% of them will pass it on with their right hand

As your girls get savvy to it they will "draw" more and more elaborate mr and mrs moons.. leaving new recruits even more bamboozled

ello ello, only just spotted this. I'm a Rainbow Guider. My unit was exactly 3 weeks old today. I am all fresh and shiny and new (and keen)

Frasersmummy, what are those, please explain .

campfire magic???

such as mr moon, or the scissors games ??

Hi again, any ideas for a pack night activity, something a bit different and very absorbing. Last pack night before camp so I expect them to be a bit hyper and they are bad enough at screaming their way through games, Brown Owl will be with parents so I think we need something fairly quite. So that we don't look totaly out of control .

I have exausted myself with coming up with activities for camp, games always get a bit screamy and playground like. Have spent the last two weeks doing a big poster, so already done lots of colouring in etc.

Need to wow them into submission and silence .

Just wanted to say Hi - I'm an Assistant Guide Guider and Division PR rep (not that I've done much PRing recently). Have been doing guides for 10 yrs now and keep threatning to change sections!!. Love camping (our unit Guider has a licence)but due to us both popping out little ones over the last few years we haven't done much. Off to Guides to night - they are meant to be finishing off doing their unit guidelines and making something for mothers day (I stress the meant as we are quite a chaotic unit and plans change but hopefully we have loads of fun!!)

Tis very quiet.

I've spent this afternoon printing out G/H, kit lists etc for Pack Hol parents meeting tomorrow night.

The Brownies are going to be making Mother's Day cards using pressed flowers. Depending on how much mess they make with the glue (their current favourite pastime ) there may also be time to make a coaster.

we are all very quiet...

what is everyone up to at the unit this week??

skramble..boys are worse.. they just dont listen

I keep threatening to defect to the cubs .

Dear Lord yes, the screaming is enough to drive you round the bend.

I see what you mean about the younger ones in together, in the hope they can get to sleep when they need to,but does that actually happen . We do have a couple of very young very new ones and I think having a matter of fact (bit brash) older girl in with them will help if the bottom lips start to quiver. Some of the older ones are fantastic with the little ones and I hope this shines through at camp.

SO about the screaming, do your girls (brownies) have a severe tendency to scream a lot.

We akways tke a set of MAR forms (not a nursing byt social care background here but similar thoughts!)Medical Adminstrative Record sheet nd this allows 3 different types of medicacation,dosage and time of admin and signature to be recorded. These then slot in behind the G/H form in your event file so the whole lot can be handed to any meds you need to call.

The pillow slips is a great idea - on the same vein when Guides make delicate crafrs we hve some small washing up baskets or have aked them to bring a shoe box with them to take goodies home with them.

Oh and going back to the first aid during meetings thing - some of our units have asked parents to sign a general meetings health form (listing names of guides, paracetamol, plasters, afterbite etc) as you are also acting in loco parenti for the hour and a half that you have them each week and whilst mum is generally up the road, you may still need to 1st Aid. Also, at the same time we renwew our perission to leave the meeting place (eg for games in the park, rounders, fire laying up the road etc) as parents need to give specific permission for this too - even if they are dropping off and collecting from somewhere else .... arrg!!

I agree with you frasersmummy, at least some of the Brownies have a sporting chance of getting to sleep before 4am if the littlies are together. Having said that I'm having all 20 in one room when we go away in April!!

Sleep is for the weak as they say

In terms of rooms we do ask the girls who they want to share a room with which usually means an age split.

If your older ones are all in one room they are less likey to keep youngsters awake

Howeer during the day we mix them all up. For activities and duties we allow the youngsters a chance of being the group leader for the weekend... a chance to boss the sixers about !!

I do think you need a range of ages for treasure trails etc.. otherwise the oldies are back in 10 mins and the youngsters are there for an hour

I shall be quiet and let someone else get a word in edgeways now

on a normal brownie night you couldnt give out medications

However the parental signature on the health form actually allows the 2 named people on it to act as local parentis.

The section on right hand side of the form allows you to fill in medications that you are carrying with you. We go further and write in there see attached sheet

we then attach a list of absolute everything in the kit right down to scissors and such

We dont take too much just ... as I tell my parents...stuff you would have at home. We usually have calpol, tylix, plasters, burn spray, bite & Sting relief and antiseptic cream.
Though given headlines the last few weeks I will be reconsidering the txylix

Oh and how do you split them in dorms, the camp BOwl went on last time split them with the younger ones in one dormand the older ones in the other, I would mix them if it was me as I would want a couple of older ones to tkae a bit of control of the little ones. Also we are using the smae teams for activites so crazy to have a team of little ones.

We have a little new one who is so cute and desperate to make her promise, I even spotted that she got one of the older girls to help her practice last week, with no prompting from us, aw! she is so excited, makes me realise why I like doing brownies, the rest of the time it is hell on earth, What is it with the screaming?

I was really surprised that the first aider can give out medicines such as calpol etc, really really surprised as I do not think a first aider has any training in this at all, no first aid course I have been on or heard of deals with prescribing or providing medication. I am trained in using automatic defribulators (SP?) but not trained in handing out meds, OK I am a mum of two and can read a packet but thats enough anywhere else.

I thought only pre arranged medication would be allowed. So confused why they Guiding organisation so tied in red tape do this.

I have no worries at out camp as the first aider is a retired childrens nurse.

Thought about craft storage and we will have poly bags pinned along the bottom of the notice board with names on.

I guess I am missing a trick there then.. shall make this our standard practice from now

And shall suggest all the units in our divsion do the same

I would always have a second adult witness treatment and sign a treatment record accordingly. (But I was a nurse many years ago!)

Talking of first aid

when you are doling out medicines such as calpol or something prescribed by doctor should I get another guider to witness it and sign the treatment sheet ?

I never have

But we had a nurse at our last trg and she said she is more qualified than me and yet she has to do this in her job and therefore it should be best practice for us too

I'm not sure what size ours it..pretty small I think we only have 10 handles but the kids love it I would say its well worth £10 skramble

If you have a hall that doubles as a craft room and a dining hall then somewhere for the kids to store finished/unfinished crafts.

We have bought really cheap pillow slips, decorated each girls with fabric paints on the Friday night... and then hung them on the wall.

The girls can keep their crafts in it during the weekend and you arent left trying to pair crafts left under bunks with girls at the end of the weekend

are you seeing a theme? fm likes an easy life

Anybody thinking about getting a parachute, Tesco has 3m ones, has 16 handles, is quite sturdy. Would be better if it was a bit bigger but a bargain at £9.99