Boring Brownies

[JessePinkman3]

I've been helping out at Dd's brownie pack since May and been asked to come up with ideas for this coming term to make it a bit more exciting. Brown Owl is sweet but very busy with ft work and very forgetful/disorganised there's often nothing particular planned and the girls complain of being bored & she struggles with behaviour. There's 8 girls and the 2 of us adults. I've come up with salt dough, pebble painting, a big fingerprint painting we can all do for the wall, book lover & collector badge activities for this term. Also possibly a trip to a library & a wildlife park - although the local library is only open till 6 and the wildlife park is expensive so not getting very far with those!
Anyway does anyone have any ideas to inject a bit of fun & what can I do without stepping on her toes but helping out more? There is a local church & vets in the village but not much else! I work part time but I have time & happy to prepare crafts beforehand & print things out etc. Brown Owl doesn't like sending home notes to parents regarding anything but especially bringing things in etc (for suggested collector badge for instance) because she says she doesn't like troubling parents - she seems a bit shy of the parents at pick up etc she busies herself in the kitchen & leaves that to me.
Any ideas? Ty

Are you on Facebook? The brownie leaders support group is fab and if you want to be anon the admins will post for you.

We start in a circle and do the register . Need to start singing the song again.

Then the young leaders run a game while the main activity is set up. If it's baking or craft we may start that first.

Have a pow wow with the girls to find out what they would like to do. Give them time to look through the badge book to see what badges they could do it at home. We're meant to be girl led. So ideas from them will be handy.

There is also the Girlguiding challenge badge group on Facebook. I'd love to try geocaching sometime.

I admit I came on ready to say "if you think it could be better then offer to help".... But you are already so back in my box!

Brownies has to be well planned with specific activities or otherwise behaviour will go downhill and the girls get fed up. My brownies love cooking, parachute games, nature and community action. Can they organise themselves to have a cake sale? Or a table at a jumble sale? That makes mine feel really useful and grown up.

If you want to get out and about there's loads of stuff that's free. 8 is a small unit so I imagine money is tight. The Guide Dog association will bring in a dog, Pets at Home will host you or Tescos or Hobbycraft.

Do you have a nice local library for Booklover?

Police and Fire station visits are fab too.

Photo scavenger hunts are fun with mine too if you're prepared to let them use your camera phone.

Do you have any young leaders?

We had a great night last week, where each six got a leader or young leader, and had to make them a costume out of recyclable materials - so old newspapers, carrier bags and things. At the end, we did a 'catwalk' with silly poses.

It required zero prep, and the girls had a great time. The costumes they came up with were a devil bride, a mad scientist, a 'brocolli teen' and a dancing cat.

It counted towards their Toymaker badge, and the My Favourite Things challenge badge.

Definitely check out the Challenge badge fb group, loads of amazing ready done programs, with cute badges.

Thank you so much!
I have booked a visit from guide dogs which they'll love & will get onto pets at home
The local library is great & is a museum too (book lover & collector?) but it closes at 6pm

Oh & I requested to join the fb group sometime ago but not been accepted

This time of year you can still get outside so a nature walk/scavenger hunt would be good having to spot things.
Good term for other activities - harvest, Halloween (if you're into that), Bonfire Night (any excuse for a sausage sizzle/toasting marshmallows) and Christmas Craft.
Stargazing

my dds pack do badges. So they will work on something for 2-3 weeks and then they will all get their badges.

They have had disability awareness (someone cam in to teach signing and a couple of other visitors)

They did cooking, fruit salad, cup cakes and something else.

They did pets, can't remember what but one evening 2-3 people brought their pets in.

I like it that they earn their badges and it gives very different activities.
My only complaint is that sometimes they seem to get the badge without full involvement, and sometimes I would like dd to have had more of her own input. Eg for pets/animal lover, she has pets at home and had I known, we could have had her look after them for the 2-3 weeks they did the badge and then take in some photos/evidence of what she had done.

They have also done recycling, visit to Pets at home, fashion show, tie dye neckties, talent show.

Oh, night walk, scavenger hunt, picking blackberries/windfall apples

My DD volunteers at Rainbows, so younger than your lot, but they seem to do lots of random cooking of things - lots of chocolate and marshmallows involved, and lots of fairy stuff.

Try to get more young leaders who could volunteer as part of their DofE.

Our Rainbow leader has her own facebook group where she posts messages for parents about activities, lost hoodies etc.

Have you checked your others message box? They send a message to verify you X

So many fab ideas on here!

Something I've seen quite a lot of on the FB page is sending letters and cards to other Brownie packs, that seems popular! I'll give it a try as my girls love glitter and stickers so it's a good excuse to get all that out!

Challenge badges are really good. I've got my eye on Unicorn and Supergirl

Take them on a penny hike, start and end at toe meeting place within your meeting times and you don't even need permission forms and 2 adults with 8 brownies is fine for ratios too.

Start off, at every junction flip a coin, heads go one way, tails go the other. You can finesse which way you offer if you need to get back (eg only offer right or straight on if left takes you the wrong way).

Also fun in the dark with torches. Or a nighttime scavenger hunt if you have safe outdoor space you can use. get them to bring torches.

LOVE penny hikes! Was my favourite activity as a brownie a long time ago!

Hi Jesse - happy to share my term plans with you by pm if you like?

My dad is a Guide now but loved loved loved her Brownies! She says not too much 'girly' arty stuff please and not aimless game playing!!! Her favourite activities were rollerblading, scavenger hunts, litter picking (bizarrely but got in the local paper so nice to be recognised I guess) , singing carols at the old folks home, anything sciencey/technology, making fudge for Father's Day, campfire and marshmallows, lots of badges, charity work like cake sales etc. Trip to local panto b6 train was very exciting!
I'll keep thinking and try to remember what else she did...
Well done for volunteering - Guiding is fab ?

Yes, litter picking really popular with our Brownies and Guides (weirdly) but I've had parents refuse consent. We have grabby stick things and gloves so no kids touch anything dodgy but apparently it's still too gross (that was a dad's word!)

My Ds is in cubs ..They do lots of games ..More in the summer games in the park, bike care if you can find a parent with knowledge...Chip shop hike...

I remember playing as a brownie whats the time Mr Wolf..

I'd consider some outdoor activities and more active activities and mix them up with the craft/sit down evenings. Though Brownies is meant to be girl led- have you asked what they would like to do?

I'm a Brownie leader and trainer.

There are some great ideas here, and please do ask the girls what they'd like. They'll surprise you.

I give my brownies a big sheet of flip hart paper and some markers and they just write down ideas of what they'd LOVE to do over the next term or two.
You'll get some ludicrous things, but some very good ideas.
Every single time, mine want a sleepover.
Any chance of that? It can give you a focus for a term.

If you have small numbers, can you contact other nearby packs and see if you can join in any of their events or trips. Often if they are hiring a coach somewhere and it isn't full they are very grateful to have another 8 Brownie bums on seats as it makes the coach more affordable.
Talk to your local DC to see if there are any big District or Division events coming up you can join. These are often organised by the commissioners so takes the pressure of you.

Good luck and thanks for caring about giving the Brownies a good experience

Try and get people in. We have had a lady from guide dogs for the blind, trip to local lesuire centre to see disabled facilities, man who knew a lot about bikes, parents who were ambulance drivers teaching first aid, raf man, mountain rescue people, local chef, trip to telco for their 'farm to fork'. Ask parents what there jobs / talents / interests are. Make it fun, lots of games, work towards badges to give your pack structure. Any local artists willing to come in, musicians? Community policeman are always happy to come by, trip to the local fire station?

Also, try the Guiders website/ forum - lots of links to Challenge Badges on there. Find say 4 Challenge Badges, ask the girls which one they want to work on and build half term's activities around that, with badge at the end. We're working on Minions Mayhem at the moment.