Guiders Staff Room Part 3

[Groovee]

Reconvening over here ladies.

Hi all,

I'm hoping that some of you wise Guiders' heads may be able to help out a former Guide (who oh so sensibly agreed to be the Section Leader of a chaotic Sea Cub pack!).

Part of the Boatman badge (and the camping badge as well) require the Cubs to be able to sew (for repairs). That's not a skill that is easily taught as we don't have tents to repair.

So I am thinking of how else to get 23 8-12 year olds, a mix of boys and girls, to do some sewing to get their badges. By Christmas break up (our end of year).

One idea I had was to give them each 2 felt stocking shapes, some beads and ribbons to decorate (glue or sewing), and then getting them to sew them together with either a plain running stitch (or blanket stitch if skills are good).

Is that too twee for boys?

Do any of you have any ideas for how to get a large group doing a sewing skill session?

Thanks so much. (The rest of the leaders are male, can repair when needed but would not be interested in sewing as a general notion so could probably assist when shown the idea, but it's kinda up to me to make this happen).

BiddyPop

Do they have to sew by hand?
My Brownies and Guides (same sort of age range) loved using mine/a couple of mums' sewing machines to make fleece hats for the homeless.
You just have to guide their hands round basically 2 seams.
My 6 yo DS also loves using the sewing machine (he sits on my lap but the Brownies sat on a cushion and I put the foot pedal on a phone book or 5 the first time I did it, but now I have DCs I use their step they use to get up to the sink).
Otherwise, what you are suggesting sounds fine but the ratio of unthreaded needles to stitches is usually about 5:1.

When I was in junior school when dinosaurs ruled the earth we made aprons. They were quite simple as I remember.

We did sewing by making mini camp blankets for teddies. Blanket stitch around the edge & T cut neck hole. Sew on a fun badge. 30cm square of fleece works well.

You need a LOT of adults and plenty of needle threaders.

... like this
m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Teddy-Brownie-Camp-Blanket/263483840497?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180213162448%26meid%3D0bb8b8de50d041eea863adc6f442513a%26pid%3D100930%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D263486096416%26itm%3D263483840497&_trksid=p2056116.c100930.m5375

Oh dear, needle threaders.....and spare helpers.....
Yes, it needs to be by hand.

I might try and get that big-holed aida/jute/stuff that they use in schools instead of felt, so easier to sew and I have large eyed plastic needles that could go with those.

I only want to set aside one session to this - we still have 5/6 boating sessions, annual blackberry picking and stewing day, pet day (which was skipped last year so they really want it this year), visit to a naval ship, hostelling weekend, repeating knife safety (after incidents on camp) and the end of year party to fit into the calendar for definite, and that only leaves about 3 more sessions (including 1 for this) until the end of year with a lot of ideas and badgework to complete. And we normally try to get at least 1 more hike in as well. Hence my desire for simple.

Thanks for all those thoughts though, and bringing me back down to earth!

I did embroidery on aida in primary - and my brownies sew by hand and by machine.

I'd suggest that you buy needles with bigger threading eyes for your sanity though.

drspouse, do you have a pattern for the fleece hats please? They sound like something our Brownies and Guides would get on well with!

www.fleecefun.com/easy-fleece-hat-tutorial-free-pattern-monster-mash.html
(Ignore the monster bits!)

Aarrgghh!!

I'm looking at organising my Guides' first residential...to our local Kingswood, next year.

I'm on the Kingswood site...trying to "activate" my account. Except it won't let me activate with either email address (I thought I had used my Rainbows one on the quote form thingy) and I suspect the quotes coming to two email addresses have confused their system a bit

Was hoping I'd be able to book and pay deposit on there too rather than speak to someone on the phone.

drspouse thanks!

Was at guide camp over the weekend. Was originally asked to help, but then the organiser dropped out due to personal reasons, and left the three of us planning & running the camp in 3 weeks. We did it, but are shattered. Girls had an awesome time.

Looking forward to getting back to my Brownies tomorrow night though

I'm heading in... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3311831-Aibu-to-think-my-child-has-been-singled-out

I posted too.

Posted also. Not convinced the op is listening, and the explanations of it happens in scouting don't help either!

Nope!

Anyway, new programme is released. I would like to see the resources more. Feeling a bit out of depth.

I went to a new programme release day today, where you could read through and look at the new resources for all levels.

I think we're going to have to hire an admin assistant to keep track of which girl has done what. They couldn't have made it more complicated for Leaders.

And I doubt many girls will do many badges at home, as is the intention. We'll certainly still be doing them as a unit.

I think they need to add a section to Go to keep track of badges!

I'm hoping that the Brownies' staged camping awards can be done with indoor sleepovers & pack holidays. I hate camping!

I hear they will be adding a badge tracker, to be released on Tues - I'm guessing as they do the weekly maintenance. Would like to see a night's away tracker on there.

I'm quite pleased with the structure. Not so sure about a couple of the badges. Bit to faddy, and left me rolling my eyes. But my unit are good at telling me what they think so we'll run with it, and see what happens.

The camp one is exciting though!

Think I need a new spreadsheet if the go tracker has too many teething issues

Yep mixology?
And Speaking Out - fine as long as you don't ever criticise any GG policy.

Not sure how the stages will work.
Girls come to us from anyone of 4 Rainbow units. They won't all have done the same badge at level 1/2, so how do we plan what to do at the Brownie level?
And if it doesn't matter - ie they can start at level 3 without having done 1 and 2, then what is the point of staged badges?

The Rainbows camp one doesn't involve any actual camping at all! More stuff about knowing what to take on a residential, what food you could cook etc.

Beavers/Cubs start their staged badges at the most appropriate level - so Cubs don't have to start eg their swimming badge at stage 1 if they can easily do stage 3. But obvs ours are quite different!

I'm heading up to the HQ shop in a couple of days to get the Rainbow resources, County are giving me a free set but not until 4th September which is far too long for me to wait :o
I'm going to grab DD the Guide ones too, she's on camp all week so it'll be a nice surprise when she gets back.

Looking forward to seeing the badge tracker too. I've made a poster of how the Gold award/theme awards work for Rainbows, but I'm not allowed to share it because copyright, ho hum.

Yes girls can start the stage one at the age appropriate age .
So brownies would do stage 2 & 3. They can’t do stage 4 it’s capped at 3.
They can do Stage 1. So girls who haven’t done at Rainbows . For some skills badges eg First Aid I would think stage 1 is useful.
Agree can’t see them doing interest badges at home .
Also not sure about the content for the skills badge but haven’t seen all the cards. Hope they are not too boring or pc. Hope they really do appeal to our average girls .
Re additional admin not sure how much time that will take up.
Maybe we should meet for 3 weeks a month and do GO, Accounts , safeguarding. e learning each forth week!

Haven't had any training on it yet or bought resources, so forgive me if the answer's obvious ... Do they have to have stagecq before starting stage 2?
I do Brownies. No-one has 1 yet so do I need to get them through 1, 2 & 3 before Guides then the pace will become less frantic in a couple of years?