Tag: Girl Guiding UK

Competition time with Judge Blue

Howdy, Blue here,

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, I’ve taken to hiding in 84s room to avoid getting this nasty virus which is about. I don’t want to be remembered as the first bear to catch it.

This evening I came out of my hiding place to undertake a very important role – Mum84 needed an adjudicator for the Rainbows Cuddly Toy Show so I ventured out.

I was introduced to the Rainbows, there were lots of new faces this time. Each Rainbow took a turn to introduce their cuddly toy and tell us a little bit about it. The contest for the biggest was a closely fought race with entries from P with Sparkles the Unicorn and M with Peggy the Pegasus. I needed a bit of help from the Rainbows to decide and Peggy the Pegasus was declared the winner of the biggest cuddly toy.

Another close category was the cuddliest cuddly toy, entries from O with Bunny, I with Lion and P with Sparkles, being on zoom this was very hard to judge as I couldn’t personally snuggle up with them and had to rely on how much they were being cuddled by their owner, but I eventually decided on Bunny who has been cuddled by her owner since birth.

Other entries included Sequin, Penguin and Lily who won the sparkliest, smallest and prettiest eyes categories.

Each entrant will be awarded a certificate and a rosette.

Mum84 says that some of the parents came up with a few alternative categories – most chewed, most washed, most bald spots and the one where Mummy hasn’t sewn the arm back on yet!

Maybe it’s not just me who needs to get out more … Lockdown is getting to us all.

Happy Founders Day!

Today across the world we celebrate Founder Day. Robert Baden Powell was born on February 22nd 1857. However, previously I have celebrated World Thinking Day – which is the Guiding version of Founders Day after, Robert Baden Powell’s wife, Olave – whom also has the same birthday just in 1889.

I like to spend today thinking about my fellow Scouts and Guides from around the World. Having had the opportunity to attend WSJ2019 I feel honoured to be part of such a giant group of people.

North America in a Bag

This week I’ve been out and about with North America in a Bag.

First I took it to the Beavers where I am a Young Leader. I know my Beavers well and I know they like doing craft so I planned the main activity to be making Dream Catchers. We played a version of “North, East, South, West” but with a WSJ spin. I also made some salsa in advance to take along so they could try salsa and nachos. The Beaver Leader was so impressed with how it went that I was given Barry the Beaver to take home.

I stayed on after Beavers to run a session for my old Scout unit. I didn’t think they’d want to spend half the meeting making dream catchers, but I still gave them 10 minutes to make one in their patrols. To add to the challenge after 5 minutes I told them they could only use one hand each. We played the Stealing the Sombrero game and then held a debate over which was better: tea or coffee. The session ended with lots of really good questions about both the Jamboree and the fundraising to get there.

The following evening I took the bag along to the Scout group my Explorers are attached to. All 4 sections meet on the same night, with some overlap, but I managed to spend some time with all of them. I spent the most time with the Cubs, I’d been a bit worried about this sessions as unlike the night before I didn’t really know any of them. It went really well with them enjoying themselves and showing a lot of interest. I also managed to speak to the Scouts and Explorers and run some games with them too.

My final visit was to my old Rainbow unit. I turned their regular circle time into a Pow-Wow with the headdress passing from one Rainbow to the next as they gave their news. They also enjoyed making the dream catchers and playing the games.

Although I’ve been a Young Leader with Beavers for a year and a half it was good to try and plan things for the older units as well. I’m also secretly hoping some of the Rainbows might defect to Scouting in the future.