How one Brownie beat lockdown boredom
When faced with a summer stuck at home, Brownie Amelie set herself the ultimate challenge – completing every Brownie interest badge.
We caught up with Amelie and her leaders to hear how Brownies helped them all banish the lockdown blues. Even if they had to do things a little differently.
While many of us were happy just to make it through the daily struggles of the first lockdown (anyone else abandon baking by the end of week two?), Brownie Amelie had different ideas. She was going to build a rocket, learn a language, invent something spectacular and perform in her own show. And that was just for starters. Because Amelie had set herself the ultimate challenge - completing all 18 Brownie interest badges by the end of lockdown.
Taking it one badge at a time
‘When Amelie set the challenge, I thought – ‘there’s no way you can do that!’’ says Juliet, leader of 2nd Amersham on the Hill Brownies. ‘But I went through all the badges and I thought, you know what, every single badge does work to do in lockdown. You can adapt them.’
It wasn’t always easy though. The biggest challenge for Amelie was the race against the clock. ‘I did one or two badges a week to fit them in’ she says. By breaking down her goal this way she started to make progress. But part way through her challenge, disaster struck. Amelie had appendicitis and had to stay in hospital to have her appendix removed.
However, she was determined to carry on with her challenge. While recovering from the operation, Amelie used the time to teach her mum a dance routine to secure her dance badge. Leader Juliet was really impressed with how ‘she integrated it into her everyday life. It became something she thought about in context and that’s what it became about, rather than just a Brownie badge.’
Doing things differently
Not being able to meet face-to-face meant Amelie had to present her badge work a bit differently. To start with, Amelie’s mum took photos and shared them through WhatsaApp with leader Juliet. Juliet and Amelie then used Zoom to chat through her work and afterwards Juliet would drop round the badge. Soon Amelie had a full set - she’d done it. ‘I was really proud of myself’ Amelie says, ‘as not many people had done that before’. Juliet was impressed too. ‘Everything was phenomenally done, it was just incredible’.
Juliet and her team of young leaders found new ways to support all their Brownies to complete interest badges while everyone had to stay at home. ‘Some Brownies, like Amelie, were doing a lot of badges’ says young leader Maya. ‘But there were others who really wanted to do them but were overwhelmed by the whole thing, especially some of the younger ones’.
To help, Maya created a booklet picking out a smaller number of badges for Brownies to try and giving advice on how they could break them down step by step.
She shared it with her Brownies via email, continuing to support everyone even though they weren’t meeting face-to-face.
"I was really proud of myself as not many people had done that before." Amelie
"For those struggling mentally, Brownies is an hour and a half escapism with small children giggling - that can’t help but cheer you up"
Juliet, Brownie leader
Tips for setting (and smashing) goals
Setting goals, like Amelie did, can be a good way to stay motivated. There’s no pressure to take on anything extra at the moment though – sometimes all you need is the sofa and a box set. But if there is something you’d like to have a go at, try these tips:
- Break it down: Divide your goal into manageable chunks, like Amelie did by aiming for one badge a week. Girlguiding have created badge planning sheets to help leaders and families support girls to complete interest badges.
- Get others involved: If you get a friend to sign up to your goal too, you can encourage each other to keep going. Maya completed her Young leader qualification during lockdown and found it useful to bounce ideas off others in the same boat.
- Be realistic: Aim for something you have a chance of achieving. You’re probably not going to win the London Marathon but you might run 5k.
- Bring it into your everyday life: Like Amelie, integrate the goal into what you’re already doing. It’ll be easier to find the time that way.
- Enjoy it: There’s no point setting goals if they become a chore. Think about what you like doing.
Battling lockdown blues
Continuing to meet through lockdown, first online then face-to-face when they could, lifted the spirits of everyone in 2nd Amersham on the Hill Brownies. ‘For those struggling mentally, Brownies is an hour and a half escapism with small children giggling - that can’t help but cheer you up’ says Juliet, ‘it also gives you purpose and grounding’.
Girls too found seeing friends and having a weekly routine valuable to their mental health. ‘Seeing other people in some way is very nice’ says Amelie, ‘it made it a lot easier to get through the six months’. Young leader Maya appreciated that ‘having the weekly meetings were a consistent thing all the way through’.
Remember though that there’s no pressure to continue with meetings at the moment. For some of you it will be welcome escapism, for others of you it might not be the right thing just now.
Zoom calls with the best unicorn ever
If you do run your meetings online, you might find that the things you never expected to work do somehow.
With a bit of trial and error, 2nd Amersham on the Hill Brownies have found their way through origami sessions (it helps to have two people – one to read instructions, the other to do the craft to camera), made microwave fudge, ran online discos and set up break out rooms for girls to chat in smaller groups. They’ve even worked out how to sing Brownie Bells together (well, sort of). ‘Zoom doesn’t let everyone speak at the same time so when we sing Brownie Bells that really doesn’t work’ says Amelie. ‘When we do it, everyone sings but everyone has a different part - it crackles and it’s funny!’.
The leaders’ confidence with Zoom has grown as they’ve gone along. As has their Brownies, which has thrown up its own unique challenges Juliet tells us. ‘They all know how to change their names on Zoom and just do now – we have lots of “the best unicorns ever”!’.
Having your first virtual meeting? We’ve created some hints, tips and example agendas to help your virtual meeting run smoothly.
Share your stories with us!
Have you been holding online meetings? Or have girls in your unit been setting their own challenges? Share your stories with us on yourvoice@girlguiding.org.uk.