Thinking Day Postcard Exchange

The Thinking Day Postcard Exchange is a project designed to assist Guides and Scouts around the world to communicate and learn about their sisters in Guiding. The exchange runs from September to February each year.

We have participated in the exchange for the past three years. It has been a great opportunity for the Brownies to learn about and become more aware of our international organisation and also for me to get to know some great Leaders around the world!

The exchange has allowed us to swap not only postcards but also emails, badges and resources. We have even had meetings answering questions from other Guide units.

Excerpt of questions answered by Brownie Guides

Drawing of Australian Guide uniform (to illustrate the above question)

All the postcards are mailed to one address and when they arrive I take them to the Guide Hall to put in our Brownie letter box. The girls know that when the red flag is up there is mail! (Replicating the design of American letter boxes).

Rather than buying postcards the girls draw and write their own. I love their varied designs and the things they choose to write about (what they did at school that day, how many siblings they have...). I always try to send an eletter to every unit we exchange with, just to give them a little more info about Guiding in Australia.

Koala in a tree

Sydney Harbour Bridge

We display the postcards and letters on a notice board in our Guide Hall until Thinking Day so that everybody can read and admire them.

How to join the exchange:
1. Sign up at www.mythinkingday.com
2. Once the exchange opens (September/October) you have 2 choices: request a postcard OR wait for people to contact you.
3. To request a postcard you need to access the TD Yahoo Group (you will have to sign up for a free Yahoo ID, you should have received an email about this when you joined the exchange).
4. Once you are in the group go to the "Database".
5. Units/troops are listed by country (or in the case of the USA, by state).
6. Locate a unit you would like to exchange postcards with and send them a polite, personalised email.
7. Reply in a timely manner whether you can or cannot participcate in a swap. Remember to let your exchange partners know if you don't plan on mailing out until the new year.
8. Let your exchange partners know when you send and receive postcards. Some units send up to 100 postcards and if they are anything like me they have a ridiculously complicated Excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything.
9. Have fun!! 
10. I hope to hear from some of you in the exchange!


Handy hints AND ways to avoid my pet peeves:

• The exchange is a bit overwhelming at first and will quickly take over your email account once it begins - so make sure you don't sign up using your work email address. You'll thank me!
• If you live in America please write the entire name of your state when requesting an exchange. Most people don't know your state abbreviations!
• Please don't send generic emails to large groups of people that say "Dear Girl Scout Leader". Every Leader's name (or unit name) is listed on listed on the database - it's much nicer to receive a personalised email rather than be on a group list.
• Most people in the exchange live in the USA or UK. If you want to exchange with them, no problem, you should be fine (unless you are after specific states/counties/cities). But if you are desperate for an exchange from Australia, Japan, Europe etc you'd better get in fast! Unfortunately we can't send postcards to everybody!
• Be receptive to exchanging ecards or eletters - I actually prefer these because they have so much more room for sharing information!

Postcard Exchange Activities:
Some units choose to add a little more excitment to their exchange by giving their Leaders an extra challenge. I applaud you Leader's - I don't think that I would ever keep on top of these, so let's keep these bonus challenges on the hush, hush from my Brownies, alright?

• Collect a postcard from every state in the USA (this is quite a challenge and I know that many often to have to resort to accepting ecards)
• Exchange a certain number of postcards (eg. 100)
• Swap with girls that have the same names as girls in your unit ie. A Rachel in America may swap with a Rachel in Ireland. (You will have to wait until the end of the exchange to do this challenge. That is when you are given the opportunity to send out messages to the group).

I hope that has given you a little bit of background info on the exchange. Please consider joining. Maybe you can join just as a Leader this year and participate in a few exchanges to see if its something you might like to introduce to your unit at a future date.

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Do you participate in the Thinking Day exchange?

Campfire Songs

Campfires are my #1 favourite Guide activity. They are a chance to let yourself be completely ridiculous knowing that everyone else is doing the same and everyone can participate in some way. And of course there's the added bonus that campfires often lead to s'mores! Luckily for me, the Brownies share my enthusiasm and would happily sing campfire songs at every meeting. 

A creative s'more made by one of the Guides (that's white chocolate on top, not cheese).

I love learning new songs and teaching them to the girls, which makes Youtube an invaluable website. The Brownies and Guides adore the songs Go Bananas and Funky Chicken which a fellow Leader and I learnt from Youtube. The girls now sing a variation of this song which is the culmination of mixing the lyrics of our favourite Youtube clips into one song, with a few new verses and actions they created themselves!

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Do you or your Guides create your own songs or add verses to existing songs? 
Share them please!

Unit Traditions

Traditions are difficult to give up, especially when they've also become routine and you don't notice how outdated they are! 

I was a Brownie and a Guide, as were my fellow Leaders and we have taught our Guides the traditions that we grew up with. The Brownies skip into Brownie Ring, the Guides raise the flag in horseshoe and the absolutely girls love to do "Twist Me and turn me and show me the elf" at Promise ceremonies! Whenever we have changed things up and held an alternate ceremony, the girls ask me when the real Promise ceremony will be!


Brownie Ring
After our initial game, the girls go to their Patrol corners, mark Patrol attendance and then skip into the Brownie Ring. When I was in Brownies each Patrol sung their own Patrol song based on their bush fairy character. I still remember each of the songs!

Credit: http://www.sparklesgarden.com/officialaustralianpatches.html

We're Moora Moors,
Happy and bright,
Trying hard to do what's right!








When the bush fairies were replaced with Australian animals we had the girls create their own Patrol songs based around the tune of the bush fairy songs.

Credit: http://www.guidesnsw.ashop.com.au/p/507645/patrol-emblem---rosella.html

We're Rosellas,
Green and red,
We don't like flies but we like bread!









My Brownies no longer sing the songs as when they elected new Patrol emblems they created new complicated songs with lyrics that they could never seem to remember. Instead they sing the "Brownie Guide Song" as they form the Brownie ring.

Brownie Guide Song
We're Brownie Guides, we're Brownie Guides
We're here to lend a hand
To love our God and serve our Queen
and help our homes and land.
We've Brownie friends, we've Brownie friends
in North, South, East and West,
We're joined together in our wish
to try to do our best.

Clearly with our new Australian Guide Promise we're well overdue for an update to this song, but I really love it and the Brownies have timed it down to an artform to have all the girls in the ring by the time the lyrics end. Any suggestions for altered lyrics so that the tune can remain the same?

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What traditions do you have in your unit and what has been adapted?

Hands create-a-challenge

There are times when badgework can be quite frustrating. There are just so many different badges available to work on and the Australian Guide program is designed for girls to discover, decide, plan and do their own challenges. It's a great system for girls to be actively involved in their own learning but sometimes it's a little overwhelming for Leaders when they are swarmed by Guides all wanting to work on completely different badges!

I know that in the past, Guides used to have badge officers - I think that it would be great to bring the role back! 

That said, I really do enjoy badges and I love when the girls try out new challenges and having fun doing it.

Below are the challenges I created for a small unit of girls who had just began Guiding and who I wanted to teach basic skills. We did a range of activities with hands as the overlying theme. As the girls worked through this badge, we discussed how they were challenging themselves and what made a good challenge. This assisted the girls to become more confident in the process of planning, completing and evaluating a challenge.

Since then I am proud to say they have gone on to complete many more badges and have become quite proficient at recognising what is and is not a challenge. 

Hands create-a-challenge

Challenges:

• Trace your hand onto coloured paper. Cut out and out and decorate (coloured nails, henna etc). Make a poster displaying everybody's hands.
• Learn to finger spell the alphabet in Auslan (Australian Sign Language).
• Learn to tie a reef knot.
• Complete challenges with NO hands & discuss eg. get a leaf from one end of the room to the other (blowing), write your name etc.
• Light a candle safely and toast marshmallows to make a s'more (used tea lights).
• Learn  the action and understand the meaning of the left handshake and Guide salute.
• Do the human knot challenge.
• Learn action campfire songs - Yogi Bear, Go Bananas, Baby Bumble Bee.
• Learn the Australian Guide Promise in Auslan. 
• Design and write postcards to send to Guides overseas.

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What challenges would you recommend for the Hands badge?

Make friendship bracelets? Charades? Learn to play a musical instruments?