Brownie leaders - what do I need to provide for evidence for badges?

[shrinkingnora]

The leaders at DD's brownie pack are very quite strict and scary. I am left a bit confused about how to provide evidence for badges such as the cook's badge and the home skills badge as they keep saying that we can't sign for any bits when clearly we are going to have to. Although I could ask my cleaner to sign and say DD's room is tidier something tells me that they will not have much of a sense of humour about this!

Perhaps the answer is to volunteer and get the insider info

Any help much appreciated.

[Jude89]

it depends really, you can get the badge syllabuses (syllabi?) here www.girlguiding.org.uk/brownies/badges/index.html

otherwise I'd write and sign something, although if you have something else to show for it then its good to show off during meetings

please please please let the leader know before you do the badge as they take a while to order and cost the unit money (which is fine, but often has to be paid for by the leader and then reimbursed) so can't just be magically produced when your daughter says I've done so-and-so

[Jude89]

it depends really, you can get the badge syllabuses (syllabi?) here www.girlguiding.org.uk/brownies/badges/index.html

otherwise I'd write and sign something, although if you have something else to show for it then its good to show off during meetings

please please please let the leader know before you do the badge as they take a while to order and cost the unit money (which is fine, but often has to be paid for by the leader and then reimbursed) so can't just be magically produced when your daughter says I've done so-and-so

[woolleybear]

Maybe take a photo of her nice tidy room or the cup of tea she has made? We often get our Guides to do this as 'evidence' for badges.

[shrinkingnora]

Thanks for the replies. I think photos are going to be the way forward. I shall take your advice and always let them know which ones she is doing. She has the badge book with all the syllabuses/syllabi (I don't know either!).

Thanks

[crazycarol]

There are some badges that need to be tested by a qualified tester eg First Aid, swimmer etc. Most other badges can be tested by teacher, instructor, brownie leader or parent. There are some badges that are best tested by the parent. I have accepted a signed letter from a parent stating that their daughter has completed all of the clauses for XXX badge. I am sure your dds guider would accept something similar, but make sure they know beforehand what she is doing so that they can get the badge to your dd asap.

[EcoLady]

I'll accept photos of the task being done (eg DD doing the washing up for Home Skills), or hard evidence (cakes made for Cook), but mostly I would talk to the girl and ask her about what she did. It soon becomes very clear whether she really did it or not.

One hurdle which a number of my Brownie's paremts seem to fall at .. if the badges says "chose and do 4 of the following" it means do 4 ... not 3-and-hope-EcoOwl-won't-notice, or 2-and-something-else-we-thought-was-OK-but-isn't, or 1-and-cry-when-EcoOwl-says-that's-not-enough.

[shrinkingnora]

Thanks for the further replies. I can well imagine the do 1 and cry brigade. Ecolady. You have my admiration for doing such a hard job. DD has not been going long and I have already been shocked by the hugely competitive parents.

[workshy]

I wish mine would do badges!

I've only got 1 that will do badges at home, the rest have to be force fed them at brownies so when we go to district events etc, mine always look like a sorry sight :-(

[AChickenCalledKorma]

For Cook's badge, we took lots of photos of DD cooking her two dishes - including close-up of her using a knife sensibly, stirring a hot pan, serving onto plates etc. And also of the rest of the family looking happy while eating what she made LOL!

For the food hygiene/kitchen safety bit I found an on-line kid's quiz about food hygiene and we worked through it together, until we'd reached the point that she knew the answers herself.

I wrote Brown Owl a letter explaining what we'd done and included the photos.

For Swimmer and Musician I asked her swimming and piano teachers to go through the various clauses as and when they fitted in with their lesson plans. They were very happy to sign them off.