Topic: Brownies

[jennym]

....  Honestly, Karate kit + pads, piano lessons + music and now Brownies.  ... and when his best mate is 6 they are going to join karate together.  Looks like I am going to have to put in some overtime!

Mine does karate EJ - you'll need a second mortgage, believe me. But it's done him the world of good, he's so much more confident now and I do think it's good for kids to meet a wide cross-section of people, not just the ones they go to school with.

[Mrs Ava]

I agree Jen.  Last year she did Yoga for a year, and I found that her balance improved considerably.  Now the karate has improved it even more, and thanks to the yoga, she finds a lot of the balancing and kicking and controlled leg movements quite easy.

I want them to try everything - at least then they can say they have done it, even if they hated it!  ;D

[Curryandchips]

Re balance, I have found ice skating to be the most demanding ...

Derek :)

[Hyacinth]

walking in a straight line out of the pub's something I have difficulty with ;D

[Emagggie]

and wearing stilletos these days........

Thoroughly agree, EJ. Grab every opportunity you can for them. Mine both went to piano but gave up in the end, but if we go anywhere where there is a piano now and they have great fun playing together (albeit badly) ;D
The list of things they tried is as long as my arm.

[tabbycat]

Mt eldest goes to Rainbows and loves it - mind you at £27 a TERM I'm not sure I do. (Why is everything is Surrey so bl**dy expensive?!). I'm being Stingy Mum about the uniform - I got her the T-Shirt only, and in the winter she wears a long-sleeve top underneath it!

Youngest daughter's been on the waiting list for Rainbows for 18 months and now have to be awkward and get her moved to another day as she's started Irish Dancing lessons. My MIL is chuffed to bits at that one.

Eldest has just started horse riding too... the plot better produce some veg this summer, else we'll be on bread & water!

Having said that, I wouldn't have it any other way - I love seeing their faces when they've had a really great time doing something they love.

Tabby

[Ceratonia]

I was nagged into being on the committee that looks after scouts/cubs/beavers in our village. The budget is approaching £5000 a year for around 70 children. There's a big drop-out rate between cubs and the first couple of years of scouts, so it's mostly younger children. Guess sitting on benches drinking cider & alcopops becomes a more attractive way to spend the evening than scouts when you get to a certain age.

We're quite fortunate because we get a few hundred pounds per year from the parish council, another few hundred from a charity set up by an rich american couple who lived in the village, a few hundred from some generous companies (thank you lloyds tsb!) and we've managed to get almost everyone to gift aid their subs, so best part of £1000 in tax rebate, too. So the amount charged to parents is quite a lot less than what it actually costs to run. A lot of the spending is behind-the-scenes stuff - hire of the school hall, insurance, rent of a lockup to store the camping gear etc.

We also put on some fundraising events. I find it quite amusing to sit in a meeting for an hour or so, discussing whether we should charge 10p or 20p for a drink of squash at the childrens quiz when at work I see million dollar contracts being decided in less than a minute  :)

This year is the centenary of scouts- will be quite a lot of events to celebrate it, I think.