Before I start, I probably should clarify something. This isn’t a post documenting a year of those fantastic spectacles of nature. Although I have seen some awesome ones in my time. I swear I’ve seen the end of a rainbow coming out of a loch in Scotland . No pot of gold though. I also witnessed a brilliant double rainbow a few months back. Ah, memories….

No, this is a post about my daughters first year in her local Rainbows unit. I’m so proud of her for giving it a go this time last year. She seems to want to continue with it and has even expressed an interest in moving up to Brownies next year. Here’s my thoughts on her first full year.

Rainbows you say?

I’ve written already about being a fan of after school clubs. I think they’re a great way of giving kids a little bit of extra experience and enjoyment. When I was younger I joined the cubs, moving on to the scouts, and absolutely loved it. I was therefore keen in giving my daughter the opportunity to see what it was like. Having done a little research I decided to try the local Girlguiding route rather that the Beavers (which leads on to scouting, which now caters for girls as well as boys. Hmm, that sounds like it could be a good bands name…). The Rainbows hold their meetings at my daughters school and allow girls as young as 5 to join up so I thought that would be the better option. If you’re interested you can check out the website here.

The introduction

I phoned up the leader of the local unit and she invited my Daughter and I to their next meeting which was around the time of the Royal wedding. I was told there wasn’t any places available just yet but we were welcome to come along and join in. Back then iBear was still quite shy and she was clinging onto me as we walked through the door to greet everyone. The Rainbows Leader was lovely, asking iBears name and introducing her to everyone. She suggested we take a seat and just watch what was going on for now to give iBear some time to acclimatise.

The group were in the middle of making wedding veils in honour of the royal wedding. They were using sticky gems and other paraphernalia to create their masterpieces. Slowly but surely I could see iBear taking an interest and she eventually plucked up the courage to go and sit with a couple of the guide helpers. The girls were fantastic with her and iBear was lapping up the attention. I was deemed surplus to requirements but was happy to watch from afar for the remainder of the meeting. On our way home iBear said how much she enjoyed herself. Result!

It turned out there was a place available in the September following the school holidays. I put her name down and kept my fingers crossed she’d still be interested then.

The journey begins

September came around and iBear was still keen so we got her signed up properly and we went to the local uniform shop to get her fitted out. She looked so cute all decked out in red! The next few weeks she really started to get into it and would come out of the meetings all hyper and bouncing. They do so many different activities both indoors and outdoors.

All Rainbows receive a badge book which is packed full of activities they can do in order to earns a set of badges. Most of them are worked on within the Rainbows group but they encourage parents to help out with some of the tasks at home.

As with most kids, trying to get a decent amount of information out of my daughter is nigh on impossible. So the fact when I go to pick her up I can just about see the group through a window means I get to see what’s going on for a couple of minutes. They all look so happy and are often tearing around playing a last minute game. Brilliant stuff!

The events

As well as the regular weekly meetings iBear has been able to go to a few local events involving a lot of other local Rainbow groups. This has given her the opportunity to spend more than just the hour with her new friends and also a bit of time away from us. As much as I find it a little strange handing my daughter over I know it’s giving her a great experience. And to be honest, a couple of hours child free can be quite enjoyable!

So in the first full year of Rainbows iBear has been to a remembrance day parade where she got to lay a wreath. Then there was a “thinking day” celebration which sounded like a full morning of non stop activities. After that there was a visit to the local wildfowl park where they did pond skimming and helped feed the otters. Finally, just the other week, they attended an Empire and flag day parade. They all looked so proud carrying their own banner and waving the union jack flags.

OneDadsView

Over the last year my daughters confidence has been increasing and I’m certain being part of Rainbows has contributed to that. I hope she continues to enjoy it and progresses on to Brownies and then the Guides but as always that will be up to her. But for now, I’m enjoying see how amazing my little girl is starting to develop and I can’t wait to get started on the next badge.