Here's how your child can earn badges at home

Your child can pick an interest, complete activities and earn a new badge - all from home!

26 February 2024

Support your child to explore a new interest, build their independence and earn badges from home.

Interest badges are designed so they can be done at home or outside of unit meetings. From blogging and dancing to campaigning and craftivism, girls can pick badges that interest them using our badge finder.

They inspire girls to build on their independence, try activities they've never thought of before or dive deeper into a passion they love.

How can girls complete them?

We let girls take the lead.

If you're supporting your child to complete an interest badge, be sure to let your leader know your plans. They'll be able to answer any questions you have and present your child with their exciting new badge!

  1. Girls can complete them individually outside of their unit. This could be at home, on holiday or wherever they like.
  2. Girls choose when they do them. It could be over the weekend, in just a few hours or around other commitments your girl has.
  3. Girls decide how they complete challenges. Each interest badge contains 3 challenges and we let girls choose how to do them in their own unique and creative way.
  4. Girls share what they've done with the volunteer who runs your local unit. When the activities have been completed, their leader will sign it off in their badge book.

Read more about how interest badges work.

Need some inspiration?

Check out how other parents and carers are supporting their child to complete interest badges at home. Whether you're child is a Rainbow, Brownie, Guide or Ranger, there are fun and varied interest badges for every girl.

Ada's adventures at home

Ada has done 2 Rainbows interest badges with her parent at home. Fruit and veg and family tree. All she needed was some crafts material, access to food cupboards and a parent on hand to help if needed.

Take a look at some of her activities!

 

'For the fruit and veg badge, Ada made a picture of lots of different types of fruits and vegetables. She created a rainbow of colours and tasted new foods. She’d never eaten pomegranate or coconut before! After that, we put them into a smoothie and she made up a song about her favourite fruits and veg. She presented this to her unit.' - Jemma,  Ada's parent.

    

Ada has just completed her Rainbow Bronze award which means she's completed a certain number of hours with Girlguiding, both with her unit and by completing interest badges at home.

'For the family tree badge, she created a tree based on her family using her hands for all the different branches, she wrote a list of all the important people in her family, and who they were related to her. She took this and presented it to the unit.' - Jemma, Ada's parent.

A masterpiece made of gingerbread!

Autumn is working towards her Brownie Gold award and chose to complete our local history interest badge.

After brainstorming iconic landmarks and local treasures, Autumn choose to investigate King's College Cambridge. 

'I took Autumn to visit so she could photograph the building and take a look around. She told all the lovely curators why she was there and they suggested interesting things to spot!' - Rowena, Autumn's parent.

Autumn didn't stop there. To complete her interest badge, she created a magnificent structure made out of gingerbread, wafers, sweets and icing!

Autumn's mum was on hand to help buy ingredients, oversee the baking and be an extra pair of hands to hold the gingerbread together. 

She wants to complete her next interest badge in either zero waste, collecting or mindfulness. 

Diving deeper into passions

Isbella completed our Guide's craftvism badge independently outside her unit so she could dive deeper into the passion she has to make a difference. She created a poster about Fairtrade which was displayed on her village noticeboard.

'I picked Fairtrade to be the cause for my interest badge because I believe in helping other people and making a difference and that is exactly what Fairtrade does. Fairtrade helps to make workers feel safe and protected and I want everyone to feel like they can go to their place of work or their home without being in any fear of danger.'

Helping girls make friends and try new things

Sophie (left) and Kenzie (right) completed all their Rainbow interest badges at different units before they met at Brownies. They've been great friends ever since!

The 2 girls took just over a year to complete their badges and did them all at home with their families. They kept scrapbooks with photos, posters and writing about each badge.

Browse badge finder

Head to our badge finder to see what interest badge your child could complete next