Utter. And. Complete. Panic.
Everytime I pick up the book I either get confused or overwhelmed or both. I always end up putting it down not having accomplished anything. I think to myself, this is not good. The one and only single thing I have been able to ascertain is that Brownies require A LOT more advance planning than the Daisy's did. A LOT.
I have always been crafty, really crafty. This has served me well through life. But there are limits even to us all, even domestic goddesses such as myself. I mean, I can't very well buy a Potter's wheel and kiln just so the girls can get their Potter's badge. That would be so
image from undertheiceberg.com
... and get this:
image from takegreatpictures.com
I mean yikes, right?! Neither my living room, nor my ego would ever be the same again.
So I needed to come up with a plan, and I needed help. After attending the indoor overnight training class at GSEP in Valley Forge with my 02, we schedule a meeting at the local Starbucks. I invited the 6 other parents in our troop. Thankfully, one decides to show. I can be over ambitious at times so it was good to have at least one voice of reason in the crowd to taper of my
While I had intended to discuss plans for badges, we really spent most of the time on logistics. I wasn't happy at the time, that "organizing" tasks chewed up most of the meeting. But now, I really am. We needed to have a game plan in place. We can't sit in a classroom this year and read stories. We have big time 2nd graders now! Bored second graders who have outgrown Daisy stories and want some action!
If we want to earn our potter's badge, we have to go find an art studio. If we are going to get our Computer Expert badge, we need to be where there are computers. Making that happen, the logistics, the protocols for travel we put in place...that will be the backbone of success - or failure - of our year.
Each troop will have it's own challenges I am sure, so don't plan your troop solely off us. But here is a list of topics we hammered out that needed to be addressed:
- Introducing Flag ceremony at a basic level
- Adding more structure to our opening friendship circle: each girl shares a "woe" or "Wow!" from their day
- a discipline policy (more on this later)
- new parent requirements (more on this later)
- Establishing a Kaper (job) chart
- Meeting night and time
- Communication tool for parents (more on this later)
- Planned first two meetings, the first of which being a required parent meeting (more on this later)
- Chose dates for first two months
Having an action plan of tasks to complete, and who will complete them is a good way to end this kind of meeting. We didn't set deadlines or anything that formal. We just made sure that there was a clear take away for each person on what their specific tasks to be completed was, with the "when" being before the first parent meeting. I wish now that I had written down everyone's task, not just my own. That would have been very helpful!
Feel free to comment on if you had such a meeting and what kind of topics you discussed or even challenges. Maybe someone will have a suggestion for you.Until next time...
Sincerely,
Leader Mom in the making
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