Huge huge awesome adjustment that left us with 10 hour school days, and me prepping every night for the next day, and nothing else getting done - no grocery shopping, no meal prep, no housework... What a mess! Don't know who cried more, me or the kids! But we are over the hump, we've figured it out and are back to normal school hours. In fact we start a little later and finish before the old brick and mortal school. Which means I now have time to plan Girl Scouts!
Our first meeting is done, and let me tell you, I left the evening feeling more than a little trepidatious! I met several of my new girls for the first time, and boy was everyone excited. *gulp* R-e-a-l-l-y excited. I think I kept my cool, but the whole time I was thinking, "Can I handle all these girls?"
First mistake of the evening, I let the moms ask me questions while we were waiting for all the girls to arrive. Why was this a problem? No one was watching the girls! They ended up getting really worked up. More on this later when I report on meeting #2. So in my post notes, I asked parents not to approach me within 10 minutes of the start of the meeting. If they needed something they should come before that or stay after.
My plan for the rest of the night was to introduce the new rules and of course, the new girls. My version of investiture basically included the "twist me turn me" poem, so we "twisted" the new girls who weren't already Brownies. I must say, the girls really love doing this. You can see the pride in the girls who have already done that. And they are so excited to welcome in their new friends as fellow Brownies.
After that, was my second mistake of the night. I had the girls make their own name tags. I thought it would be easier because a) I had twin girls now and b) I was asking more parents to step up and help. But the girls were more interested in decorating their name tags than making something practical. End result? I couldn't read half the names. As luck would have it, they actually got lost before I could laminate for the next meeting, so it wasn't an issue. But beware if you try this same project. Maybe have a separate box for their name and tell the girls not to color inside the box?
Anyway, after that we got down to business. We went over the Girl Scout Promise, the Girl Scout Law and new meeting rules. Promise and Law were pretty easy, but it was time to introduce the infamous "Kaper Chart." What's a kaper chart you new leaders are asking? It's a job chart. Mine is at the Scout cabin at the moment, but I will try to take a picture at our next meeting. Here is another example:
I had the cardboard ready to go with nothing but images and "Kaper Chart" in letters in the center. I thought that if the girls helped create it, they might take more ownership of it. So each girl was given a chart label with a job name and a clothespin. Each girl had to match up the job with the picture, put their name on the clothes pin then attach it to that job. Some of our jobs included promise leader, flag bearer and color guard, table wiper, trash, quiet sign leader, squeeze starter (friendship circle) and so on.
After that we talked about the new discipline program. Again, I had girls make up a clothespin with their name and then pin it on the green chart. I explained what happens with yellow and red.
Believe it or not, by then, the meeting was over! An hour goes so quickly. In fact, we've now made the meetings until 7:45. Hoping that extra 15 minutes gets us through our activities better.
We've already had our second meeting and I will post about that hopefully in the next week. Forgive any typos or sentences that don't make sense. I just wrote tonight with no editing....I have 4th grade Language arts and 2nd grade Mandarin Chinese lessons to prepare for tomorrow!
Sincerely-
Leader Mom in the making
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