Oct 2013: Requirements for Girl Scout Way, Celebrating Community and Bugs Brownie badges

Happy Halloween!

If it's one thing I've learned as Girl Scout leader, is the girls love a party!  Doesn't matter what it's for, any reason is reason enough! So while we hadn't yet really gotten a lot of badge work done, we simply had to celebrate Halloween.

The thing is.... I remember as a Girl Scout Junior being surprised at  my first Court of Awards with all the badges I had earned.  I knew about the ones that I had worked on, on my own.  But where did all the others come from?  I realized when I first became a leader that even though I was having fun, my leader was still having us learn stuff and complete badges.

That, my friends, is the key to doing this right.

Good leaders manage to teach the girls new ideas and skills while having fun or making it interesting at the same time. So while we had our party, we still managed to complete several requirements. One I forgot the supplies for, but I will share it here because it fits with the theme, and you may be able to use the idea.

We opened with our usual Flag ceremony and then got down to it. In circle time, we talked about Juliette Low's birthday which is Oct 31st, the same as Halloween.  We talked about who she was and little about what was important to her.  We then sang happy birthday and had "cake" which was really cupcakes for simplicity's sake.  This fulfills requirement #2 of the Girl Scout Way badge.

With so many girls, I decided it would be best to break them into teams to do the activities.  (On a side note, I've been following this model since Oct and it has worked VERY well for us.) I didn't just break them into teams, however, I also assigned a girl to be leader.  It was each girl's responsibility to make sure the girls stayed at the correct station at the same time.

I wasn't sure how this would work.  And while some girls are born leaders, there are just as many who are not.  I had to keep reminding team leaders to gather their teams, but that's OK.  You don't build strong women and leaders in a single night.

So for the party, rather than have complete chaos, as I said I planned stations where the teams would rotate.  There were 5 : nail polish, games, trick or treat bags, bracelets and collage.  I made up a schedule ahead of time and gave it to each so when I called time, they could go to the next stations.  Moms helped get the girls to the right place.  There were 4 teams.

Side note:  I did figure out what I would need ahead of time for the party and send out a sign up sheet.  While I would use dues money for the craft stuff, other items I put on the sign up, like music for the party which could also be used for the games.  The parents were responsive and this took a load off of me having to buy and cart all this extra stuff up to the cabin.

Anyway, first station - Nail polish.  I bought a bottle each of purple and bright green insta-dry nail polish. It really does dry in a minute or I would never have considered this.  As I suspected, the girls loved this, I mean, who doesn't love green and purple nails?? Just make sure no one is wearing good clothes or their uniform when trying something like this!

Next, we had games.  We played wrap the mummy and musical chairs.  I don't think I need to say the girls thoroughly got into these:

Next, they decorated trick or treat bags.  The local craft store had blank canvas bags which they turned into trick or treat bags with fabric markers and glitter glue.  Also at this table were "loom"bracelets.  This served as an overflow when girls were waiting to go to another station.  Plus, they really like making these, so I keep a supply on hand for any time I need to keep the girls busy.

Next, the girls worked on a collage poster (3rd requirement for Girl Scout Way)  to use in the Halloween parade they would be marching in the following week (note, this fulfills the 3rd requirement for the Celebrating Community badge)

The last station I had planned but didn't do, was to make spiders out of paper plates. This would have covered the 2nd requirement for the bugs badge.  But we didn't get to it.  I am sure though, how you could see how making a spider craft on Halloween goes together though. I'll cover this in the spring with a butterfly craft instead.

Finally, since this was only our second time meeting at the cabin, I had the girls do a little extra cleaning to the cabin.  There was a lot of leaves and dirt left from the summer, so we decided to leave the place better than we found it - the 4th requirement of the Girl Scout Way badge.

So there you have it - 4 more requirements fulfilled, and a good time had by all!  I hope these ideas are helpful to you!

Sincerely,

Leader Mom in the Making

Meeting #2 Oct 2013 - Girl Scout Way & Celebrating Community Brownie Badges

Hello Girl Scout Moms!

Was coaching another mom who is suppose to lead a petal for her daughter's Daisy meeting and it reminded me just how far behind I was in recording our Brownie proceedings.  The good news is that I took the time to plan out several months of meetings at once, and so I have pretty good notes!

So, It's the first meeting in Oct, and we are OUT of my house (yay!!) The cabin is a bit rough - clearly the boys have been meeting there for a long time.  But I think we can slowly start to add more touches to make it more appealing to girls.

But the thing is, it's a good size room.  There's a sink, a bathroom, flags to use for a ceremony and a place to store our troop supplies.  And we control when it's opened with our own key.  No more can the school cancel our meeting because there's no school or because they simply forget to unlock the school for us (which happened on a regular basis last year).

I learned my lesson and did not conduct parent business at the beginning of the meeting.  I did let the girls play duck duck goose at the beginning (big mistake) while waiting for all the girls to get there.  Let me say now, avoid this game at the beginning, save it for the end.  The girls get all worked up and then it takes half the meeting to calm them down again.  I keep falling for this trap and vowed after this to find another solution for the wait of start of meetings.

I had decided that this year I wanted to incorporate the flag ceremony into our meetings.  This meets the 5th requirement for the Celebrating Community badge.So the first half of the meeting was dedicated to teaching the girls what to do.  We just used the basic ceremony found on the National Girl Scout site.   This about what we do.  I have it printed and in a plastic sheet I keep in my Girl Scout binder.  That way, it's always handy.

announcer:  "Girl Scouts, attention." Used to announce that the flag ceremony is to begin.

announcer:   "Color guard, advance." This signals the color guard to advance with the flags, or advance to pick up the flags.

announcer:  "Please join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance." (all the girls recite as one with their hands over their hearts)

announcer:  "Girl Scouts, recite the promise." The announcer says one line at a time and the girls repeat.

announcer:  "Girl Scouts, recite the law" The announcer says one line at a time and the girls repeat.

announcer:  "Girl Scouts, dismissed." Girls may leave in formation or be at ease where they have been standing.

So that there are no arguments about who "get to do it" we have this as part of our Kaper chart and rotate the girls.  The girls are still young, so we have a "leader" who says one line of the law and then the rest of the girls repeat. I don't have a picture from that first meeting because I was so busy teaching them, but I have one from the following meeting - our Halloween meeting ha ha...

OK, that being done, we went into the second half of the meeting which met the 5th requirement of Girl Scout Way - doing a tradition.  What's more traditional than sit-upons?!

I had learned at one of my trainings that a lot of the troops are making their sit-upons out of decorative duct tape instead of the weaving I did as a young Brownie myself.  Sounded good to me!  What we did:

Supplies:
Roll of brown kraft paper or old grocery bags
1 roll of clear packing tape
rolls of duct tape - at least one per girl easy
quilt batting - Queen size was more than enough for 12 girls
sharpie marker ( to mark their names)
scissors to cut tape


Steps:
1. Lay out the batting and have the girls cut approximately a 11 x 14 rectangle of batting
2. have them lay the batting on the kraft and have them cut a 22 x 14 piece so they can make a "sandwich" of paper/batting/paper.
3. Seal up the ends with the clear tape to make the project easier to handle.  This is a good time to add a name as well.
4.  Have the girls start cutting long strips of colored duct tape to decorate the outside until completely covered.
5) Mark their names on each one with a sharpie, then cover over it with the clear tape.

Remind the girls to seal the entire mat so that water cannot get in and "grow" things.  It was helpful to have some moms on hand to help with the tape just because it's so sticky.  Count on a fair amount of loss with the girls cutting their own tape!

Also, the temptation for the well meaning moms is to do the construction and cutting for the girls. The key phrase I use regularly is "Let the girls learn by doing."  And under my breath just for the mom's ears I follow with "even if it's wrong."

We are suppose to be building strong girls and strong leaders. This will not happen if we do everything for them.  Let girls do these things on their own.  It may not be Pinterest or Facebook worthy, but it will be real, and something they can be proud of

And that's it!  Two of 130 badge requirements  - check!

Sincerely,
Leader Mom in the Making

1st Meeting - Sept 2013

Please forgive the huge gap in my posting!  In addition to starting our new Brownie troop and increasing in size to 12, I've also started my own three kids on a new adventure of (home) cyber schooling.  Let me tell you what a huge job THIS is....

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

5 Simple Rules

As I mentioned in my post about my preparations with my Co-leader, I decided that this year, we need to have a parent meeting.  I didn't have one last year for a couple of reasons...

My daughter, K had been waiting to be a Girl Scout for almost 2 years.  There just wasn't any troops open at the time. Suggestions from our SU that new troops don't usually get started until Nov or Dec did not sit well with me. We were READY!  I wasn't going to wait til late Sept or Oct to try and gather parents to hopefully get going by November or Dec.  Yes, thank you very much for your input. No Thanks.  I think we'll just do our own thing and muddle through, thank you very much.

image courtesy of www.girlscouts.org

And by the way, I can just see it now, "Yes parents, you need to spend $15 on a tunic, $22.50 on a Girl Guide and about $20 on insignia and patches....and oh yes, you'll only need them until May and then you get to spend it all over again on the Brownie gear."

Nope. We're good with our own thing such as it is...

So we just started (well I *did say* in earlier posts that I just kind of plowed ahead, didn't I?) and I hoped for the best.  While I think we did have a great year, I think not having had a parent meeting also set us up for same failure too.  We were clearly not as organized as we could have been and there was definitely confusion at times...

So this year I am planning a parent meeting.  Not exactly sure what I am doing, but here are my thoughts.  There is such a big difference between Daisy's and Brownies...I just see us traveling more and after training there are clearly some concerns to address.

Training, I've found,  is always sketchy at best.  One instructor tell you one thing, another instructor tells you something else, and your SU tells you something altogether different.  So I'm not 100% sure, but it's my understanding that a parent cannot transport another child unless

a) they are a registered Girl Scout themselves
b) they have Girl Scout clearance (not the school ones, it has to be from Girl Scouts)
c) there is another registered adult in the same car with you and the girl(s).

Further more...they cannot attend more than 3 events or activities (meetings or activities) without being registered.... I have exactly NO registered parents and only one 02 leader. Girl Scout rules state that there must be two unrelated registered girl leaders or adults with the kids at all time.

Are you seeing my dilemma here? Hence my first rule:

Rule No. 1
All parents must register themselves as Girl Scouts.

My second rule also revolved around activities and travel.  I finally was able to get the long awaited First Aider/CPR training required for most trips.  Key piece of information here?  If a child is injured and needs to be transported to a hospital, *I* need to go with the injured child, NOT THEM.  When parents bring their child to a Girl Scout event, they are handing over responsibility to me.  If they over ride this rule, two important things can happen.

a) They invalidate the Girl Scout insurance they essentially purchase when they register their child as a Girl Scout and
b) Possibly invalidate their personal insurance by invalidating the Girl Scout Insurance.

So really, we see the importance of rule no 1 coming into play if I have to leave the troop, right?  I can't leave my single co-leader alone with the girls without another registered adult, and I can't leave the injured girl alone and let the parents just take over assuming they are along on the trip, hence rule no 2....


Rule No. 2
All parents must understand and acquiesce  (via the health history and troop activity consent forms) that they are essentially signing over responsibility of their daughter to my care, even in the event of injury.


My third rule revolves around communication. There's so much going on throughout the school year....after school clubs, sports etc  Even last year, when we had clearly set meetings, the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month, I still had some parents showing up on non-meeting nights (think about the months with 5 weeks and you'gll get it).  This year, we are having trips almost every month, adn the meeting weeks will change based on those trips.

image from www.ronrosenhead.co.uk 

Then of course are all these requirements for Girl scouts.  Who needs clearance checks, consent for troop activity forms, $5 for this event, what to bring for the next meeting and now this year we are throwing in "homework" to boot.  We need a communication tool that the parents will use.  Hence my third rule...


Rule No. 3
All parents must create an account for our Private Troop website (more on how to do this for free in the next post) so they can find forms, check badge requirements, see our Calendar of events and receive manual and automated messages from the my co-leader and myself.

The last is more an exercise of understanding for the parents.  It takes a lot of work to do this.  Truly, it is a labor of love.... I feel honored to be a part of the girl's lives, and I just LOVE it when they get excited over a meeting or activity I've planned.  But the simple truth remains...I am only one person, and there are only 24 hours in a day.  Hence the final rule....


Rule No. 4
All parents must attend and help with at least one meeting OR plan a trip or badge requirements.


There you have it.  My 4 simple rules.  I don't know how the parents will react, or how they feel, but I think this is information that they HAVE to be aware of in order for us to have a successful year.  Oh wait....I guess that means I have 5 simple rules....


Rule No. 5
All parents must attend the parent meeting.  If they miss it, they must meet with me or their girls are not allowed to attend more than three meetings or any outside activities until they do.

I admit I am nervous about this and hoping not to become a human target or cut my group in half.  but I can't think like that and most of the rules really, are dictated by Girl Scouts USA, not me.  But I open to hearing what the parents think and am willing to adjust what I can if it make sense.  I'll be sure to post how it goes.

image from fcsl.edu 

Sincerely,

Leader Mom in the making

Establishing Disciplinary rules

Being the bad guy.  No one wants to do it.  I admit it... I like when K comes home from school and says her Girl Scouts friends say "You're mom is so cool!"  Raising my stock value in K's eyes....

But someone has to do it.  Someone has to be the bad guy and set rules for behavior.  I mean it's simple really.... Wild crazy girls + sharp furniture corners =  trip to the ER for stitches.

image from b-townblog.com

And our troop, like I's sure so many other troops have several girls who are more on the rambunctious side..... It's only normal at that age. I knew I had to do something this year.  I was going to talk with the parent(s) about staying the whole meeting, but I don't want to single girls out too much.  So I was thinking about what they do in school.

In first grade at our school they have cards; red, yellow and green.
Everyone starts with green.  After a warning or two, it gets changed to yellow.  This tells the girl to really buckle down and pull it together. Red means a "time out" form sent home.

image from artisansofthevalley.com

Why not do the same for scouts?  I was initially thinking that a red would mean a call to the parent to be picked up, but that seems harsh to me.  Perhaps I will make up my own "time out" form, and instead of signing it and bringing it back next meeting, the parent has to stay the next meeting.

Seems like a good starting point.  As the year progresses, I'll share if it's working or not.  I'd be interested in hearing thoughts about other leaders too.  Until next time...

Sincerely,

Leader mom in the making

Step one: Meet with Co-leader and parent representative

OK, the year has ended, the girls have bridged to Brownies and I have my Brownies Girl Guide.  What's next?

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  cool er, crazy, right?  Forget the monstrous cost.....the girls would be expecting this:

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 insanity uh, I mean enthusiasm.

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

Starting Out

Hello fellow Moms (or Dads, grandparents etc), Girls Scouts and Leaders!

It's August and I am embarking on the next  trek (dare I say the dreaded "journey?") of mine and my daughter's Girl Scout adventure.

We only did one year of Daisy's because there was no troop when K was in Kindergarten.  Not wanting her to miss the awesome experience that is Girl Scouts, I just started my own troop!  Looking back, I definitely trampled some rules, not knowing what I didn't know, but I am glad because we were able to get each and every Petal in our year together.  As we get past the beginning of the year, I will go back and share some of the Daisy activities we did, but for now, we are on to Brownies and our dear beloved Brownie Elf!

image courtesy of Girl Scouts

I admit looking ahead at Brownies, I have been struggling.  While a lot of work, Daisy's really was easy.  Read the store, talk about it, do a craft or activity that supports it.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy as my kids like to say.

Not so for Brownies.  I couldn't connect how the Journey books fit in with the Activity badge sets and the leader book.  I'd search and search and unlike Daisy's and it's sea of ideas out on the web, found little for  Brownies.

I am making leeway and thought it prudent to record my process for those facing the same challenge. In the coming days, I'll record the training I have taken this summer, the leader meeting we've had, how I set up a private website for the troop and my coming calendar in which I start to arrange our activities, trips and obtaining the badges.

Thank you for going through this Journey (ha ha, I couldn't resist the pun) with me!  Until next time...

Sincerely,

Leader Mom in the making